The Role of Biomedical Engineering in Biomedical Researchand Industrial Development
Dov Jaron Ph.D.
Calhoun Distinguished Professor of Engineering in MedicineSchool of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health SystemsDrexel UniversityPhiladelphia, PennsylvaniaU.S.A.President, International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering
The 21st century has been labeled as the "Biological Century" with the expectation of profound implications to future technological breakthroughs both in the medical and other industrial sectors. In particular, we are on the threshold of a revolution in biology and medicine with the completion of the sequencing of the human genome, research to relate sequence to expression and eventually to cell and organ function. These enormous changes signify critical transformation for many segments of industry and for the profession of biomedical engineering. While some of the traditional areas of biomedical engineering and its technology innovations will continue to flourish, we will face new challenges and greatly enhanced opportunities. Meeting these challenges and capitalizing on the new opportunities will make biomedical engineering the cornerstone for future technological advances with applications to research in biology and medicine, to health and to the delivery of health care.
The biomedical engineer is becoming essential to understanding the enormous amount of information that is being generated by basic research, to using quantitative approaches, to integrating disparate components in order to understand complex living systems, to providing truly innovative solutions and to translating these to commercial products. The biomedical engineer is playing a critical role in research and in its applications to improving quality of life, and in implementing cost-effective solutions for delivery of health care.
Major funding agencies and Foundations in the United States have recognized the importance of biomedical engineering to the future of health and health care and have taken steps to increase support and promote the field. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has increased its funding allocation to the bioengineering programs and to special initiatives that encompass many of the divisions and directorates of the Foundation. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) established in 1997 the Bioengineering Consortium (BECON) to coordinate and enhance funding for biomedical engineering research among the many NIH institutes. BECON initiated a number of special programs aimed at closely integrating engineers with biological and medical scientists. The Whitaker Foundation embarked on building the infrastructure for biomedical engineering in the US by supporting young researchers and by funding the establishment of new academic departments in many universities. The United States now has more than 80 academic departments and more than 100 programs in biomedical engineering. While overall engineering enrollment has been declining in the last two decades, enrollment in biomedical engineering programs, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels has increased dramatically, reflecting the revolution in the scientific basis for industrial development and the changes in technologies for health care delivery. More recently NIH launched the Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering.
The mission of the new Institute is “to improve health by promoting fundamental discoveries, design and development, and translation and assessment of technological capabilities in biomedical imaging and bioengineering, enabled by relevant areas of information science, physics, chemistry, mathematics, materials science, and computer sciences. The Institute plans, conducts, fosters, and supports an integrated and coordinated program of research and research training that can be applied to a broad spectrum of biological processes, disorders and diseases and across organ systems. The Institute coordinates with … other agencies and NIH Institutes to … support research with potential medical applications and facilitates the transfer of such technologies to medical applications.” Funding by NIH for biomedical engineering research and development, leading to new medical technologies with eventual commercialization potential is on the rise.
In the industrial sector of the United States, the compound annual return of the biomedical technology industry has been more than 40% since 1980 while the S&P 400 index advanced by a much slower rate of only slightly over 16% annually over the same period. The spectacular increase in the medical technology index is driven by a number of factors such as the increase in life expectancy and the aging population, the increased expectations for improved quality of life and the increased demand for improved medical devices and systems.
New technologies that are likely to reach commercial stage in the next decade will be based on research in a variety of new areas such as functional genomics, imaging at the molecular and cellular levels, new imaging at the organ level, computational applications in bioinformatics and medical informatics, functional biomaterials, bionanotechnology, new instruments and devices for clinical medicine, and rehabilitation and assistive technologies. Employment in the medical technology sector has increased steadily and projections by the U.S. department of Labor suggest that it will continue to increase significantly in the next decade. More importantly, while employment of engineers in general is projected to increase by under 20%, the demand for biomedical engineers will grow by more than 30% in the next 10 years, demonstrating the importance of the biomedical engineering profession to future technological innovations and advances.
In summary, medical technology companies must be aware that new medical technologies are going to evolve in this century and that these technologies will be based on fundamental biological discoveries. It is clear that there exists a tremendous potential in the health care sector for both established and for new companies. Biomedical engineering is increasingly critical for the future of basic research and for the translation of research results to the commercial health care sector. Finally, because of the projected increase in the health care sector there is a pressing requirement for accelerated development of human resources to meet the demands of new industries. This calls for an increase in the number of educational programs world-wide. In addition, since biomedical engineering is a truly interdisciplinary field, there is a need for a new approach to the educational process of the young generation of biomedical engineers that will fully integrate engineering, biology and medicine.
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Dov Jaron Ph.D.
Calhoun Distinguished Professor of Engineering in MedicineSchool of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health SystemsDrexel UniversityPhiladelphia, PennsylvaniaU.S.A.President, International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering
The 21st century has been labeled as the "Biological Century" with the expectation of profound implications to future technological breakthroughs both in the medical and other industrial sectors. In particular, we are on the threshold of a revolution in biology and medicine with the completion of the sequencing of the human genome, research to relate sequence to expression and eventually to cell and organ function. These enormous changes signify critical transformation for many segments of industry and for the profession of biomedical engineering. While some of the traditional areas of biomedical engineering and its technology innovations will continue to flourish, we will face new challenges and greatly enhanced opportunities. Meeting these challenges and capitalizing on the new opportunities will make biomedical engineering the cornerstone for future technological advances with applications to research in biology and medicine, to health and to the delivery of health care.
The biomedical engineer is becoming essential to understanding the enormous amount of information that is being generated by basic research, to using quantitative approaches, to integrating disparate components in order to understand complex living systems, to providing truly innovative solutions and to translating these to commercial products. The biomedical engineer is playing a critical role in research and in its applications to improving quality of life, and in implementing cost-effective solutions for delivery of health care.
Major funding agencies and Foundations in the United States have recognized the importance of biomedical engineering to the future of health and health care and have taken steps to increase support and promote the field. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has increased its funding allocation to the bioengineering programs and to special initiatives that encompass many of the divisions and directorates of the Foundation. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) established in 1997 the Bioengineering Consortium (BECON) to coordinate and enhance funding for biomedical engineering research among the many NIH institutes. BECON initiated a number of special programs aimed at closely integrating engineers with biological and medical scientists. The Whitaker Foundation embarked on building the infrastructure for biomedical engineering in the US by supporting young researchers and by funding the establishment of new academic departments in many universities. The United States now has more than 80 academic departments and more than 100 programs in biomedical engineering. While overall engineering enrollment has been declining in the last two decades, enrollment in biomedical engineering programs, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels has increased dramatically, reflecting the revolution in the scientific basis for industrial development and the changes in technologies for health care delivery. More recently NIH launched the Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering.
The mission of the new Institute is “to improve health by promoting fundamental discoveries, design and development, and translation and assessment of technological capabilities in biomedical imaging and bioengineering, enabled by relevant areas of information science, physics, chemistry, mathematics, materials science, and computer sciences. The Institute plans, conducts, fosters, and supports an integrated and coordinated program of research and research training that can be applied to a broad spectrum of biological processes, disorders and diseases and across organ systems. The Institute coordinates with … other agencies and NIH Institutes to … support research with potential medical applications and facilitates the transfer of such technologies to medical applications.” Funding by NIH for biomedical engineering research and development, leading to new medical technologies with eventual commercialization potential is on the rise.
In the industrial sector of the United States, the compound annual return of the biomedical technology industry has been more than 40% since 1980 while the S&P 400 index advanced by a much slower rate of only slightly over 16% annually over the same period. The spectacular increase in the medical technology index is driven by a number of factors such as the increase in life expectancy and the aging population, the increased expectations for improved quality of life and the increased demand for improved medical devices and systems.
New technologies that are likely to reach commercial stage in the next decade will be based on research in a variety of new areas such as functional genomics, imaging at the molecular and cellular levels, new imaging at the organ level, computational applications in bioinformatics and medical informatics, functional biomaterials, bionanotechnology, new instruments and devices for clinical medicine, and rehabilitation and assistive technologies. Employment in the medical technology sector has increased steadily and projections by the U.S. department of Labor suggest that it will continue to increase significantly in the next decade. More importantly, while employment of engineers in general is projected to increase by under 20%, the demand for biomedical engineers will grow by more than 30% in the next 10 years, demonstrating the importance of the biomedical engineering profession to future technological innovations and advances.
In summary, medical technology companies must be aware that new medical technologies are going to evolve in this century and that these technologies will be based on fundamental biological discoveries. It is clear that there exists a tremendous potential in the health care sector for both established and for new companies. Biomedical engineering is increasingly critical for the future of basic research and for the translation of research results to the commercial health care sector. Finally, because of the projected increase in the health care sector there is a pressing requirement for accelerated development of human resources to meet the demands of new industries. This calls for an increase in the number of educational programs world-wide. In addition, since biomedical engineering is a truly interdisciplinary field, there is a need for a new approach to the educational process of the young generation of biomedical engineers that will fully integrate engineering, biology and medicine.
--- It would be really appreciated If you could Kindly Leave your comments ----
1 comment:
I really like the way how you have taken the minor concepts of Medical engineering and put it out in the wider picture.
Cheers,
avash
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