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PhD in Biomedical Engineering
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Is Biomedical Engineering right for me?
When you enter any engineering discipline you must have a strong interest in science and mathematics in a way that allows you to solve problems of a highly technical nature. For Biomedical Engineering you must be willing to add the life sciences and medical knowledge necessary to understand the frame work of the problems on which you will work. This is not part of the traditional engineering education and requires not only an above average ability in math and science but also a willingness to embrace these other areas due to the interdisciplinary nature of Biomedical Engineering. The modern life sciences have become more analytical and computer based in their approach to fundamental knowledge and the biomedical industry in now considered one of the leading edge industries whose benefits we are just beginning to reap.
The output of these industries directly benefit the health and well being of people and hence the Biomedical Engineer is often attracted to this humanistic component as well as the advanced technology. Examples are bountiful and include such devices as implantable cardiac pacemakers and defibrillators, joint replacement implants, biomedical imaging, novel drug delivery systems, and tissue engineered skin used for grafting. If these topics and applications interest you and you enjoy the challenge of working on such people oriented problems then Biomedical Engineering is for you.
Biomedical Engineers work with a broad range of professionals ranging from other engineering specialties, to basic laboratory scientists, to physicians and nurses. Strong communications skills are essential and often the Biomedical Engineer becomes the general interpreter for such widely educated individuals; the one who knows the language of both engineering and medicine.
High school preparation for Biomedical Engineering would include four years of math (through pre-calculus), one year each of physics, chemistry and biology. Most universities also expect the prospective Biomedical Engineer to have 4 years of English and a good mix of social studies and language courses which comprise a strong pre-college curriculum.
What kind of jobs can I get after college?
Biomedical Engineers have a wide range of job opportunities and can include a hospital based practice as a clinical engineer, an industrially based engineer designing medical devices, a technical sales engineer, or a staff engineer in a medical research laboratory. Biomedical Engineers find themselves in wide variety of specialties which may organize around various diseases, such as cancer, or organ systems such as the cardiovascular system, or technology, such as biomaterials or imaging. A Biomedical Engineer may have jobs which involve the following skills and applications:
- Develop software to detect abnormal heart rhythms for use in a cardiac pacemaker.
- Design the next generation of hip implants using modern materials and mechanical design considerations.
- Investigate and perfect a novel drug delivery method to treat a chronic disease which requires constant blood levels of the particular medicine.
- Bring a product to market through the Food and Drug Administration's very involved pre-market approval process which requires extensive clinical testing.
- Manage a large hospital based group of biomedical equipment technicians and provide the hospital with engineering expertise in the evaluation of new and expensive technologies.
- Design and build a unique research device as part of a multidisciplinary research team to enable scientific discovery.
- Advance the state of the art one of the many modern imaging modalities (PET, MRI, CAT scans) either in the progression of current technology or the development of new ones.
- Develop an advanced coding/stimulation scheme for a cochlear implant which provides auditory inputs to people with significant hearing deficits.
- Analyze a special communications or mobility need of a handicapped patient and develop the appropriate enabling technology.
What courses do I need to take?
A typical route is through an ABET accredited Biomedical Engineering program where the curriculum integrates the engineering disciplines with the biomedical sciences. Many of these programs expect the students to "track" into a specific discipline such as biomechanics or bioelectricity where their interests are channeled along both a traditional engineering field with the necessary biomedical applications. Other students will pursue the BS in Engineering (usually at an institution without a formal Biomedical Engineering degree) where they can choose a group of electives in biology and organic chemistry which will give them the necessary breadth to pursue professional degrees or further graduate Biomedical Engineering studies. These students may also track through the major elements of a traditional engineering degree but use the their electives to give them this breadth of education.
Regardless of the approach to a Biomedical Engineering degree the curriculum will have a complete series of math courses from calculus through differential equations and will likely include a course in statistics. A full complement of science courses in physics, chemistry, and biology with advanced courses such as organic chemistry and physiology are also quite usual for Biomedical Engineering majors. Most engineering majors will also take a series social studies/humanities courses during their four years of education.
The engineering courses may follow a track with a traditional engineering bias(e.g., electrical, chemical, mechanical), but will have to integrate the life science examples so that Biomedical Engineering students will have sufficient laboratory experiences to include taking measurements and interpreting data from living systems. They must also learn the issues involved with the interface between living systems and non-living materials and systems. Courses such as biomaterials, biomechanics, and bioelectricity are often part of the undergraduate Biomedical Engineering curriculum.
Up to two-thirds of Biomedical Engineering undergraduates go on for advanced degrees either in graduate school for an MS or PhD or to professional schools for an MD, DDS, or JD. Thus the Biomedical Engineering degree with its broad interdisciplinary approach attracts students with similar educational goals and enables them to pursue a wide variety of career options.
Should I obtain a BS in Biomedical Engineering or pursue a traditional engineering degree followed by a MS in Biomedical Engineering?
This is a commonly asked question since Biomedical Engineering is a relatively new degree program and is not offered by a large number of universities. There is no simple answer as both approaches are quite common and every student has a different set of needs. The undergraduate Biomedical Engineering degree is often a stepping stone for professional studies (Medicine, Law, Dentistry, etc) or graduate work (Biomedical Engineering, Physiology, Molecular Biology, etc) but many students also go directly into industries where biomedical products are designed and manufactured. Biomedical Engineering graduates bring a unique knowledge of modern life sciences and engineering design and analysis skills to an employer.
Evidence of the newness and growing interest in Biomedical Engineering is the fact that over 40 new Departments and Programs (double the previous number) have been started in the past 5 years and this number is expected to continue to increase.
Key Words and Core Skills:
Key Words - what is a biomedical engineer expected to know?
One must recognize that Biomedical Engineering incorporates a wide range of engineering sub-disciplines such as heat transfer, circuit theory and electromagnetics, fluid dynamics, statics and dynamics, materials, etc. In addition, the range of biological/life sciences and medicine is also very broad and Biomedical Engineering students may take courses in molecular biology, physiology, anatomy, or pharmacology. Most Biomedical Engineering programs have courses which combine these basic core areas so that the integration of these diverse knowledge bases makes for very interesting and challenging courses for the students. With this understanding no individual can be expected to have or develop such broad expertise which covers all of Biomedical Engineering. Hence it is common for Biomedical Engineers to focus on a single engineering discipline and a significant area of application in the biology/life sciences or a specific field of medicine. Below are some primary areas which comprise contemporary Biomedical Engineering.
- Biomechanics
- Bioelectricity
- Drug Delivery
- Functional Genomics: Microarray Technology,
Integrated Systems, and Analysis Tools - Imaging
- Instrumentation and Patient Monitoring
- Nanotechnology
- Informatics and Computational Methods
- Medical Implants: Sensors and Devices
- Rehabilitation and Prostheses
- Cell and Tissue Engineering
- Biomaterials
- Integrative Physiology and Biophysical Modeling
Core Skills - What is a biomedical engineering expected to be good at?
One key skill of the Biomedical Engineer is the ability to understand complex medical problems and use engineering methods to solve them. This often includes being part of multi-disciplinary team where the Biomedical Engineer "works" both sides of the problem. The Biomedical Engineer will fully appreciate that most biological systems do not follow the precise physical laws that govern mechanical, chemical, or electrical systems. The biological systems have a spectrum of responses to various stimuli - remember the last time you were given a medicine that worked for everyone else, but not you! Well understanding these less than predictable systems and yet having the skills to design and manipulate the physical systems that form part of the problem solution may give you a sense of what makes a good Biomedical Engineer. Put another way the Biomedical Engineer must master the interface between the living system and the engineered system.
Problem definition is a core of skill for Biomedical Engineers. Add to this the ability to apply science, mathematics, and engineering principles to solve the problem and we get closer to understanding the make up of the Biomedical Engineer. Other primary skills are the use of engineering tools such as computers and the ability to effectively communicate with protégés, peers, and superiors.
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Professional organizations
The interdisciplinary nature of Biomedical Engineering is evidenced by the significant number of societies in which biomedical engineers are well represented within their membership.
American College of Clinical Engineering
American Institute of Chemical Engineering- Food, Pharmaceutical, and Bioengineering Division
American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering
American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine
American Medical Informatics Association
American Society for Artificial Internal Organs
American Society for Healthcare Engineering
American Society of Biomechanics
American Society of Mechanical Engineers- Bioengineering Technical Division
Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation
Biomedical Engineering Society
Controlled Release Society
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers- Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society
Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine
International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering
International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine
Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America
Society for Biomaterials
Get informed!
Society Newsletters
Biomedical Engineering Society Bulletin
IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Magazine
IFBME News and Clinical Engineering Update
Research journals
Annual Reviews in Biomedical Engineering
Annals of Biomedical Engineering
Biomaterials
Biomedical Instrumentation and Technology
Biophysical Journal
Clinical Biomechanics
Dental Materials
Journal of Biomechanics
Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association
Journal of Biomechanical Engineering
Journal of Controlled Release
Medical Engineering and Physics
IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering
IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging
IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine
IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering
Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing
Journal of Biomedical Materials Research
Biomedical Engineering in Depth
What is biomedical engineering?
Most of the major disciplines of engineering have made contributions to advances in the biological/life sciences and medicine. Perhaps the most archetypical Biomedical Engineering device is the cardiac pacemaker which senses the patient's current heart rhythm and rate and will electrically stimulate the heart to regularize an abnormal rate or rhythm. Some people can periodically experience an abnormally low heart rate and can loose consciousness during critical life style moments such as physical activity, driving an automobile, or just walking up a flight of stairs. The cardiac pacemaker demonstrates the tremendous intersection of a significant medical problem with several key engineering specialties and is a great example of a Biomedical Engineering solution. Briefly, electrical and computer engineering skills are used to design the electronics and programming logic which drive the device - all pacemakers are based on fully functioning microprocessors. The pacemaker is implanted inside the human body (a particularly hostile environment) and therefore must be impervious to the biological fluids and must also not cause a rejection reaction. Thus the biocompatibility issues and the subsequent solution with engineered biomaterials were crucial to the long term success of the pacemaker. Additionally the wires connecting the device with the heart tissue must be flexible but not brittle enough to break under the repetitive motion produced by a beating heart nor can the wires be dislodged from stable sites within the heart under these same conditions. The subsequent mechanical design of the pacemaker wires have solved this problem. The battery energy source which powers the pacemaker was originally a set of ordinary mercury cells but the need to increase energy density lead to the development of the lithium battery technology increasing the life span of the device from 12 - 18 months to 8 - 10 years. The lithium battery technology is now common place in a wide range of consumer and industrial products. Of significant note is the fact that the National Academy of Engineering has established an award for major engineering contributions which have significantly impacted society and has contributed to the advancement of the human condition - The Russ Prize. The first Russ Prize was awarded in 2001 to two Biomedical Engineers credited with inventing the cardiac pacemaker: Earl Bakken and Wilson Greatbatch. More than 400,000 pacemakers are implanted annually around the world!
The above example of a Biomedical Engineering success best describes the essence of Biomedical Engineering. To be sure there are many others but the technical sophistication of the modern pacemaker and its multiple biomedical engineering solutions across a wide spectrum of disciplines and its widespread acceptance into modern medical practice is an inspiration for all who pursue Biomedical Engineering as a career.
History and Background
Many disciplines are attracted to the genius of Leonardo da Vinci, but his unique combination and mastery of mechanics and anatomy poised him to be the first Biomedical Engineer with a biomechanics specialty. The discovery of electricity and current lead to a charged debate between Galvani and Volta in Italy in the late 18th century. Their debate was based on observations of frog leg stimulation and contraction and hence bioelectricity formed the initial understanding of these fundamental electrical theories. As the scientific basis of medicine progressed into the 20th century devices for measuring and monitoring body functions required technical skills beyond a physician's primary clinical training. The use of X-rays to obtain images of the inside the body was also a significant technological driving force for the overlap of engineering and medicine at this time. The Professional Group on Engineering in Medicine and Biology was formed in 1948 under the auspices of several professional societies. National and international conferences were held regularly and several organizations trace their origins to this period.
Several academic Biomedical Engineering programs trace their roots to the 1950s but were housed within traditional engineering departments. Most were in electrical engineering programs as the initial medical devices were mostly electrical or imaging oriented. As the medical community took a more "constructive" role in treating disease and injuries cardiac bypass surgery, kidney dialysis, and orthopedic implants increased the roles for biomechanics and biomaterials. Again, as medicine discovers the role of the genetic code and molecular biology for diagnosing and treating diseases the Biomedical Engineering has kept pace with development of tissue engineering, micro electrical-mechanical systems (MEMS), sophisticated drug delivery, and nanotechnologies.
Biomedical Engineering today
Biomedical Engineering is a vibrant and rapidly expanding field both in content and opportunities. As our technological infrastructure expands and our fundamental knowledge in the life sciences is now at the basic molecular level, Biomedical Engineers are poised to continue to make major advances. There are about 100 Biomedical Engineering Departments and Programs in the US. Most offer graduate degrees at the MS and PhD level while only about half this number offer undergraduate degree programs. ABET, the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology lists about 25 accredited biomedical/bioengineering undergraduate degree programs. Many of these are more than 25 years old, but the fact that the number of programs has doubled in the past 5 years and that it takes at least 4 -5 years before a program is able to apply for accreditation the outlook is for a real boom in the number of accredited undergraduate programs in the coming years. This commitment to growth in Biomedical Engineering education is concomitant with the industrial and research opportunities available to well trained graduates in the field.
Resource links
BMEnet is resource rich website that has many links to professional societies, foundations supporting BME, upcoming conferences, academic programs, and job listings. http://www.bmenet.org
The Whitaker Foundation places Biomedical Engineering Education as its highest priority and their web site is a rich resource for prospective Biomedical Engineers. http://www.whitaker.org
The National Institutes of Health has formed a new Institute in Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. The home page for Biomedical Engineering at NIH is http://www.nibib.nih.gov/
Several of the Biomedical Engineering Professional Societies have student chapters on many campuses, including the Biomedical Engineering Society: http://www.bmes.org/
