Innovation

When the pandemic’s arrival in Ohio last spring sent most classes remote, Case Western Reserve’s entire campus grew eerily quiet.

Services continued for the small number of students staying in university housing, and medical researchers adapted to new prevention protocols that allowed them to remain in labs. Otherwise all was silent—even the usually bustling Larry Sears and Sally Zlotnick Sears think[box] innovation center.

The seven-story, 50,000-square-foot building typically draws tens of thousands of visits per year from people eager to use its advanced equipment for projects, prototypes and even final products. But while COVID-19 closed its doors to the crowds, it ultimately created new opportunities.

Eager to contribute to health care’s response, think[box] staff and the Case School of Engineering community quickly turned their focus to pandemic-related projects, building critical partnerships with health care systems and manufacturers and designing solutions to meet their needs. Before long, their efforts yielded prototypes for 3D-printable face shields, structures to protect medical staff performing intubation, and even a device that decontaminates N95 masks in under a minute—proving our engineers can be both critical researchers and pandemic problem-solvers. “It would [have been] easy to see this as someone else’s job,” said Ian Charnas (CWR ‘05), director of innovation and technology at Sears think[box], “but our university has the type of people who say, ‘We can do this.’”

Six years ago, 10th grader Talha Ali was sitting in his high school auditorium in Pakistan, waiting for a lecture to start.

Moments later, armed men burst into the room, firing wildly. As Ali scrambled to his feet, he found himself face-to-face with one of the terrorists. The man shot Ali, point blank, in the head.

The Talbian attack took 150 lives that day. Somehow, Ali survived.

The bullet crushed half of his face and ejected bone and teeth, sending the teenager on an arduous journey of recovery—one that culminated in complex reconstructive surgery here in Cleveland.

Case Western Reserve dental faculty Fasial Quereshy and Fady Faddoul led the pro bono effort, which required a patchwork of fundraising, donations and waived fees.

Ali—now equipped with a new smile and a bright future—expressed gratitude, describing Quereshy and Faddoul as “the best of the best.”

“My treatment [at Case Western Reserve],” he said, “was incredible.”

As patients age, their health needs can become increasingly complex; a seemingly standard prescription, for example, can lead to dangerous medication interactions if issued without considering the patient’s health holistically.

In response, Case Western Reserve University’s Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing has partnered with CVS Health’s MinuteClinic and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement to ensure older patients receive care that recognizes their specific needs.

Funded by a three-year, $2.44 million John A. Hartford Foundation grant, nursing school researchers are working with more than 1,100 MinuteClinic locations to integrate a new decision-making framework. It emphasizes the “4Ms:” what matters to the patient, as well as their medication, mental activity and mobility.

“It’s starting here,” professor and project lead Mary Dolansky said, “but it’s a movement that we believe will spread.”