Strong outcomes from new innovation elective: “now I’m considering a research year”

Healthy Innovation is a 5-ECTS course developed in collaboration between Health and the university’s entrepreneurial hub, The Kitchen, which has served as an important bridge between the university’s academic disciplines and the surrounding innovation ecosystem.

The elective course is aimed at bachelor’s students in dentistry, clinical dental technology, dental hygiene, medicine and sports science, and focuses on innovation in both the healthcare system and civil society.

Interdisciplinarity and health inequality

Postdoctoral researcher Amanda Paust from the Department of Public Health has taught the course with a focus on innovation in public health and complex challenges involving multiple stakeholders.

“The interdisciplinary space was both curious and respectful. The students speak different academic languages, which led to nuanced discussions and a high degree of reflection,” she says.

For Amanda Paust, it was essential to show that innovation is also about ethics and responsibility.

“Innovation can absolutely go hand in hand with ethics, empathy, and accountability. It’s important that students see that good ideas must be developed in dialogue with the people they concern.”

The teaching included the concept Escape from Inequity in Health, where instructors used an escape room to illustrate inequalities in the healthcare system. The teaching also included other practice-oriented cases, including a visit from ‘Kliknikken’, which is an example of a company born out of health innovation among students. Kliknikken produces short informational videos to address miscommunication in encounters between citizens and the healthcare system.

“It’s rare as a lecturer to both learn so much yourself and simultaneously see such clear relevance for students, as we have experienced with this new elective. The students engaged actively in discussions on how to develop relevant and ethically sound solutions in healthcare and how crucial it is to involve the right stakeholders throughout,” says Amanda Paust.

She hopes the course can be expanded to include more degree programmes in the future.

“It would be a huge strength to open the course to even more programmes and to link theory and practice even more closely through the students’ own case work.”

Gained a whole new perspective on innovation and own field

Medical student Francisco Reis chose the new elective because he is passionate about developing new solutions that can improve the patient experience and increase efficiency in the healthcare system.

“I’ve always been interested in how we can create better pathways for patients. This course gave me a concrete way to work with that,” he says.

The interdisciplinary collaboration was also a major benefit.

“We had a really good dynamic. I learned a lot from my fellow students, and it was inspiring to see health challenges from entirely different perspectives,” Francisco Reis explains.

Working on the Alzheimer’s case became a turning point for him.

“It definitely sparked my interest in both innovation and research. That case led to me writing my bachelor’s project on Alzheimer’s disease – and even considering a research year.”

Francisco Reis also highlights the surprise of discovering funding opportunities.

“I didn’t know that it’s actually possible to apply for funding for health projects, which makes it feasible to bring ideas to life without needing substantial personal savings. That’s really motivated me to think more innovatively myself,” he says.

He also points to the strong network as a big plus.

“The open learning environment made it easy to share ideas. Since the course, I’ve met with several of the lecturers to discuss possible projects,” says Francisco Reis.

Connecting research and innovation in teaching

Assistant Professor Kristian Juul-Madsen from the Department of Biomedicine taught the course based on his own research in molecular biology. A key aim for him was to demonstrate that innovation processes naturally belong in the research environment.

“I’ve wanted to promote innovation processes as something you can actually work with at university. Until now, it hasn’t played a significant role,” he says.

He also placed emphasis on sharing his own experiences of viewing research through an innovation lens – even when the core subject is demanding.

“It was probably outside the comfort zone for most of the students, but they embraced it nonetheless. I was surprised at how little it affected their engagement that they were being introduced to some quite ‘hardcore’ molecular biology.”

The case work on Alzheimer’s disease particularly led to strong discussions.

“Students with a lot of contact with patients – like future doctors and dentists – brought in perspectives I hadn’t considered. It really made sense.”

Kristian Juul-Madsen hopes the students leave with a sharpened perspective on innovation.

“No matter where they end up in the healthcare system after graduation, I hope they’ve developed an eye for what might be a good idea – and that they also have the courage to develop it,” he says.

Low expectations – high value

In the course evaluations, several students said they had relatively low expectations going into the elective and were pleasantly surprised by the content, relevance, and academic level.

The instructors therefore believe there is a clear need to work more systematically with innovation in healthcare. At the same time, experience suggests that the course could benefit from becoming even more practice-oriented and potentially expanding to more study programmes.

The instructors also note that the collaboration with The Kitchen made innovation processes more tangible and strengthened the link between research and development.

Healthy Innovation will be offered again in the coming academic year through continued collaboration between Health and The Kitchen.

Contact

Director of BioMedical Design, Sys Zoffmann Glud
Aarhus University, Department of Clinical Medicine
Phone: +45 24 59 26 67
Email: sys@clin.au.dk