A total of 40 Medicine and Technology students have spent three weeks at Danish hospitals to gain first-hand experience of medical science in real-life situations. Isabel and Søren visited the cardiology department of Bispebjerg Hospital.
On a dull grey morning early in the new year, Isabel Amalia Jepsen and Søren Vørnle Nielsen pull on milk-white lab coats and take their places at the oval table in a room on the first floor of Bispebjerg Hospital’s cardiology department. At other hospitals all over Denmark, 38 of their fellow students are doing exactly the same thing. The reason for this is that students following Medicine and Technology study programmes are to experience real life at Danish hospitals so that they can develop better technology for them. The broader perspective is that the worlds of engineering and medical science are interacting to an ever-increasing degree, and that medical technology is set to become an invaluable resource for society in the future.
“We need engineers who see eye to eye with the healthcare service,” explains Lise Lotte Højgaard, who is Course Manager, Consultant and Clinic Manager at Copenhagen University Hospital (Rigshospitalet), and a Professor at DTU.
In her opinion, convergence between nature, technology, and health is one of the most important focus areas today. This is one of the reasons why a little over ten years ago, she was involved in starting up DTU’s Medicine and Technology programme, which now produces graduates who are skilled not only in technology, mathematics, and circuit electronics, but also anatomy, physiology, and pathology. Briefly put, it is a multidisciplinary study programme that involves teaching both at DTU and at the Panum Institute.
Have experienced practice
You cannot learn the nuts and bolts of the healthcare system from behind a school desk, which is why Isabel and Søren have currently been issued with Capital Region of Denmark access passes.
“We have the opportunity to find out which machines the doctors and nurses actually need,” relates Isabel over a quick lunch in the staff canteen at Bispebjerg Hospital.
"We need engineers who see eye to eye with the healthcare service."
Lise Lotte Højgaard, professor at DTU and Course Manager, Consultant and Clinic Manager at Copenhagen University Hospital (Rigshospitalet)
“Doctors may not have the technical vocabulary to explain precisely what would help them in their work,” she continues. So a ‘middle man’ is required.
And it doesn’t take long for the hospital staff to start expressing frustration with computer programs that cannot interact properly and lack user-friendliness, or to put forward ideas for completely new machines.
According to Lise Lotte Højgaard, this is precisely what the programme is designed to do—put theory into context and give students a healthy dose of reality.
“The students discover what medical technology means in the real world. And they have the chance to join the ‘white-coat’ brigade for a while,” she adds, “which is a revolutionary experience for some people.” As it is for Søren and Isabel, who are generally thrilled to have the opportunity to ‘play around’ with equipment worth millions. They were also delighted with the warm reception they received in the department. There can be no doubt that their future profession is in great demand at the hospital.
Isabel relates that having this experience was one of the high points of the day, which also involved the chance to see a temporary pacemaker that can be controlled from outside the body. She adds that seeing all the theory applied in practice provides excellent motivation to keep on plugging away back in Lyngby.
Article in DTUavisen no. 2, February 2015.