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Fixing the human body can require more than stitches and pills – sometimes it demands a few screws, some wires and clever engineering
— By Mike McRae and and Gemma Chilton
Don’t let the fact we’re not made of metal and plastic fool you. Our bodies are machines. And just like any machine, our levers can slip, our pulleys can break, and even our ‘electronics’ fail in ways that make life a challenge.
Careers in biomedical engineering combine areas like physics, electronics, computing and material science with an understanding of human health to assist, repair or replace our normal bodily functions.
Want to help a patient get back on their feet? Biomedical engineers can design the perfect prosthetic leg or research new training methods to recover lost abilities.
Keen on aiding a patient’s senses? Electronics can improve vision or open a world of sound. Emerging technology can even connect computers directly to our brains to enhance our ability to interact with the world.
Building electronic and robotic replacements is just one potential path. Biomedical engineering plays a role in the design of tools that diagnose disease or deliver treatments with minimal harm, devising better scanning techniques or ways to transport drugs or radiation to where it’s needed most.
As electronics shrink and researchers discover new power sources and materials, biomedical engineering will only expand in the future.
Field day
The pathways for a biomedical engineer are super broad and diverse! You could work in any of these specialist fields.
- Biomechanical engineering: Apply mechanical engineering principles to biological systems to develop, design or repair medical products, such as artificial organs and prosthetic limbs.
- Cell and tissue engineering: Create materials and structures to repair or build human tissue.
- Clinical engineering: Research, develop and maintain instruments and equipment to help practitioners like doctors and nurses.
- Rehabilitation engineering: Develop technological solutions and equipment to aid people with disabilities or recovering from disease or injury.
- Medical imaging: Develop and use tech to capture images of the human body – inside and out – to help diagnose disease and injury
- Soft robotics: Combine cutting-edge tech and materials science to develop robots made of ‘soft’ or malleable materials (which are safer around humans!).
- Surgical technologies: Work with augmented reality or virtual reality technologies to create simulations for training doctors or to help with live surgeries.
- Systems physiology: Apply engineering principles to understand how whole systems within living organisms function and respond to changes in their environment.
To-do list
These tasks are just some of the things a biomedical engineer might do on the job:
- Make surgical equipment and tools for medical practitioners
- Install and test medical equipment
- Examine, maintain and repair equipment
- Quality-assurance checks
- Electrical safety checks
- Train medical staff in the use of equipment and give technical advice
- Design and develop implants for use during operations, such as artificial joints or titanium plates to replace sections of bone in head injuries
ENGINEERING BIOMEDICAL JOBS
- Biomedical engineer: $59K–$97K
- Medical laboratory technician: $70K–$80K
- Prosthetist $61K–$109K
- Research scientist
- $60K–$116K
*Salaries according topayscale.com and seek.com.au
This article originally appears in Careers with STEM: Engineering 2021.
