Medical Imaging

Medical imaging is both an indispensable tool and a highly interdisciplinary field. Over the past decades, progress in medical imaging theory and technology has dramatically accelerated. This chapter provides a comprehensive study of the fundamental and advanced principles behind each of the major imaging modalities. It also presents topics related to the vision of the future of each modality. The chapter is intended for upper level or graduate biomedical engineering/bioengineering/medical physics students, researchers, and faculty.

Medical and Biological Analysis

Medical and biological analysis refers to the engineering methods of signal processing as applied to measurements from human subjects, with the purpose of defining the differences between normal and pathological signals, in order to detect the presence of a disease process or detect changes in the status of a patient associated with treatment. As such, the focus of this chapter is on the identification of the sources of biomedical signals and their classification. This is followed by a historical background with emphasis on clinical applications and early quantitative and engineering approaches. Subsequently, the chapter presents classical engineering methods addressing signals in one dimension, focusing on traditional signal processing methods. It then describes some contemporary engineering approaches to medical and biological analysis, and concludes by addressing filters and noise removal and signal compensation.

Bioethics

Bioethics, or ethics of life, is the study of the human moral behavior in the fields of life sciences and healthcare. As a branch of applied ethics, bioethics integrates studies in the areas of biology, medicine, ecology, and social, human, and legal issues. In this chapter, the evolution of morality along history is briefly described. The different disciplines of ethics, with emphasis on the accepted principles of biomedical ethics in modern times, are presented. Additionally, the merging of moral dilemmas to current multidisciplinary teams of biologists and engineers performing in health care settings is analyzed. Moreover, the contents of a simple program of bioethics education are outlined, calling attention to the evaluation of the moral development of biomedical engineers. At the end of the chapter, a list of societies and organizations of bioethics around the world is intended to guide the interested reader further into the field of Bioethics.

Bioelectromagnetism

Bioelectromagnetism covers a number of sub-disciplines, but is firstly concerned with the ability of living systems to generate electrical currents and magnetic fields. Secondly, it covers the susceptibility of tissue to be stimulated by these currents or fields, and the ability of some organisms to sense low level fields. Thirdly, it also covers the possible health implications of exposure to low level environmental fields, including those associated with the transmission and distribution of electric power and of telecommunication systems. Fourthly, it presents the various therapeutic uses of these fields. Some of the effects are well-established, whereas others remain controversial. This chapter discusses the nature of this uncertainty.

Physiological Systems Modeling, Simulation, and Control

Physiological systems modeling, simulation, and control is a research area integrating science and engineering and contributes to a continuous refinement of knowledge on how the body works. The roots of modeling a body area date back thousands of years, yet it was not until the 1950s that the tree of knowledge started to be fed with data-driven hypotheses and interventions. This chapter tries to organize disparate information of the most important modeling, simulation, and control perspectives into a coherent set of views currently applied to modern biological and medical research. It is addressed to researchers on human system physiological modeling, working both in academia and in industry to address current and future research goals.

Biorobotics

Biorobotics is an emerging discipline that merges biomedical engineering and robotics. Biorobotics is the science and engineering of robotics applied in the Biomedical field, with the development of biomedical devices for surgery and rehabilitation, as well as with the modeling of biological systems. In this sense, biorobotics is also the construction of physical models of the biological systems, as bioinspired and biomimetic robots. Although most technologies are derived from robotics at large, biorobotics possesses some distinguishing features in terms of methodology of design that deserve to be approached apart from robotics. Biorobotics represents today a field of evolution for biomedical engineering and for robotics, and the ideal ground for educating young engineers, by breaking the traditional barriers among the engineering sectors and those of biological sciences and medicine.

Bionanotechnology

Bionanotechnology is multidisciplinary knowledge gained at the intersection of biology and nanotechnology. Certainly, biology operates in the nanoscale regime, using natural processes that occur in the nanoscale, by convention, under 100 nm in dimension. Therefore, bionanotechnology relates to those subtopics in the biological life sciences that exploit the analytical and experimental tools of nanotechnology. This chapter makes no pretense of acting as a comprehensive treatise, but rather selects a mix of timely topics that span over a wide set of tools and applications. It is addressed to practitioners, researchers, faculty, and university/college students within the field of bioengineering/biomedical engineering; it is also addressed to other closely-related governmental, non-governmental, and industrial entities.

Assistive Technology and Rehabilitation Engineering

The interdisciplinary fields of Assistive Technology and Rehabilitation Engineering focus on understanding the impact of disability, seeking to ameliorate the impact through the employment of appropriate technology. Aided by numerous illustrations, tables, and charts, this chapter provides the reader with an overview of this field in terms of its history, main concepts and principles, major activity areas, and some of the exciting current research and development projects. The chapter also covers the key psycho-social and technical challenges associated with various handicapping conditions, the employment outlook for this field, the training and educational programs that are available, and the professional societies and organizations that hold conferences, publish research reports, and seek to advance the field. Lastly, numerous references have been provided so that a reader can pursue his/her topics of interest.

Clinical Engineering

Clinical engineering supports and advances patient care by applying engineering and managerial skills to healthcare technology. Since the 1970s, as medical device technologies have proliferated, increasingly impacting the cost and quality of healthcare, the clinical engineering profession has matured to play a significant role in healthcare technology management. It increases the cost-effectiveness, safety, and optimal utilization of medical devices. This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of the clinical engineer’s body of knowledge. It is addressed to international clinical engineering researchers, faculty, and students, as well as clinical engineering practitioners, medical device technology managers, hospital administrators, clinical and technology support personnel, regulators, and manufacturers. The chapter provides a solid foundation upon which healthcare systems can utilize methods for managing the ever-increasing number and complexity of medical device technologies and systems.

Biomedical Sensors

This chapter addresses biomedical sensors, which are important factors for the quality of measurement of biological and physiological variables, and thus deserve close attention both with respect to the medical functions and the technical requirements. There are special demands for biomedical sensors, particularly for invasive sensors that must pass sterilization by temperature or radiation at much higher levels than the rest of the medical equipment. On the other hand, miniaturization, mechanical strength, electrical safety, and sterility are important elements of the sensor design process. The sensor determines the accessibility, spatial resolution, accuracy, sensitivity, selectivity, and response time of the measurement. In order to convert the parameter of interest into an electrical signal suited for medical use, a transducing element is necessary. Knowledge of the complete chain of transducer materials, their electrical properties, and integration with bio-amplifiers are therefore necessary to design high-quality biomedical sensors.