Sai Kurapati found her passion project. Inspired to pursue medicine to bridge health disparities, the third-year medical student at Penn State College of Medicine was eager to contribute when she learned of a project that could make recovery from cataract surgery easier.
“The average age for cataract surgery patients in the U.S. is around 70 years old, and the post-operative care, although quite simple, isn’t always accessible,” Kurapati said of a recovery that requires what can be a cumbersome series of eye drops administered multiple times a day for many weeks. Some patients may not be mentally or physically able to follow such a regimen, especially when compounded by co-existing health conditions or the challenges of independent living.
In her first year of medical school, Kurapati heard of a project to develop an intracanalicular implant to treat post-cataract surgery inflammation through an I-Corps program offered by the Center for Medical Innovation.
“I was particularly drawn to the project not only because of my interest in pursuing ophthalmology but also because I believed it was an opportunity to potentially transform patient care across the field while working closely with an interdisciplinary team,” she said.
Medical students have a lot on their plates: classes, clinics, studying, extracurricular activities, and trying to maintain a social life. How could a student with all of these things on a to-do list help move medical advancement from the idea stage to the healthcare marketplace?
Enter Anne DeChant and her team in the Center for Medical Innovation (CMI) at the College of Medicine. DeChant came to Hershey to manage CMI’s Innovation Fellows Program, which provides research trainees interested in translation, commercialization, and business disciplines with an environment to develop new healthcare innovations to address unmet medical needs.
“It’s building on a future of entrepreneurs,” said DeChant. “Part of our job here is to educate and help people prepare for careers, and for the students who want to create products to improve healthcare, there is not a lot of formal training on the business and innovation side. We are working to change that.”
Full story: Innovation Fellowship helps learners and researchers bring ideas to life – Penn State Health News