Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
of electricity, had great effects on almost every aspect of
life. Medical science provided its share, too. Physicians
discovered the potential of electrical phenomena. For
instance, they introduced electrical shock therapy for
a variety of purposes. The rapid development of basic
sciences, physics, chemistry, and biology, and the engi-
neering sciences, together with the demands emerging
from the medical side, gave impetus to the developers of
medical devices. The pace of development during the
nineteenth century became significant. Increasingly,
humans began to understand the phenomena of their
surroundings, the laws of nature, and their effects on the
individual as well as on society. Discoveries and in-
ventions followed each other.
During the first part of the twentieth century, signif-
icant milestones included the discovery of X-ray, the in-
troduction of ECG, and the development of anesthetic
and respiratory equipment. Then came World War II and
the harnessing and release of atomic energy, with one of
its practical applications being nuclear medicine. Dis-
covery of special semiconductors and transistors in the
1950s also gave a large thrust to the development of
electromedical equipment.
During the first half of the last century, pharmaceu-
ticals dominated medical advances. But since the 1960s,
developments in medical engineering have been un-
precedented. In the second half of the last century,
a great variety and number of medical devices entered
hospitals and consulting rooms. Today, the number of
different medical devices is around 10,000. If one con-
siders the variations of the equipment manufactured by
different companies for the same application, then this
number increases to tens of thousands.
It is no exaggeration to state that health care and
health care organizations are among the most complex
and complicated structures of our society. Physicians
must select from an extensive arsenal of methods, ma-
terials, instruments, and from combinations of them, and
they must do so with the intention of providing the best
care for the patient. Evidently, in such a complex system,
various specialists must work together. In the course of
time, pharmacists appeared in the hospital, joining the
physician and the nurse. They helped with the proper
handling and preparation of the vast number of phar-
maceuticals available. As with pharmaceuticals, the in-
troduction of a multitude of increasingly complicated
medical devices urgently emphasized the importance of
the support of specialists in physics and engineering. By
the 1930s, medical physicists began to appear in hospi-
tals. Their tasks were to handle and control X-ray
equipment, to perform dose measurements, and, later, to
work with other ionizing radiation sources. Dose plan-
ning and control and quality assurance also became their
tasks. Nowadays, they are often found working with non-
ionizing radiation, such as ultrasound and lasers, as well.
Since the 1970s, complicated equipment such as pa-
tient monitoring systems and heart-lung machines have
made the presence of clinical engineers in hospitals in-
dispensable. Soon it became evident that besides requiring
technical knowledge, these clinical engineers needed ex-
perience in other fields. Apart from becoming knowl-
edgeable about the human body, these engineers needed to
know how to communicate with the medical staff and to
have experience in hospital management and administra-
tion. Step by step, the concept of clinical engineer was
developed. In the present times, clinical engineering has
become an accepted profession in many countries.
The number, variety, and complexity of medical de-
vices, combined with the growth of informatics has made
it important and possible to think and work with sys-
tems. Health informatics gradually gained ground all
throughout health care. The large amount of patient data
can be organized and managed only with the help of in-
formatics. Informatics finds particular importance and
applicability in acquisition, processing, storage, archiving,
retrieving, transmission, and display of diagnostic images.
The future
The current trend will continue. The fields of medicine,
engineering, and science will develop independently but
will help each other, a phenomenon known in electronics
as ''bootstrapping.'' Progress in medical science makes
new demands upon engineering, which in turn are
reflected in the development of new methods and
equipment. New engineering technologies provide fresh
possibilities for physicians. Cellular and tissue engineer-
ing come closer to the routine application of their results.
The introduction of nanotechnology will soon yield
practical applications. Robotics will open up new op-
portunities in surgery. The combination of these tech-
nologies will result in spectacular achievements. As an
example, new techniques in heart surgery combine ro-
botics and endoscopy, thus enabling an operation without
the need to fully open the thorax, without the need to
use a heart-lung machine, and without having to lower
the patient's temperature. The field of gene technology
shows promise of progress and advancement.
Biomedical engineering was literally created and de-
veloped during the twentieth century. Considering the
accelerated pace of development of the present, it is
impossible to predict developments that will occur over
the next few decades. However, it is possible to affirm
with confidence that the physician-engineer relationship
and the importance of clinical engineers in health care
will remain and grow in prominence. Besides engineers
who are directly involved in hospitals, clinical engineers
will also play an important role in research and de-
velopment. Equally important is the role of the engineers
