Blogs

The Pulse of Progress

Raymond Ali focuses on the significant growth in the biomedical engineering field.

Tue Oct 22 2024By Raymond Ali

The field of biomedical engineering is quite a fascinating one. Not only is it an engineering field that has significantly grown over the past few decades, but it is one that will continue to evolve and expand as the limits of technology are pushed. Biomedical engineering has changed the landscape of patient care in ways that were previously unheard of. When Willem Einthoven invented the first ever practical ECG in 1901, it was a 600-pound device that took up 2 rooms. It included a massive electromagnet, a continuous-flow water jacket to prevent overheating, and needed 5 people to operate it. The patient needed to have both of their hands and 1 foot submerged in a saline solution which were used as electrodes. This ‘string galvanometer’ as it was called was the first device capable of taking electrocardiograms. At the time, this was the absolute pinnacle of medical technology. 


Today, with the advent of micro processing and better understanding of medical science, ECGs have been reduced to a microchip sensor the size of a fingernail weighing only a few grams. It is now a device that can be easily incorporated into a smartphone or smartwatch, a very far cry from a 600-pound machine. While it is not quite as detailed and precise as a 12 lead ECG that one would find in a hospital, it is still a 1 channel ECG device used by countless people around the world for monitoring or diagnosing purposes. Even newer consumer products are able to produce results very similar to that of hospital equipment.


This type of leap in technology is what makes biomedical engineering so interesting. Technology evolves at an exponential rate. Ideas, machines, scientific methods, even experimental procedures all start at a very basic, rudimentary level. Some may even seem impossible. But as science and technology advances, these concepts become not only more easily attainable, but polished and perfected along the way. The ECG is a perfect example of this progression.


Even looking back over the last 50 years, medical technology has made some substantial leaps that would have seemed less than improbable 100 years ago. MRI, CT scans, insulin pumps, laser-eye surgery, tissue engineering, and artificial muscles have all been realized before the year 2000. Things like telesurgery, bionic eyes, and even 3D printed organs seem like ideas straight out of sci-fi. Yet they have all been achieved within the last 20 years. This is the very heart of biomedical engineering; improving healthcare by applying engineering and technology to solve medical and biological problems.


The point being made here is that there is no 1 topic in biomedical engineering that is interesting, the entire field of biomedical engineering is interesting. No matter the specialization, the application of advanced technology for healthcare improvement is always intriguing, and those with scientific, engineering, or medical inclinations will no doubt find something in the field worth exploring. From technical fields like biomaterials, electrophysiology, and bioinstrumentation to more practical fields like imaging, dialysis, ultrasound and rehabilitation, the future is limited only by the imagination of the brilliant minds working to further this cornerstone of healthcare. 


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