A trio of biomedical engineering students from Wichita State University is trying to build a better medical mousetrap with help from the KU School of Medicine-Wichita.

Actually, they want to find a better way to remove all the things kids routinely stick into their noses and ears.

WSU students Gabriela Valverde, Christianna Powell, and Sandra Olekanma spent two semesters shadowing Dr. John-Michael Watson, chief resident in the KU School of Medicine-Wichita's family medicine residency program at Wesley Medical Center. 

Their goal was to spot a piece of medical equipment or a process that could be improved. With input from faculty at both schools, the students decided on their project: a device to help physicians remove the foreign objects - from all the places kids put them - without the necessity of surgery. They're now in the process of designing and making a prototype.

The cooperation between KU's Wichita campus and WSU is the first of its type between the schools, but it's part of a bigger effort to create more interaction between the two institutions, their students and faculty. It began after conversations between Dr. Rick Kellerman, who chairs the KU School of Medicine-Wichita's Department of Family and Community Medicine, and Dr. Gary Brooking of the WSU biomedical engineering department. 

"We're working collaboratively and finding ways to interact," Kellerman said.

Both see advantages to the relationship.

"Dr. Brooking told me his students sometimes have trouble getting into clinic sites," Kellerman said.

Brooking said of Kellerman: "He thought it would be a good opportunity for us to shadow them, have a look at some problems and see what we could do."

Brooking said biomedical engineering requires students to take courses in chemistry, biology and anatomy in addition to engineering. Graduates typically go on to careers in research and product development, medical management or medicine. Defining and finding a solution to a real-life problem is part of their required senior-year capstone project.

"Some will do chemical analysis, some will be building electronics," he said.

The projects must have "market potential"; biomedical engineering students work with WSU marketing students on that aspect. "The physical prototype doesn't have to be for resale, but it certainly has to be a physical prototype," Brooking said. At least one previous capstone project won a competition and funding to continue development, he said.

The three students making up the team who followed Watson come from diverse backgrounds.  Powell is a Wichita native who plans to become an optometrist; Valverde, from Ecuador, plans to get her master's degree before working as a biomedical engineer; and Sandra Olekanma will return to her native Nigeria and improve its health care.

Watson was the students' mentor as they observed his family medicine practice.

"We take care of patients from cradle to grave," he said. "They saw everything from pregnant mothers to well-child checks all the way up through adulthood and end of life care."

In addition to the family medicine clinic, the students got access to Wesley Medical Center's intensive care unit, emergency room, nursery and other departments.

"We would talk through the patients and disease, and equipment we might use," Watson said. "They got to go in and see from start to finish what the patient goes through. Through that process, we're hoping to identify problems and solutions."

In fact, the students identified a dozen potential areas for improvement.

"That was an exciting thing to be a part of," Watson said. "They have fresh ideas. Engineers approach things a lot differently than a clinician would. It forced me to look at things a little differently than I have up to this point."

Watson said KU encourages all residents to be active in teaching, and while most of that happens with KU medical students, working with WSU students also makes sense to him.

Powell said her team chose the KU family residency program from among several medical institutions because "family medicine would give us a variety of things to look at. It was our first choice."

Of Watson, Valverde added: "He's very good at explaining what's going on."

"He's been very accessible to us," Powell added. "He is awesome."

Watson said the students talked to physicians, residents and nurses about what they struggle with on a day-to-day basis, and removing objects from children's small ears was a recurring theme.

"Kids are really upset during the procedure," he said. While there are devices to accomplish the task in surgery, the students are working on one that could be economical and simple enough to be used in an outpatient or ambulatory office setting. 

Kellerman concurred. "I've seen cockroaches, pumpkin seeds, sponges, beads - all sorts of things stuck in kids' ears. The kids are squirming around. Sometimes we actually have to take them to surgery."

On a recent afternoon, Watson showed Powell and Valverde a scope used to see into patients' nasal passages; it has a light to help the physician see and also projects an image onto a nearby video monitor.

Seeing the scope was important, Powell said, because the students may want to incorporate similar features into their tool. The students have access to computer-assisted design programs, 3D printers and more equipment at WSU to produce a prototype. Once a prototype is built, Valverde said, "We test it and go back. There's always something you need to tweak."

Powell said the students must make sure their device complies with federal health regulations, and then enter it in at least two competitions for college biomedical engineering students.

Kellerman is hopeful the collaboration with WSU biomedical engineering students will continue, possibly with KU's Via Christi family medicine and sports medicine clinics. "The WSU students enjoyed it. I'm pretty sure one of their teams will be back."