I think this is a great point, I have had similar thoughts during my PhD course work as well. I like being involved on the research side of things but it can be isolating and I think having contact with actual people who need the treatment I am helping develop would be beneficial. I do not think it should be mandatory, but I would love if it was at least an option for those who are interested. Having hands on experience with the clinical side of treatment will help researchers understand their field on a much deeper level. I am not qualified for any kind of important role in clinical trials as I have no medical experience, but I could probably help with paperwork and data organization and processing which I would be more than happy to do.

The curriculum provided at a standard undergraduate level of biomedical engineering may briefly cover aspects of the industry that do not involve the actual subject matter of biology, physics, chemistry such as FDA route or safety and efficacy of practicing research, however, I personally do not think it is substantial enough for these students that are preparing to enter the work force. I personally have been told by many peers that whatever is taught in the college classroom most of the time does no translate into the workforce. I understand that certain classes are designed to teach engineers HOW to think and it is more important to learn the process of how to solve the problem than solving the problem, yet I still felt unprepared applying to jobs after my undergraduate studies. For this reason, I decided to pursue my Master's degree as I felt I was just not ready for the industry yet. I agree with @ag2357 that learning about clinical trials should be an option provided to students but should not be a main focus for the student unless they show interest in it. I think that the field of BME is extremely vast and understanding the space of the industry is difficult when curriculums primarily teach the basic biology, physics, and chemistry, without a heightened emphasis on the industry and how it works. I remember having a lecture in my BME 420 class where the professor dedicated a day to just explaining to the class how the BME industry functions and the different routes one can take to form a career in this space. I feel that this subject material should be incorporated into a type of Seminar course that either freshman or sophomores have to take early on. This will ensure that students will start thinking more about their futures from an earlier time in their college careers and will be less uncertain when it comes time to apply for jobs. I personally think that I would thrive in a Research and Development environment where I am working hands on with the research being conducted. I have a passion for research where I love to pose difficult questions and attempt to formulate plans that can potentially answer the question. Additionally, I enjoy conducting experiments in a laboratory setting so I feel a Clinical Trial researcher would be an ideal role for me.

I think hands on coursework focusing on clinical trials is a fantastic idea. Echoing ag2357, having at least the option to take a class that helps with clinical trials would be extremely helpful. There are classes that are reasonably priced online that can provide help for this (one linked below). Additionally, Rutgers NJMS offers volunteer opportunities to sit on the IRB for Rutgers clinical trials. Of all of the options available to us, these will be the ones I'm most interested in pursuing.

I think that my undergraduate education in Biomedical Engineering would be much more enriched if there was a more hands on approach in the classes we were doing. As someone who wants to work in either R&D or product development, I wanted to get more research and general hands on experience to become prepared for industry level work. Since doing research, I have more of an understanding of the work being done in the BME field and have gained a skillset that would prove useful while working in industry. I think students would greatly benefit from taking more clinical based classes that dealt with obtaining skills within cell culture or even general medicine. Of course there are other means of obtaining this experience such as internships and co-ops at companies who will provide some training in such areas. However, it is of course not a guarantee that you will get one and many of these limit the amount of work students could do within clinical trials due to the amount of training it would require (it would often not seem worth providing extensive training if the student's program is only a few months to a year). I also understand that obtaining the resources to provide students, especially undergraduate students, this sort of hands-on education would be very costly to the university, I do think it would be worth it in the long run, especially if there are students interested in going into more lab based setting in industry. Hence why I think it shouldn't necessarily be a requirement but at least an option for those interested. 

As my peers have mentioned, I also believe that students would greatly benefit from a class that dives more into the clinical aspect of industry. As mentioned in the responses, the only way that students are currently gaining some surface level experience with it is through research or internships that specifically focus on that side of industry. I believe that my classes as an undergrad did not fully prepare me for the real world application of my degree. At NJIT, we offer 3 specializations. In my opinion, I think it is slightly easier for those who specialized in instrumentation or mechanics to find jobs relevant to their interest. For materials, if you don't have research experience to back you up, it may be more difficult to find a job that would be similar to what you were interested/specialized in. This pandemic showed that while it may seem obvious that as materials you should aim for obtaining relevant experience through research or an R&D internship, for some it may not be so simple. Internships were cancelled and everyone was dealing with something mentally taxing. Possibly, you didn't know what faculty was looking to fill research positions, let alone what they even looked like.

For the reasons that gaining experience through internships/research can depend on external factors, I think that a more clinical class should be offered for undergraduate students to take as upperclassmen -- even as an elective. I would have loved to take a class like that as it would have introduced me to other roles in industry that I could explore. 

Industry in general is a subject not really talked about in university classes often. There is never a lot of insight being provided into medical device companies, how they operate, and what kind of roles you may be given in industry. The only thing that university provides is a basic and general understanding from the field, and after graduating you are supposed to choose one particular aspect of the field and move forward with that. I feel as though university (at least the BME program at NJIT) prepares students for graduate studies, either pursuing a PhD or a Masters with the thesis option. A lot of the labs teach techniques mainly used in university labs for mainly in vitro research. There has never been a class that has done a deep dive into clinical research specifically. Spending time in clinical settings can be crucial into getting a feel for how the field is put into practice. Many of the research being done in a university setting will not reach clinical studies for years. For the three types of students looking to graduate with a degree in BME (pre-health, industry, and graduate studies), I think that clinical research would be helpful for all. For pre-health students, experience in clinical research could provide insight into what the process might look like for their own patients one day. For someone aiming to go into industry, skills in interfacing with clinicians and having a better understanding of the medical device market could be extremely beneficial moving forward in their career. For graduate students, they would be learning about what the end goal of their studies, if successful, could look like. Overall, I think a class focusing solely on clinical studies and providing a chance for students to assist in them would be a great idea, no matter what students plan on pursuing in the future.

During undergrad, I had a course called FDA Regulations of Medical Devices which served as a good precursor to how medical devices are developed in accordance with FDA regulations. In that course, we were tasked with developing a semester-long mock FDA proposal which, amongst other topics, covered how to set up a clinical trial when developing a regulatory submission. This is an example of a course that covered clinical trials, but there is a big difference between designing a clinical trial and actually shadowing a clinical trial. Therefore, it would be very beneficial for biomedical engineers to have the option to experience a real clinical trial as it could help them immensely in their career as an engineer. I agree that there should be more classes that cover these topics, as well as other areas that biomedical engineers may experience in their careers. For engineers going into quality and regulatory, it would be beneficial to have coursework related to these fields rather than just more technical classes such as various mechanics classes. 

I think it is a great idea and highly beneficial that students spend time in a clinical setting to learn about the field's needs and shortcomings. Getting actual experience in a clinical setting would help students get such useful first-hand experience as to what it's like in the clinical trial workspace. I think this is one of the many applications we learn about in our courses, but rarely get to experience first-hand, so it becomes more difficult to fully understand the field and the practicalities associated with it. This experience should definitely be offered for students interested in entering this field. As a biomedical engineer, you're qualified to serve really any role in clinical trials, whether that be the sponsor, quality auditor, or investigator.