Medicosnext
Er. Subidha Pathak
She is currently working as a Biomedical Engineer in Upendra Devkota Memorial National Institute of Neurological and Allied Sciences. She is an enthusiast engineer with a passion for exploring intersection of engineering and patient care.
Modern day hospitals are equipped with various medical devices and equipment which involve different kinds of technology. For use of these technologies and handling all the equipment in the proper way, the expertise of people like biomedical engineers and technicians are needed. They can bridge the gap between engineering and medicine. As new technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, and telemedicine emerge, the responsibilities of biomedical engineers are evolving from not just managing the equipment in the traditional way, but also by incorporating innovation, strategic planning, and data analysis. Moreover, the changes that have been amended in various fields of biomedical engineering have led to the transformation of traditional hospital settings by enhancing the patient’s health care needs.
Biomedical engineering (BME) is an interdisciplinary field which includes the combination of technology with human biology and medicines that contribute to enhancing the patient’s healthcare needs. BME advances the healthcare systems through diagnosis, monitoring of healthcare equipment. The engineering principles fill the gap between the technologies and medicines. Moreover, biomedical engineering is all about using engineering tools and principles to enhance the healthcare services. Whether it’s designing the artificial implants, or improving medical imaging systems like MRI, CT scan machine, X-Ray, C-arm, O-arm, or developing wearable devices like pacemakers, pulse oximeter that monitors the heart rate, oxygen levels, etc. altogether whose main goal is to provide an effective, efficient and accessible services.
Taking a shape in technologies from IInd World War to till date by an initiative collaboration of medical professionals and engineers, who have pushed biomedical society to innovate the medical diagnostic tools and equipment with input of an emerging advancement of technologies day by day. Starting from the innovation of machines like the hemodialysis machine in WWII which helps in the filtration function of the kidney to the development of robots that helps the surgeon to conduct the surgery in the modern era, the biomedical field has come a long way in its journey. This journey has marked the continuation of a new kind of engineering: one focused not only on building machines for the medical industry, but on improving human health. The demand for tools along with the engineers are uplifting day by day with the increase of hospitals and research centers.
Beyond Maintenance
There is a common misconception in most of the hospitals in Nepal, that the biomedical engineers or technicians are just limited for the repair and maintenance of medical equipment. While catering to the maintenance of equipment, their scope extends far beyond. The engineers are also deeply involved in cutting edge medical research and development. In collaboration with medical professionals, knowing the needs of patients, they are also actively involved in making the patient specific implants or spinal models using advanced techniques of imaging and 3D printing. These kinds of innovations ultimately improve surgical accuracy and patient recovery in hospitals, mostly in trauma and neurological cases.
They even assist the surgeons during the procedures by managing, handling and using the operative devices like Intraoperative Nerve Monitoring system, Guidance system that will ultimately lead to the precision of surgery and hence patient safety. Beyond these technical duties , the engineers are also actively involved in providing user training to the nurses and other medical staff of hospitals for smoothing operative methods of equipment. Altogether, their main goal is to provide proper and sophisticated health care services to patients.
The Silent Force behind Patient-Centered Technology
From the earliest development of equipment like stethoscopes to today’s robotic surgical system, these expertise have played a pivotal role in every step of innovation. Without the combination of both engineering technologists and human biology along with medicines, these technologies wouldn’t have existed, functioning effectively and efficiently in all hospitals. Ensuring the use of proper technologies with its services, whether supporting a critical patient with a ventilator or diagnosing the medical issues through radiological devices like MRI, CT Scan the silent force behind the hospital (biomedical engineers and technicians) always ensure to provide patient centered technology effectively and efficiently in every step. The role of engineers in hospitals is not only limited to fixing and maintaining the devices, they even tailor the machines function according to the needs of patients.
Most of the technical works that needs to be updated on daily basis, for example, backup for emergency condition, the technical systems and software’s of every functioning equipment in hospital like chiller of MRI machines, water pipe supplies for critical equipment like hemodialysis machine are also looked after by biomedical engineers or technicians of the hospital. The technical experts are always on standby ensuring that every technical corner of the hospital is working well to provide proper healthcare services to each and every patient reaching out to their hospital for proper care and treatment.
Operational Strength but Research Silence
Though our country has made commendable efforts in the repair and maintenance sector of medical equipment, having only a handful of research centers has limited the resources for conducting research over here. Core field of biomedical engineering also includes areas such as tissue engineering, biomaterials, drug delivery systems, etc. Research on these areas is lacking in Nepal because of the limited resources. In my perspective, I think that this sector too needs an update, as the core ideas for innovation of multiple medical diagnostic tools lies within the domain of biomedical engineering. This will ultimately result in better healthcare outcomes.
Pioneering the Next Era of Patient Care
With the evolution in the healthcare sector, biomedical engineering will play an even more crucial role to enhance the technology of medicine in future. Advances in areas such as nanotechnology, drug delivery, 3D printing and artificial intelligence will create new avenues for enhancing patient outcomes therapies and diagnostics. Notably, the advanced technologies like 3D printing have been deployed for developing cost effective and patient specific cranial implants at UDM-NINAS. This shows how the biomedical field can help patient’s in ways unimaginable in the past. These advancements reflect how healthcare institutions are embracing the step of innovation to enhance patient care. Biomedical engineering even has a very promising future, from the development of tailored medical solutions to the production of completely functional artificial organs. Biomedical engineers are revolutionizing healthcare delivery, improving patient results, and moving towards a future of personalized and patient-centered care through regenerative medicine, wearable medical devices, brain-computer interfaces, nanomedicine, artificial organs and implants, biomedical imaging technology, data analytics, and artificial intelligence. The field of engineering is prepared to revolutionize healthcare, leading in an era of accuracy, efficiency, and enhanced quality of life for patients all over the world, as technology continues to advance and interdisciplinary collaborations thrive.
