SBIR-STTR Award

Within the past several years, considerable concern has been voiced by physiologists and other health science professionals regarding the reduction in qualif ied applicants for research training programs, both graduate and post-medical. One significant factor that discourages students from pursuing research careers may be that students completing undergraduate and medical school curricula have seldom been exposed to and have had little practice with the scientific reasoning and physiological problem solving skills characteristic of a productive research environment. Computer simulations offer a potential vehicle through which these skills can be acquired and practiced. However, no objective data addressing this potential are available. We will provide simulations in renal/gastrointestinal and endocrine physiology for educational and training environments that will be used to test the following hypotheses: (1) use of computer simulations as student laboratories enhances physiological problem-solving skills; (2) undergraduate and/or medical school exposure to an active learning environment in which instructors and students work with simulations together as a group to propose and test hypotheses enhances the student's abilities to solve physiological problems; and (3) unlimited student access to physiological simulations used in laboratory and group settings enhances physiological problem-solving skills. The specific aim for Phase I is to develop a series of simulations covering various aspects of renal physiology for educational and training environments. No such software is currently available in the areas targeted by the project.Awardee's statement of the potential commercial applications of the research:Simulations in some areas of physiology are available for training and education environments. However, there is little appropriate software available in renal physiology and virtually none in GI and endocrine physiology. Yet the demand for such software continues to grow from undergraduate science curricula training potential researchers to medical school curricula to post- graduate programs training clinicians, scientists, and clinician-scientists. This project will fill this gap.National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)

Within the past several years, considerable concern has been voiced by physiologists and other health science professionals regarding the reduction in qualified applicants for research training programs (both graduate and post-medical school). One significant factor that discourages students from pursuing research careers may be that students completing undergraduate and medical school curricula have seldom been exposed to and have little practice with problem solving skills characteristic of a productive research environment. Computer simulations offer a potential vehicle through which these skills can be acquired and practiced. However, no objective data addressing this potential are available. This project will provide simulations in gastrointestinal and endocrine physiology for educational and training environments that will be used to test several hypotheses: 1) use of computer simulations as student "laboratories" enhances physiological problem-solving skills, 2) involving undergraduate students in active learning "workshop" environment in which an instructor and students work with simulations together as a group to examine a physiological system enhances students' ability to solve physiological problems, and 3) Use of physiological simulations as self-study aids enhances physiological problem-solving skills. No extensive software is currently available in the areas targeted by this proposal.Awardee's statement of the potential commercial applications of the research: Simulations in some areas of physiology are available for training and education environments. However, there is virtually no software available that cover the topics of Gl and endocrine physiology. Yet the demand for such software continues to grow from undergraduate science curricula training potential researchers to medical school curricula to post-graduate programs training clinicians, scientists, and clinician-scientists. This project will fill this gap.National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)