SEATTLE — Last year, there was a national outcry after the price skyrocketed for a medical-injection device that counteracts the life-threatening symptoms of a severe allergic reaction.
But for a team of students at the University of Washington, the price jumps for the EpiPen signaled an opportunity — a chance to invent a cheaper device that could do the same thing, only better.
The team’s idea, which is still under development, is part of a university program that brings students together with doctors and other clinicians to create devices meant to solve vexing medical problems.
The students in the program have invented a device that makes it easier for patients — particularly the elderly, whose hands can shake — to get eye drops in the eye; a mouth guard that fits athletes who wear braces; a pediatric exoskeleton that helps children with cerebral palsy and other gait disorders learn to walk; and a device that automatically keeps the bladder clear and free of blood clots in the hours after prostate or bladder surgery.