Analysis about Biomedical Engineering - Literature review Example

Literature Review and Analysis about Biomedical Engineering Introduction Biomedical engineering is a field of study and practice that has become important in the past few years. Although biomedical engineering has been there in the past few centuries, its significance has only rising in the past few decades. So new I this study that most people are either not aware of it or are not sure of what it is about. Of course, an important thing is to know about its significant, in the present and in the future. The following is a literature review that tried to sample some professional views on the field and tries to create futuristic trajectory of the field in terms of the developments happening within it. According to Tucker (Para 3) some of the challenges that the field of biomedical engineering faces include ethical dilemmas, patient privacy, and funding of research projects. According to him biomedical engineers continue to have fewer ways of withholding the patient’s privacy and this leads to ethical issues. Apart from that, other ethical issues which arise from the issue of biomedical engineering is the fact that is leads to life being changed and the ways that death was traditionally viewed has also changed. This article does not provide for any research into the development of biomedical engineering, it however does provide some very important issues that must be considered with regard to the development of biomedical engineering. Similarly, it is necessary to note that the field is still new and faces a very big future. How the future of biomedical engineering will be will depend on how well these issues discussed in this article will be solved. Other areas which the article has talked about include the issue of funding, according to the article, the filed still faces funding issues and this is a major challenge because the research in biomedical engineering is very expensive and requires a lot of research. Reppert (Para 4) also reverberated the same with regard to biomedical engineering. He discusses the funding issues that the field is facing and says that this is going to be the major issue in the future of the field. Reppert is a member of the IEEE. IEEE has been an instrumental organization in the development of the biomedical engineering in the past fifty years. While Tucker (Para 3) discuss the issues with regard to challenges that face the field of biomedical engineering, Aurelio (1-2) discusses the issue of biomedical engineering and its role in the current world. In this article, she talks about the role of biomedical engineers in proving prosthetics especially hands and. She also explores the issue of who are qualified to be in the field of biomedical engineering especially with regard to academic abilities. This article is important with regard to the current states of events in the field because it highlights the crucial issues with regard to biomedical engineering and the professional requirements. Unlike other disciplines such as mechanical engineering etc, biomedical engineering is a considerably new area of study and many people still don’t know about it. What Aurelio (1-2) has tried to do is to shed the light on this field in terms of the important role it plays in the modern medicine and who can engage into this field. Peeraer, Wonder and Van der (199-202) carried out a research to investigate the new technology to deal with over-the-knee prosthetics. Over-the-knee prosthetics are hard to use for the patients because the patent does not have a natural way to control the prosthetic due to the unavailability of the knee tendons. To solve this issue, the production of a microcomputer-controlled knee joint is important to make such a prosthetics more useful to the patient and to enhance the life of the users easier. This is going to be aided by the use of microcomputers especially those that are biocompatible. By developing computers that are biocompatible, it becomes easier to develop such prosthetics. The researchers were trying to look at the feasibility of such a microcomputer-controlled knee joint which would use a control algorism to help the patient to control the joint more naturally. The results, according to the research indicated that this is actually feasible. With the use of a double finite state approach which would be used to provide for two level control mechanism for the prosthetics. The lower level mode would control the prosthetics when in the lower stance while the high level mode would control the prosthetics in the low stance mode. This helps for a more natural control of the knee joint, giving the amputee an easier way to control prosthetic. In this article Schiehlen (149-188) looks at the past, the present as well as the future of multi-body system. Multi-body systems as they have identified, draw a lot from bio medical engineering. The researchers have identified that the state of the art for multi-body systems indicate that the future is very hopeful for this field. Multi-body systems are also going to be very important in the file of medicine as a way to provide prosthetics that are as close to natural limbs as possible. With the developments, the delivery of such limbs may even be used to make better limbs. A case in point is the prosthetics used by a former athlete from South Africa who seemed to get advantage from using prosthetics as compared to his competitors who were using natural limbs. In this particular research, the researchers found that the use of microcomputers which are implantable into the patient's body can be used to make prosthetics which can be easily controlled by the human brain and be integrated with the rest of the nervous system Biomedical engineering is also used in drugs engineering rather than just in developing devices. For instance, Unissa and Narayanan (PP. 13-22) investigated the feasibility of changing the binding factor odd ruts in order to treat resistant tuberculosis. According to their study, there is no need to change the whole enzyme content of the tuberculosis drug but rather, it is only necessary to alter the binding elements. They also identifies that the main issue of important in such a medical strategy would be to identify both the functional and structural defects within the mutant tuberculosis virus. Lavik & Langer (pp 1-8) carried out a study to investigate the issue of cell engineering and the important role it plays in the development of biomedical engineering. Cell engineering is becoming an important part of the bio medical engineering. Although the including of mechanical and other forms of engineering as part of the biomedical engineering has not been abandoned wholly, leaders in the biomedical engineering are slowly realizing the need for cell engineering. This has been promoted by the increase in the number of transplants needed every year by patients. As the authors of this article argue, the number of patient needing implants every year exceeds by far the number of available transplants. This leads to most of them going for months and years in the end without getting the implants. At the end, most of them have to die because they did not get a donor. Tissue engineering is therefore seen as a good solution to providing such patients with artificially produced body parts. What the authors were investigating in this study was the ability to produce tissue that maintains high fidelity to the point of origins while at the same time integrating properly in the point of destination after it has been implanted. This has increased the interest in material designs in order to make sure that new organ can be developed easily and be interested into a new body easily. Nahum and Melvin (pp71-90) look at the issue of using human dummies as a way to test the impact of car crash. These dummies, professionally called Anthropomorphic Test Devices (ATCs) are a product of biomedical engineering. The use of Anthropomorphic Test Devices (ATCs) is become increasingly necessary especially in the author industry as a way simulate various kinds of collision accidents. These Anthropomorphic Test Devices are designed to mimic the human body in terms of tits mass, reaction to velocity and force and reaction to impact and energy. For best results in the use of these Anthropomorphic Test Devices to simulate the impact on a collision, the Anthropomorphic Test Devices (ATCs) must be able to have high biofidelity to the human bodies they represent. This is therefore a major aspect of biomedical engineering and biomedical engineers can help in improving the fidelity of these dummies to the human bodies. Nahum and Melvin (pp71-90) did a research study to identify how this state of the art is with regard to the development of Anthropomorphic Test Devices (pp71-). Beneken (197-227) in his book wrote about the issue of bio-magnetism and its relevance in modern medicine. In this chapter, of the book, he looks at the use of bio-magnetism. The author looks at the concerted effort by European groups in the research on bio-magnetism. The author identify that the use of bio-magnetism in modern medicine is very important. However, he looks at the various challenges that this technology has so far, especially the need of a very diverse human resource as well as more financial resources in order to be successful. However, the researchers identify that the technology is very important in improving medicine, especially in diagnosis (Nebeker, 1-31) According to the IEEE, the failed of bio medical engineering has improved a lot in the past 50 years. According to (Nebeker, 1-31), the main contribution of engineering in the area is in the area of imaging and diagnosis. The article gives a history of technological innovations which have been made in the field of medicine which have promoted the modern medicine. One of the first inventions was the iron lung which was invented in 1927 to help patients suffering breathing difficulties from poliomyelitis to be able to breathe. The article also highlights that future biomedical engineers must have to be more careful especially with regard to the government regulations. This is very crucial because there are more government regulations today that there were in the past. As technology increases there are many ethical concerns which have come up. McIntyre (1457–1469) wrote an article that tried to look at the issue of Deep brain stimulation (DBS). Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a process of stimulating the brain from within by implanting an electrode into the brain. In the past, the issue of concern with regard to this medical technique was that the neurons that are in contact with the electrode implanted into the patient’s brain are likely to be inhibited thus leaden to negative impact on the patient. In this study, the researchers sought to find out how the electrode implanted into the brain reacts and if this affects the patients in a negative way. The findings of the study were encouraging in that it indicated that there are no big negative impacts on the brain cells near a brain electrode implanted. This is very important because the use of brain electrode implants is very important in treating some of the major brain inflammatory diseases such as dystonia, essential tremor, and Parkinson’s disease (McIntyre et al 1457–1469). By identifying that there are no negative impacts of using this technique, it creates hope for a better future especially for those suffering from these kinds of diseases. (McIntyre et al 1457–1469) also look at the future of the technology in terms of not only providing foe a better way to treat these kinds of disorders but also in terms of the economic persuade of the technology. While the technology is viable in terms of its stability to deliver a medical solution it is too expensive for most people. Bio technology is going to be a very fundamental part of modern technology. As the field develops, it is going to provide for more and more solution in the delivery of solutions for treating many health issues. The research analyzed above indicates that the future of the field is very bright and promising. Works Cited Aurelio, Locsin. "What Engineer Designs Prosthetics?" Demand Media (2014): PP. 1-2. Beneken, Thévenin. Advances in Biomedical Engineering: Results of the 4th EC Medical and Health Research Programme. London, UK: IOS Press, 1993. Lavik, Earnest & Langer, Richard. "Tissue engineering: current state and perspectives." Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, Volume 65, Issue 1, (2004): pp 1-8 . McIntyre, Cameron , et al. "Cellular Effects of Deep Brain Stimulation: Model-Based Analysis of Activation and Inhibition." Journal of Neurophysiol Volume 91 (2004): PP. 1457–1469. Nahum, Alan & Melvin, John. Accidental Injury: Biomechanics and Prevention. New York, NY: Springer, 2012. Nebeker, Frederik. "the Golden Accomplishments in Biomedical Engineering: 50 years of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society and the Emergecnce of a New Discipline." IEEE Histoty Centre (2002): 2006. Peeraer, L. Sloten, Wondoer, & Perre, Van der. "Development of an above-knee prosthesis equipped with a microcomputer-controlled knee joint: first test results, Vilume 14(3)." Jpournal of Biomedical Engineering (1992): pp. 199-202. Reppert, Barton. Biomedical Engineering Needs Substantial Funding Increase, According to IEEE EMBS President. 2014. 22 April 2014 . Schiehlen, Wilson. "Multibody System Dynamics: Roots and Perspectives." Multibody System Dynamics, Volume 1, Issue 2, (1997): pp 149-188 . Sinha, Rajesh & Limboo, Hangma. "Understanding the Need of Clinical Decision Support System amongHealthcare Professionals." International Journal of Medical Services and Technology Volume 6. Issue 1 (2014): pp. 1-5. Tucker, Kristine. What Is the Most Important Issue Biomedical Engineering Is Facing? january 2014. 22 April 2014 . Unissa, Nusrath & Narayanan, Sujatha. "Characterization of isoniazid-resistant mutant (S315R) of catalase-peroxidase, KatG, from Mycobacterium tuberculosis." International Journal of Medical Sciences and Technology Volume 4, Isssue, 3 (2013): PP. 13-22. Read More