What Does a Biomedical Engineer Do? | Life of a Biomedical Engineer?

             

              Hey nation  and welcome back to the blog where we empower young engineers to rise to the top 1 percent of their career so if you're a young engineer and you want to be successful then make sure you comments and we need you to hit that you don't know about it yet we have a discord server just for engineer get started biomedical engineers design develop test research and may supervise the manufacturing and/or installation of healthcare equipment components or systems for commercial industrial or military use and don't forget about science of course not that biomedical engineering is a hugely broad field with an array of job roles in very specific industries from medical devices to hospitals and other clinical settings biomedical engineers are an integral part of advancing health care later we'll discuss subgroups within biomedical engineering but really the key is that it's anything in healthcare in general a biomedical engineer is someone who applies physics and mathematics to design and develop new healthcare equipment and systems to then solve problems and to test equipment the emerges of a longer human lifespan is noted by the improvement of therapeutics and development of medical devices such as the artificial pacemaker quickly guys I want to go over the difference between bioengineering and biomedical engineering that question gets asked a lot online though the two phrases may just roll off the tongue similarly in practice there are notable differences between the two bioengineering is the study of applied engineering practices in general biology it is the more broad topic when compared to biomedical engineering as bioengineering covers agriculture pharmaceuticals Natural Resources the food industry and many other things in addition bioengineering covers general medical practices though biomedical engineering focuses more on this field than general bioengineering bioengineering practices are to many different industries including health care but bioengineering practices are not explicit to medical purposes okay now that you know the difference between bioengineering and biomedical engineering I like to go over a brief history with these blogs historically early forms of biomedical engineering would have been things that seemed so antiquated today for example the first prosthetic toe was found in ancient Egypt more than 3000 years ago the Pharaohs had biomedical engineers eventually the artificial pacemaker came along the hearing aid the artificial heart things like this today modern biomedical engineers work in many fields which may include technology manufacturing pharmaceuticals andresearch like many fields guys biomedical engineering is another one where you can work in many sectors many industries so keep in mind hot topics and cool lanes things like right now there's a lot of people who are interested in biomedical engineering because in these types of engineers who will create a vaccine who will be researching with the fight against covid 19 and ways that we can be more prepared for a global pandemic next time if you want to be a biomedical engineer you probably want to fix some sort of human healthcare problem what problem is it comment below I want to know okay with that brief history let's go over some of the tasks and duties that you may be doing as a biomedical engineer when you begin any engineering career you start off with learning the fundamentals of whatever industry you are in so you may be doing any of these tasks or duties a biomedical engineer may design biomedical equipment and devices such as artificial organs replacement body parts and machines for diagnosing medical problems they may install adjust maintain repair or provide technical support for biomedical equipment they may evaluate the safety efficiency and effectiveness of biomedical technology they may train technicians and other personnel on the proper use of biomedical equipment they may research the engineering aspects of the biological systems of humans and animals with life scientists chemists and medical scientists they may prepare procedures write technical reports published papers and make recommendations based on their research findings and finally biomedical engineers may present their research to scientists non science executives clinicians hospital executives engineers politicians colleagues and so it's pretty broad if you're interested in biomedical engineering or any other type of engineering you're constantly trying to narrow your niche within this field so if you find yourself drawn to biomedical engineering which part of that industry do you like do you want to design devices do you want to do research do you want to work for corporate do you want to hunt down the creation of vaccines you get to choose there's a wide array of tasks and duties you have to take your career and your future in your own hands and find the perfect job for you okay now that you have some duties and a little bit of advice for me like most engineering fields biomedical engineering consists of several subfields again civil has five in mechanical has 12 starting off with subfield number one bioinformatics file informatics is the use of computers software and related technologies to develop methods to better understand biological data applications of this include but are not limited to image diagnosis tools protein and gene expressions and sequence analysis field number two biomechanics one of my best friends was studying anatomy and biomechanics in order to get into physical therapy school in grad school and I was always so interested in his courses which to me in a way was the combination of our anatomy and physiology with almost like an engineering way that our body and skeletal structures and our physical anatomy starts to work together and here we are of course we're talking about it as a subfield biomechanics is a study of the structures and functions of the mechanical aspects of biological systems at any level from whole organisms to organs cells and cell organelles all of this studying uses the method of mechanics and one of the biggest applications of biomechanics is to design orthopedic implants for human joints dental parts and other medical purposes field number three biomaterial biomaterial is any matter surface or construct that interacts with living systems it is a growing field with many companies investing in this field to create resources to develop new products such as heart valves breast implants and contact lenses field number four is tissue engineering tissue engineering is the application of engineering to tissues which is a group of cells one big focus is the creation of tissue to solve organ donor problem and create artificial organs I just googled the duration of the waiting list for organs and it says up to five years imagine that if you or a loved one was diagnosed with liver failure or only has one kidney or needs a replacement heart you could die on the waiting list so the creation of artificial organs is a great advancement in human healthcare Thanks

                 current success in the field includes 

the creation of artificial urinary bladder solid jaw bones and we can even make artificial windpipes field number 5 is genetic engineering genetic engineering is gene splicing and genetic modification of genetic material to create new products and solve genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis sickle-cell anemia and so on synthetic human insulin has even been created by altering genes and in the future personalized drugs will even come out using a personalized DNA method that creates the most effective drug for that specific individual pretty crazy guys custom drugs well sub group number six is pharmaceutical engineering pharmaceutical engineering is application of engineering to drugs to create new drugs or optimize existing pharmaceutical products examples of pharmaceutical engineering include the discovery of things like penicillin sustained-release pills which allow for drugs to be slowly released in the body for over a 24 to 48 hour period and finally these types of engineers work on the mass production of drugs even though in the United States has a massive pharmaceutical industry if you pay attention to a lot of thought leaders and futures out there we will see fewer and fewer uses of pharmaceutical drugs from a worldwide perspective so I'm not very bullish not very positive not very optimistic on pharmaceutical engineering in general its most likely gonna be around for twenty to forty years but no different than chemical engineering or petroleum engineering especially petroleum engineering I think pharmaceutical engineering is a little bit fragile or it may be one of those sectors kind of like how we look at coal today yes of course once upon a time it had its place but those days are over the seventh subfield is medical devices medical devices are the creation and optimization of instruments such as artificial pacemakers medical imaging devices like cat scans MRIs and so on also this includes medical sensors and by Yonex which are replacements for enhancements of organs with a mechanical version so bill number eight is clinical engineering clinical engineering is the implementation of medical equipment and technology and hospitals or other clinical settings political engineers trained technicians and manage implementations these engineers can be thought of in one way as industrial systems engineers within healthcare finally we have rehabilitation engineering the ninth subgroup rehabilitation engineering is the systematic application of engineering sciences to design develop adapt tests evaluate apply and distribute technological solutions to problems confronted by individuals with disabilities one example of this is creating or optimizing a prosthetic leg with that covered let's talk about the work environment for biomedical engineers biomedical engineers work in many different environments these include medical devices research and development labs higher education instrument manufacturing and finally hospital and clinical environments biomedical engineers work in teams with scientists healthcare workers or other engineer's depending on where and how they work on the project for example a biomedical engineer who has developed a new device designed to help a person with a disability to walk again might have to spend hours in a hospital to determine whether the device works as planned if the engineer finds a way to improve the device they might have to return to the manufacturer to help alter the process to then improve the design there's a great element of job security in the world of biomedical engineering this is due to the fact that people are living longer and more solutions are needed to survive this length of time and because people and governments are willing to spend money on human health alright let's talk about the PE exam in these what do X type of Engineers do I love to cover should you become a professional engineer or not and this is another one where very few engineers actually become a PE within biomedical engineering 

it's such a brand-new field so there 

just wasn't as much of a system for an engineer to create a stamp to then design a physical device and unless you're actually designing a physical device you don't technically need your PE if you're conducting research or maybe even optimizing an existing design again guys I need to say this there are some biomedical engineers who will the PE it will benefit them and they will not regret it really quickly let's talk about this in engineering there's always two paths I have plenty of blogs about this there's a technical thought leader and then there's a team leader who is destined for management this type of person gets their MBA if they want this type of person gets their master's degree Masters of Science or masters of engineering if they want that's the split these types of biomedical engineers who are leaders managers are going to end up running a department one day getting your PE shows your ambition it shows one more certification it shows your willingness and thought processing around standing out and it will help you in your career so if you're communicator and not just a technical figure it out type of Rd person then still get your PE but otherwise just like software or electrical Computer Engineering Chemical Engineering you don't really need it an Fe on your resume never looks good when you're applying to your first jobs bad it never looks bad of course I misspeak there so I always encourage people to do that and then four years down the road after working you can decide if you want to actually sit for the real PE the grand finale of this biomedical engineering video is just talking about the future guys there's a book out there called the singularity it's written by Raymond Kurzweil and I think this concept where we're headed as a human species is really important for biomedical engineers to consider because what's really happening guys is we're on the back of millions and millions of years of human evolution to get to today however our technological evolution has happened so quickly that in order for us to advance in order for us to outpace AI and robots in order to continue this trend and keep up with our own technologies we have to have this integration of our biological evolution and our technological evolution which is why we see nanobots in our bodies which is why we see artificial organs and limbs in our bodies it's why we look at companies like Elon Musk that actually can amplify how our brain works so we will see these insane futuristic and long reaching technologies that come out surrounding our human health and its biomedical engineers who make this happen so if you're excited about being on the forefront of our human physical health and our technological evolution of our healthcare then this is the perfect field. thank you