Overview

Doctors heal people. Engineers build machines. Biomedical Engineers build machines that heal people. From the pacemaker keeping a heart beating to the MRI machine scanning a brain, they combine the precision of engineering with the messiness of biology.

Core Idea

The core idea is The Body as a Machine. If the heart is a pump, we can fix it like a pump. If the arm is a lever, we can replace it with a lever.

Formal Definition

The application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare purposes. Subfields: Biomechanics, Biomaterials, Tissue Engineering.

Intuition

  • The Cyborg: We are slowly becoming cyborgs. Glasses, hearing aids, and hip replacements are all biomedical engineering. We are integrating technology into our biology to live longer.

Examples

  • Pacemaker: A tiny computer implanted in the chest that shocks the heart if it stops.
  • Artificial Kidney (Dialysis): A machine that filters blood when the kidneys fail.
  • Tissue Engineering: Growing a new ear in a lab using the patient’s own cells. (Sci-fi becoming reality).

Common Misconceptions

  • They are doctors: They usually don’t treat patients directly. They design the tools the doctors use.
  • It’s just prosthetics: It’s also about software (analyzing DNA) and materials (designing a screw that won’t rust inside the body).
  • Biocompatibility: The most important rule. The body hates foreign objects (Immune System). You have to trick the body into accepting the titanium screw.
  • Neuralink: Interfacing the brain directly with a computer. The ultimate biomedical engineering project.

Applications

  • CRISPR: Engineering the code of life itself.

Criticism / Limitations

  • Ethics: Just because we can enhance humans, should we? (Designer Babies).

Further Reading

  • Saltzman, W. Mark. Biomedical Engineering: Bridging Medicine and Technology.