Biomedical Engineering
As a pioneer in this field, I have developed Biomedical Engineering (BME) educational programs (and curricula), and taught a variety of courses in Biomechanics, Physiological Engineering, Orthopedic mechanics, Cardiovascular Engineering, Medical Physics, and Biomathematics.
I have taught and researched in Quantitative (engineering modeling of) Physiology and Engineering-modeling of Organ systems. One of my pioneering efforts has been in the formulation of non-dimensional physiological indices (NDPIs) of physiological (micro & macro) systems (PSTs). A typical NDPI is made up of a number of (necessary & sufficient) parameters of a PST (adroitly formulated to make the index non-dimensional), based on the engineering modeling of the PST.
Upon simulating the physiological system (PST) BME model to the clinical data, and evaluating the parameters and hence the NDPI, we can determine the distribution of the NDPI for a reasonable sized patient population, to determine the NDPI ranges for normal and dysfunctional physiological systems. The advantage of NDPIs is that one can clinically assess the physiological system, based on just one number or index. This novel concept has been applied to formulate NDPIs for cardiac contractility, lung ventilatory performance, glucose-insulin dynamics in glucose tolerance testing, for detecting diabetes, vascular flow for diagnosing arteriosclerosis and atherosclerosis, diseased heart-valve detection based on its vibrational modeling associated with heart-sounds, and cardiac fitness detection.
I would like to invite you to refer my recently published book "Applied Biomedical Engineering Mechanics".
The below figure delineates the role of BME in a hospital setting: (i) monitoring, signal and image processing; (ii) organ-systems modeling and functional characterization by means of BME indices; (iii) expert systems formulations, for diagnostic and interventional guidelines, for organ-systems disorders (based on evidence-based medicine), (iv) treatment: pharmacological, surgical tissue-engineering, rehabilitation engineering; (v) design and implementation of prostheses and orthoses, drug delivery systems and artificial organs.
For Biomedical Engineering to become a professional field, aspects of it need to be incorporated into the Medical (MD) curriculum. Also, the development of an MD-PhD program can facilitate the institutionalization of Biomedical Engineering as a professional healthcare discipline.
The following link provides access to my seminar presentation on "Applications of Biomedical Engineering Anatomy, Physiology, Medicine & Hospital Management".
