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Preparing the future-ready doctor

Experiential-learning opportunities can contribute toward molding a holistic 21st century physician. Accordingly, Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, has since 2016 operated a co-curricular program for Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) students called the MBRU-Summer Scholars Program (MBRU-SSP).

The key objective of this program is to provide students with a platform beyond the classroom setting that helps them acquire and integrate competences in research, clinical practice, community service, health systems and/or arts-and-culture.

IMAGE: MBRU
Abiola Senok

Abiola Senok is chair of Basic Medical Sciences and professor of microbiology and infectious diseases, College of Medicine, Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences (MBRU), Dubai, UAE.

Although the program is not integrated into curriculum, it is highly associated with and complementary to the curriculum, and hence referred to as co-curricular (as opposed to extracurricular). The program’s annual cycle entails three phases: preparation, implementation and evaluation. Throughout the cycle, there is substantial engagement of all stakeholders. This builds on the strengths and resources within the MBRU community and facilitates collaborative partnerships.

The voluntary program is unique as it is anchored in theories of experiential-learning. It upholds the institutional goals and is characteristically diverse. Learners select from an extensive array of offerings. This sets the MBRU-SSP apart from other experiential-learning opportunities that tend to focus on single domains.

To date, the MBRU-SSP has enabled student placements spanning one to six weeks at collaborating centers across 12 countries.

A multi-phased study, conducted at the end of the Academic Year 2018-2019, investigated the program’s effectiveness. The study’s first aim was to innovatively evaluate the quality of the experiential education and the value it offers. Secondly, this study explored, from a holistic social-constructionism perspective, the added value of the MBRU-SSP.

The first phase of this study relied on a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design, which systematically analyzed quantitative and qualitative data from program organizers, participating students and onsite mentors. The second phase involved carrying out focus-group sessions with randomly selected MBRU-SSP student participants. The collected data was then thematically analyzed.

IMAGE: MBRU
Nerissa Naidoo

Nerissa Naidoo is assistant professor of anatomy at MBRU College of Medicine.

The results of the quantitative component of the first phase of the study revealed that program organizers perceived the MBRU-SSP to be effective. Also, most participating students rated the overall quality of experience as excellent, and most onsite mentors rated students’ attendance as excellent.

The second phase of the study identified that the program yielded benefits at the individual-student and community-at-large levels. At the individual-student level, interlinked benefits were related to personal, academic and professional development.

“It helps you figure-out what you actually want and test if you really like what you think you like. During the semester, we are under a lot of pressure, there is no time to sit and reflect on matters and figure things out. During the placement, there is little to zero pressure, so you are kind of just enjoying learning and reflecting at your own pace.” — A second-year learner, after her second placement.

“It is so beneficial to reach the clinics with that much of knowledge and experience — it is so enriching.” — A third-year learner, after her fifth placement.

Farah Otaki

Farah Otaki is senior specialist at MBRU Strategy and Institutional Excellence.

Benefits identified at the community-at-large level were institutional advancement, contribution to host centers and giving back to the community.

“Students from other universities are surprised by the worthwhile exposure that we get early on in our educational path. It provides exposure to diverse opportunities.” — A third-year learner, after his third placement.
“The MBRU-SSP provides an opportunity to give back to the community, to serve others.” — A third-year learner, after his third placement.

Designing co-curricular programs in line with holistic learning theories, which foster learning as participation in the social world, can nurture holistic, humane, millennial physicians. It is important to systemically evaluate such co-curricular programs to effectively capture the value that they offer. The MBRU-SSP global-citizenship framework represents a unique model that can guide the development of similar worthwhile co-curricular programs in higher education.

Abiola Senok is chair of Basic Medical Sciences and professor of microbiology and infectious diseases, College of Medicine, Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences (MBRU), Dubai, UAE. Nerissa Naidoo is assistant professor of anatomy at MBRU College of Medicine. Farah Otaki is senior specialist at MBRU Strategy and Institutional Excellence.

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Humanoid robots reach new depths

Humanoid robots are used in industries from medicine, law enforcement and hospitality, to maintenance and disaster relief. But Stanford University has developed a deep-sea humanoid robot that is diving in the robotics pool at Khalifa University with an end goal of exploring marine robotics for sustainable ocean ecosystems.

The OceanOneK robot — designed and built by Oussama Khatib and his Stanford team — has been five years in the making and made its Abu Dhabi debut tasked with retrieving plastic waste from the Khalifa University marine robotics pool.

But the team has bigger plans for OceanOneK

Having completed testing in the pool at Stanford on the trifecta of robotic function integration — navigation, bimanual manipulation (reciprocal hand movements needing disparity between hand actions), vision and body-control — it was time to take OceanOneK out to sea.

The robot performed several dives around the Mediterranean, reaching close to 1,000 meters — a record depth — exploring sunken vessels and retrieving artifacts.

As team members operated the robot through its haptic interface (communication system), they were able to feel what the robot was touching.

“It was pretty amazing feeling something that no other human could touch. While it was a (haptically mediated experience), it was still an amazing connection,” says Adrian Piedra, a Ph.D. student in Khatib’s Stanford lab.

CAPTION: Stanford team shares in-field experience with OceanOneK IMAGE: Khalifa University

One of the vessels was Le Francesco Crispi, an Italian steamship torpedoed by the British while enroute from Italy to France in 1943. Delicate white coral has formed on the wreck, Khatib says, that the dive’s marine biologists were very excited to touch and then collect as samples. Also present and observed were iron-eating bacteria.

The robot was able to perform tasks for archaeology and for marine biology.

– Oussama Khatib

This is why a humanoid robot was essential for this project, adds Wesley Guo, another of the project’s Stanford Ph.D. students. “The way we control the robot is direct, as this helps the operator relate intuitively. The easiest way to do this is to have the body at a scale and shape similar to the human form. We also wanted it to appear non-threatening, as it will work in collaboration with human divers at different sites.”

A typical recreational diver can safely descend to about 30 meters – anything deeper requires specialized training and equipment. At 30 meters the pressure is approximately four times that at the surface. What happens to the human body beneath these depths depends on the person’s overall health and fitness levels. At 1,000 meters, the robot experiences 100 times the atmospheric pressure, team leader Khatib explains.

So, such robots are the key to deep-water exploration. And with more autonomy comes more skill sets.

Khatib says autonomy of a robot in the water is challenging, hence the haptic interface back to a human. But the goal is to diminish the need for human intervention as much as possible.

These deep-water diving robots, called remotely operated vehicles, or ROVs, are a new type of robot that can collect a lot of image data. “Operations under water require arms, hands and coordination between them, and that is what we’ve brought here with the OceanOne concept,” Khatib says.

“The interface we use goes beyond the visual – it delivers tactile-touch sensing using a haptic device. A haptic device allows humans to touch and feel what the robot is interacting with and permits one to guide the robot while it is executing delicate tasks. It acts as an avatar,” Khatib tells KUST Review.

“It interprets and affects movement and grasp request, maintains attitude and position for the human reference, and passes sensory information back to the human,” he says.

Human movement is just one of the considerations when building a robot like OceanOneK. The working environment must also be factored in. In this case that includes water and how it behaves.

Currents, for example, disrupt the intended movement, and this is where Khalifa University comes in.

The robotics pool at Khalifa University can simulate such environments, but under controllable conditions.

“Here, we can control the amount and direction of currents, we can control the waves, we can control those interactions in an ocean-like environment,” says Khatib.  “This is perfect for training and learning.”

CAPTION: Ku Robotics Pool IMAGE: Khalifa University

The Khalifa University robotics team will also work toward adding to the tasks the robot’s hands can carry out on their own.

“Full autonomy (without human intervention) will be the ultimate target; this, however, is challenging, and in the near-term humans will work with the robot to carry out tasks such as underwater valve-turning and plug-insertion,

Our objective is to increase the robot’s degree of autonomy while reducing the extent of human intervention.

– Lakmal Seneviratne, director of the Center for Autonomous Robot Systems and professor of mechanical engineering at Khalifa University

Stanford’s Khatib says these sensory-mechanical systems are also used out of the water in industries such as medicine, where a physician may interact through a haptic interface when not able to be present in the ICU. Similarly, the systems could be used for robots working on electrical grates or offshore platforms.

“In many of these applications we aim to distance humans from danger while connecting their skills to the task that must be carried out in that environment,” Khatib says.

CAPTION: Stanford and Khalifa University robotics collaboration IMAGE: Khalifa University

“There is a lot of work needed before taking these robots into the field, and Khalifa University offers a unique environment for this preparatory marine robotic study,” Khatib says. “We are also collaborating in other ways,” including curriculum development and teaching, as well as through research focus groups and workshops,” he adds.

“We look forward to more interaction with the researchers, faculty and students here.”

Among future joint projects: Khalifa University KUCARS and Stanford University Robotics Lab have recently established a collaboration to research and develop marine robotics systems for sustainable marine ecosystem applications, including ocean monitoring and ocean cleaning.