What do biomedical engineers do on a daily basis?

Replies

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  Kaustubh Katdare

  Biomedical engineering combines engineering, biology and medicine to address the problems related to healthcare and medical devices.

  They design, develop and maintain the products used by hospitals, testing labs, research laboratories and medical device companies. Here are some of the daily responsibilities and tasks biomedical engineers perform -

  1. Designing Medical Equipments

  Design and development of medical equipments and devices is one of the primary responsibilities of a biomedical engineer. It could involve development of ergonomic prosthetic limbs or even medical imaging machine.

  Engineers are expected to make these devices safe and meet the specific needs of the patients. They must also make their products easy to use and accessible to medical professionals and lab technicians.

  2. Research and Development

  Biomedical engineers play an important role in the research and development of biomaterials, drug delivery systems, body parameter sensors etc. They work closely with doctors in the fields of tissue engineering, body sensors and emergency devices.

  The overall goal is to develop technologies that can make the healthcare accessible and affordable.

  3. Testing and Validation

  Medical devices need to undergo lot of tests and approvals before they are made available for commercial purpose. Biomedical engineering professionals work with multiple stakeholders to ensure that the devices are safe and meet prescribed norms.

  4. Documentation and Record-Keeping

  Another area where biomedical engineers contribute is documentation and record-keeping for medical devices. The design changes, test-results, device-logs are all maintained by engineers. They also help create technical user manuals so that the operators have all the instructions ready to use the device.

  5. Troubleshooting

  This is another area where the biomedical engineers have to contribute on a regular basis. Frequent use of the sensors, monitors, lab equipments leads to wear and tear. Engineers ensure that these are well maintained and are always available for use with precise measurements.

  Overall, biomedical engineers play a crucial role in the healthcare system.
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  Ramani Aswath

  In the hospital context, they maintain all healthcare systems, equipment, gas supply systems and such. They do not take part in actual clinical procedures. They work to the normal working hours of the hospital. They may be called in if there is an emergent situation. The R&D activity of Biomedical Engineering is a wide field. Like any other R&D there is no fixed working hours nor even locations. Depending on the goals it may cover many areas of study, quite often of a multi-disciplinary nature. Quite open ended. Kausthubh has covered quite a bit in his post above. Just as an aside, one maybe up till 3 AM waiting for an experimental animal in which a biomedical device being developed has been put to wake up.