Advances in Biomedical Engineering
-- posted June 2015 --
The following 11:12 minutes video outlines some of the recent advances in the field of biomedical engineering:
The innovative concepts and methods borrowed from engineering and applied in medical science relate to:
• image processing in medical applications
• sensory measurements and data analysis are employed in understanding the functioning principles of the human brain, by measuring electrical signals created by the brain for motor control of the parts of the body
• minimally invasive surgery, e.g., hernia repair, appendectomy, gallbladder surgery, etc.
• robotic devices and wireless sensors are increasingly used for rehabilitation in stroke surviving patients
• prosthetic devices help amputees to walk again, or to replace arms, and also there is a lot of undergoing effort for engineering human organs and creating congruent artificial or biological substitutes
In general, the medicine as of today still fails to provide answers to many questions, and there are so many diseases for which there is no cure at the present level of knowledge. However, the very fact that the average life expectancy in 1800 in Europe was below 40 years, and that just in about 200 years it has more than doubled, clearly indicates the remarkable progress in medicine over that period. Among the most important recent events in medicine was the completion of the sequencing of the human genome in 2001. The knowledge in genomics medicine provides a basis for finding the roots of common diseases, and subsequently, prescribing treatments based on a patient’s genomic information. Another innovative paradigm that has a potential to advance medicine is the use of nanotechnology for improved diagnostics, drug delivery, and regenerative cell therapy. Furthermore, wearable medical devices are already being developed by many companies, and in the future, they will unobtrusively monitor our bodily functions, suggest treatments and lifestyle modifications, and will help in disease prevention. The future progress in the medical field will be reflected by even longer life expectancy, and it is believed that in a few centuries from now the medicine will be advanced to the level that we will be able to practically live forever as long as we want.