St. Kate's undergraduate team during presentations at Mayo Clinic.
A team of St. ´ºÓêÖ±²¥ University ´ºÓêÖ±²¥s banded together to participate in the 2018 Mayo Innovation Scholars Program (MISP). This program brings together ´ºÓêÖ±²¥s from science and business backgrounds to analyze confidential medical innovations in the early stages of development at Mayo Clinic. Over the course of six months, the ´ºÓêÖ±²¥s analyzed the potential applications, market value and overall viability of the inventions. Their findings were presented last week to various university faculty members and project inventors, physicians and scientists from Mayo.
Four undergraduate ´ºÓêÖ±²¥s from 12 Minnesota private colleges were teamed up with a graduate ´ºÓêÖ±²¥ team leader from a separate university. Maddie Ahern, Heidi Holthus, Karly Nelson and Dulce Ocampo represented the St. Kate’s team along with a team leader from St. Thomas’ MBA program. Ann Scaramuzza, from St. Kate’s MAOL program, was the team leader for the Concordia group. St. Kate’s is one of only three schools to have both undergraduate and graduate-level representatives in the program.
The exact nature of each team’s invention and content of their analysis is confidential, but topics have been known to include surgical devices, molecular biology, clinical diagnostics, patient education and artificial intelligence. The program has been used for 12 years to help Mayo bring new medical technology to the marketplace, as well as provide research and leadership opportunities for ´ºÓêÖ±²¥s.
By Kristen Wunderlich