Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
24
N. Postman,
Crazy
Talk,
Stupid
Talk:
How
We
Defeat
Ourselves
by
the
Way
We
Talk
and
What
to
Do
About
It
(New York, NY: Delacorte Press, 1976).
25
The principal source for information about the C-C valve is W.J. Blot, M.A. Ibrahim,
T.D. Ivey, D.E. Acheson, R. Brookmeyer, A. Weyman, J. Defauw, J.K Smith, and D. Harrison,
“Twenty-Five-Year Experience With the Björk-Shiley Convexoconcave Heart Valve: A Continuing
Clinical Concern,”
Circulation
111 (2005): 2850-7.
26
B. Fishhoff and J.F. Merz “The Inconvenient Public: Behavioral Research Approaches to Reducing
Product Liability Risks” in: National Academy of Engineering.
Product
Liability
and
Innovation:
Managing
Risk
in
an
Uncertain
Environment
(Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1994).
27
G.J.S. Wilde, “The Theory of Risk Homeostasis: Implications for safety and health,”
Risk
Analysis
2
(1982), 209-225.
28
See, for example: P. Slovic, and B. Fischhoff, “Targeting Risks: Comments on Wilde's “Theory of
Risk Homeostasis”,”
Risk
Analysis
2 (1983), 227-34.
29
J. C. Hause, “Offsetting Behavior and the Benefits of Safety Regulations,”
Economic
Inquiry
44, no.
4 (2006), 689-98.
30
G. Johnson, “Reliable software for protection systems,”
Science
and
Technology
Review
(March
1998), 21-3.
31
N. Leveson. “Medical Devices: The Therac-25,” in:
Safeware:
System
Safety
and
Computers.
(New
York, NY: Addison-Wesley Professional Publications, 1995).
32
National Society of Professional Engineers, 2006,
NSPE
Code
of
Ethics
for
Engineers
,
http://www.nspe.org/ethics/eh1-code.asp
(accessed 17 May 2006).
33
J. Fielder, “The Bioengineer's Obligation to Patients,”
Journal
of
Investigative
Surgery
,5
(1992): 201-8.
34
Sometimes the best resources come from the strangest places. The discussion on transparency and
coherence must be credited to an article by columnist George Will that I read in the 8 September
2005 edition of the Durham (NC)
Herald
Sun
newspaper, p. A-11. Will was particularly curious
as to the success of the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN). One reason,
according to Will, is that unlike most endeavors in contemporary society, sports provide closure
almost immediately. One knows who won and who lost. This is coherence. The other is that the
spectator is included in the process. What is going on is completely transparent. There are 4 minutes
and 15 seconds left in the game and the Chiefs are ahead by 11 points. The Cardinals are leading the
Cubs 4 to 2, with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, with Albert Pujols on deck. Engineers
will increasingly be working in such environments as a result of the Internet, sunshine laws, and,
I believe, an increased technical literacy of a greater number of people. Not everyone wants to know
the score of the Cardinals game, but they can find it immediately if they wish. They can even find
the box scores of every game played this year, or the statistics of every minor league player on the
Cardinal's triple-A farm club. Likewise, not everyone wants to know the details of the pump you
may be designing for a biomedical company, but they can find them almost immediately if they so
choose. So, unlike only a few years ago, the well-advised engineer should be ready for queries from
both within and outside of the organization.
Unfortunately, the technical literacy is not evenly distributed throughout the population. For exam-
ple, the so-called digital divide does exist, but it is rapidly changing. For example, according to Sara
Base,
A
Gift
of
Fire:
Social
Legal,
and
Ethical
Issues
for
Computers
and
the
Internet
, 2nd ed. (Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2003), at the beginning of the 1990s, about 10% of Internet users
