Biomedical Engineering- Scope and Applications

Author: Shreyansh Shrivastava

Biomedical engineering is the field which applies the principles and practical techniques associated with engineering that integrates biology and medicine. This has made happen a significant advancement across healthcare be it across, diagnosing illnesses, analyzing and determining their treatment and ensuring recovery by means of devices such as pacemakers to as matured and advanced towards stem cell engineering including three dimensional printing of biological organs.

Engineering is innovative in itself, origin and the execution of the ideas making a lot of unimaginable stuff real. Biomedical engineering, in particular seeks to improve health and human care at every level.

Biomedical engineering is a discipline that is inclusive of certain other branches of engineering, and more so, relies on them to give biological principles a design from an engineering point of view be it the design of a prosthetic limb, even extended to as much as a breakthrough to raise the standard of healthcare.

A graduate degree in the mentioned discipline is required to enter this field. The biomedical engineers would be having the following qualities.

  1. Analytical: Engineers in this field are required to understand the needs and requirements of the patient and consumer.
  2. Communication: The engineers must be capable of expressing themselves clearly as they would be required to communicate across teams and people who may or may not be familiar with the field.
  3. Creativity: Creativity is an important skill that an engineer must have to design innovative solutions.
  4. Math and problem solving: Engineers in this field are typically faced with a lot of problems that have to be to dealt with in complicated circumstances.

The following trends are happening across the stream of biomedical engineering:

  • In the field of prosthetic technology, there has been a lot of advancements in the use of material and value addition, making it additionally light and easier to use. Another trend that is awaited is controlling of prosthetics using the mind which would enable more convenience to amputees.
  • With availability of options like ultrasound, CT scan, MRI and other available technologies research is being done on aspects of medical virtual real time viewing that would help doctors determine surgery procedure accurately.
  • The advancement in wearable devices that has multiple applications beyond the steps you walk everyday would be providing detailed information associated with health parameters which would be of use for suggestive healthcare.