What do biomedical engineers do?

What do biomedical engineers do?

Perhaps a simpler question to answer is  what don’t biomedical engineers do? Biomedical engineers work in industry, academic institutions, hospitals and government agencies.  Biomedical engineers may spend their days designing electrical circuits and computer software for medical instrumentation. These instruments may range from large imaging systems such as conventional x-ray, computerized tomography (a sort of computer-

enhanced three-dimensional x-ray) and magnetic resonance imaging, to small implantable devices, such as pacemakers, cochlear implants and drug infusion pumps.  Biomedical engineers may use chemistry,

Bioengineers help translate human organs such as the heart into thousands of mathematical equations and millions of data points which then run as computer simulations. The result is

a visual simulation that looks and behaves much like the real heart it mimics. 

Indeed a considerable number of the advances in understanding how the body functions and how biological systems work have been made by biomedical engineers.  They may use mathematical models and statistics to study many of the signals generated by organs such as the brain, heart and skeletal muscle.  Some biomedical engineers build artificial organs, limbs, knees, hips, heart valves and dental implants to replace lost function; others are growing living tissues to replace failing organs.  The development of artificial body parts requires that biomedical engineers use chemistry and physics to develop durable materials that are compatible with a biological environment. 

Biomedical engineers are also working to develop wireless technology that will allow patients and doctors to communicate over long distances.  Many biomedical engineers are involved in rehabilitation–designing better walkers, exercise equipment, robots and therapeutic devices improve human performance.  They are also solving problems at the cellular and molecular level, developing nanotechnology and micro-

machines to repair damage inside the cell and alter gene function.

Biomedical engineers are also working to develop three-dimensional sim-

ulations that apply physical laws to the movements of tissues and fluids.

The resulting models can be invaluable in understanding how tissue

works, and how a prosthetic replacement, for example, might work under

the same conditions.