Topic: Biomedical Engineering

Biomedical engineering (BME) is the application of engineering principles and design

concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare purposes (e.g. diagnostic or
therapeutic). This field seeks to close the gap between engineering and medicine: It
combines the design and problem solving skills of engineering with medical and
biological sciences to advance healthcare treatment, including diagnosis, monitoring,
and therapy.
Prominent biomedical engineering applications include the development of
biocompatible prostheses, various diagnostic and therapeutic medical devicesranging
from clinical equipment to micro-implants, common imaging equipment such as MRIs
and EEGs, regenerative tissue growth, pharmaceutical drugs and therapeutic
biologicals.
History of Biomedical Engineering

The Biomedical Engineering has been with us for centuries, perhaps even
thousands of years. In 2000, German archeologists uncovered a 3,000-year-old
mummy from Thebes with a wooden prosthetic tied to its foot to serve as a big toe.
Researchers said the wear on the bottom surface suggests that it could be the
oldest known limb prosthesis.

In 1816, modesty prevented French physician Rene Laennec from placing his ear
next to a young womans bare chest, so he rolled up a newspaper and listened
through it, triggering the idea for his invention that led to todays ubiquitous
stethoscope.

The roots of biomedical engineering reach back to early developments in

electrophysiology, which originated about 200 years ago.

In 1848, an early landmark occured in electrophysiology. When Hermann von

Helmholtz, is credited with applying engineering principles to a problem in
physiology and identifying the resistance of muscle and nervous tissues to direct
current.

In 1895, Wilhelm Roentgen accidentally discovered that a cathode-ray tube could

make a sheet of paper coated with barium platinocyanide glow, even when the tube
and the paper were in separate rooms. Roentgen decided the tube must be emitting
some kind of penetrating rays, which he called X rays. This set off a flurry of
research into the tissue-penetrating and tissue-destroying properties ofX-rays, a line
of research that ultimately produced the modern array of medical imaging
technologies and virtually eliminated the need for exploratory surgery.
Origin of Biomedical Engineering

Biomedical Engineering originated during World war -II. Biologists were needed to
do work involving advances on Radar Technology, which led them for the electronic

developments in medicine. Due to this developments the next generation of

biologists could not benifit this technology as they couldnt understand it.

Obviously, a bridge was needed to fill the gap between technical knowledge &
biology. Doctors and Biologists who ever interested in engineering and
electrical engineers intersted in biology, became the first bio engineers. Those
primarily concerned with medicine became the first Biomedical Engineers.

The unique mix of engineering, medicine and science in biomedical

engineering emerged alongside biophysics and medical physics early this century.
Major Milestones in BME
Biomedical engineering achievements range from early devices, such as crutches,
platform shoes, wooden teeth, and the ever-changing cache of instruments in a doctors
black bag, to more modern marvels, including pacemakers, heart-lung machine, dialysis
machines, diagnostic equipment, imaging technologies of every kind, and artificial
organs, medical implants and advanced prosthetics.

1895 Conrad Roentgen (Germany) discovered the X-Ray using gas discharged
tubes.

1896 Henry Becquerel (France) discovered X-rays were emitted from uranium
ore.

1901 Roentgen received the Nobel Prize for discovery of X-Rays.

1903 William Eindhoven discovered the Electrocardiogram (ECG).

1921 First formal training in Biomedical Engineering was started at Oswalt

Institute for Physics in Medicine, Frankfurt, Germany.

1927 Discovery of Drinker Respirator.

1929 Hans Berger discovers the Electroencephalogram (EEG).

1930s X-rays were being used to visualize most organ systems using radioopaque materials.
1930s Refrigeration, Permitted Blood banks.
mid 1930s early 1940s Antibiotics, Sulfanilamide and Pencillin reduced
cross-infection in hospitals.

1940s Cardiac Catheterization.

1943 International Bio-Physical Society was formed.

1948 The first conference of Engineering in Medicine & Biology was held
inUnited States.

1950s Electron Microscope.

1950s early 1960s Nuclear Medicine.

1953 Cardiopulmonary bypass (Heart-Lung Machine).

1970s Computer Tomography(CT), Magnetic Resonance Imaging(MRI).

1975 Whitaker Foundation was founded.

1980s Gamma Camera, Positron Emission Tomography(PET) & SPECT.

1997 First Indigenous Endo vascular Coronary Stent ( Kalam-Raju Stent) was
developed by Care Foundation.
No matter what the date, biomedical engineering has provided advances in medical
technology to improve human health.
As per the statistics of the National Academy of Engineering, currently about
32000 Biomedical Engineers are working in various areas of Health care technology

Various Fields under Biomedical Engineering

BIO INSTRUMENTATION
Bio Instrumentation is the application of electronics and measurement principles to
develop devices and tools used in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. The use
of computers is increasing in bio instrumentation now a day from the microprocessor
which is used to a wide variety of small tasks in a single purpose instrument to the
extensive computing power needed to process huge amount of information in a medical
system.
BIO MECHANICS
Bio mechanics deals with the application of mechanics to medical field to solve biological
and medical problems. It comprises the study of motion, material deformation, transport
of chemical substances across biological membranes, and flow inside the body.
Research in bio mechanics helped in the development of artificial heart valves, artificial
kidney, artificial hip, etc. It also helps in the study of organs and the skeletal system.
BIO MATERIALS
Bio materials deal with the materials and the living tissues that are implanted in the body.
In the design of the implanted materials, understanding the properties of the living
material is a vital aspect. One of the most challenging tasks faced by abio
medical engineer is the selection of an appropriate material that is to be placed in the
human body. The bio materials that are to be implanted should be non-toxic, noncarcinogenous, chemically inert, stable, and mechanically strong enough to withstand
the strong forces in the body.
CLINICAL ENGINEERING
Clinical engineering is the application of technology for health care in hospitals. The
clinical engineer forms a part of the health care team along with physicians, nurses and
other hospital staff. Clinical engineers develop and maintain the computer data bases of
medical instrumentation, equipment records and purchase as well as use the
sophisticated medical instruments. They may also work on projects to adapt

instrumentation to the specific needs of the physician and the hospital. This involves the
interface of instruments with computers and customized software for data analysis and
instrument control. In short, clinicalengineers apply the latest technology to health care.
REHABILITATION ENGINEERING
Rehabilitation engineering is one of the new and upcoming fields in bio
medicalengineering. The main function of the rehabilitation engineers is to enhance the
quality of life and capabilities of the individuals with physical and congenital impairments.
They are concerned with developing assistive technology that improves the mobility,
seating, communication of the patient. They also develop hardware and software
computer adaptations to help the people with congenital impairments.
MEDICAL IMAGING
Medical imaging is one of the unique techniques that involve the merging of physical
phenomenon such as light, sound, magnetism, etc with high speed electronic data
processing, analysis and display to create an image. These images can completely be
obtained using non-invasive techniques rather than using invasive techniques as they
are less painful and can be repeated any number of times.
TISSUE & GENETIC ENGINEERING
Cellular, Tissue and Genetic Engineering involve more recent attempts to
solvebiomedical problems at the microscopic level. In order to understand disease
processes and to be able to intervene at very specific sites, these areas utilize anatomy,
biochemistry and mechanics of cellular and sub-cellular structures. With these
capabilities, miniature devices deliver compounds that can stimulate or inhibit cellular
processes at precise target locations to promote healing or inhibit disease formation and
progression.
SYSTEMS PHYSIOLOGY
Systems Physiology is the term used to describe that aspect of biomedical
engineering in which engineering strategies, techniques and tools are used to gain a
comprehensive and integrated understanding of the function of living organisms ranging
from bacteria to humans. Computer modeling is used in the analysis of experimental
data and in formulating mathematical descriptions of physiological events. In research,
predictor models are used in designing new experiments to refine our knowledge. Living
systems have highly regulated feedback control systems that can be examined with
state-of-the-art techniques. Examples are the biochemistry of metabolism and the
control of limb movements.
BIO INFORMATICS
Bio informatics is one of the bio medical engineering which involves the development
and usage of computer tools to collect and analyze data related tobiology and medicine.
The research work in bio informatics comprises the usage of sophisticated techniques to
manage and generate data bases of gene sequences.
BIO MEMS
MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) are nothing but the integration of sensors,
mechanical elements, actuators, and other electronics on a single silicon chip. Bio

MEMS are the application and development of MEMS in biology and medicine. Some of
the examples of research in bio MEMS include the development of micro robots that
perform surgery in the body, and the development of tiny devices that could be implanted
inside the body to deliver drugs to the desired body parts.
BIO SIGNAL PROCESSING
Bio signal processing involves the processing of bio signals in order to extract the useful
information for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. It involves the study of cardiac
signals to determine whether a patient can be susceptible to sudden cardiac death,
development of speech recognition systems which nullify the background noise,
detection of brain signals that can be used to run a computer.
BIO TECHNOLOGY
Bio technology is a combination of various powerful tools that involve living organisms to
make or modify products, develop micro organisms for specific purposes. The ancient
techniques in bio technology involved traditional animal and plant breeding techniques,
the use of yeast in bread, cheese, wine and beer. Recent research in bio technology
comprises of the industrial applications of recombinant DNA, bio processing methods,
fusion of the cells. All of these are used to nullify the genetic defects in humans. It also
involves the degradation of harmful contaminants with the help of living organisms.
BIO SENSORS
Bio sensors involve the development of hardware and software used to detect or
measure the biological signals. This comprises the design of different sensors that
capture different biological signals. The obtained signal is then amplified and filtered.
Now a days there is a lot of research going on bio sensors.
MICRO & NANO TECHNOLOGY
Micro technology comprises the design and development of devices on the scale of a
micrometer, and nano technology involves the development of devices on the scale of a
nano meter. These specializations involve the development of tiny sensors that have the
capability to identify the changes in the properties of the tissue, hence helping the
surgeon to identify and remove the unhealthy tissue. Nanometer cantilevers have the
tendency to bend along with the cardiac protein levels which helps the physicians in the
early and rapid diagnosis of heart attacks.
NEURAL SYSTEMS & ENGINEERING
This is one of the emerging interdisciplinary fields in bio medical engineering. It involves
the study of brain and nervous system; it also involves the replacement or restoration of
lost sensory and motor abilities, the development of neuro robots, the study of
complexities of neural systems in nature and neuro electronics.
PROTEOMICS
A proteome is a set of all proteins produced by a species. Proteomics is the study of
proteomes. It comprises the study of the location, structure, interactions, and function of
the proteins. An advanced research in proteomics discovered how infections occur in
humans, which helps in the treatment of infectious diseases. Moreover, the advances in
proteomics have led to the discovery of a method to detect protein patterns in the blood

for the early diagnosis of ovarian cancer. Research in proteomics can also pave way for
the development of hardware devices that provide accurate and rapid measurements of
protein levels.