Biomedical Engineering

Biomedical Engineering is the application of engineering principles and techniques to the medical field. It combines the design and problem solving expertise of engineering with the medical expertise of physicians to help improve patient health care and the quality of life of healthy individuals. As a relatively new discipline, much of the work in biomedical engineering consists of research and development, covering an array of fields: bioinformatics, medical imaging, image processing, physiological signal processing, biomechanics, biomaterials and bioengineering, systems analysis, 3-D modeling, etc.

Examples of concrete applications of biomedical engineering are the development and manufacture of biocompatible protheses, medical devices, diagnostic devices and imaging equipment such as MRIs and EEGs, and pharmaceutical drugs.

Clinical engineering a branch of biomedical engineering for professionals responsible for the managerment of medical equipment in a hospital. The tasks of a clinical engineer are typically the acquisition and management of medical device inventory, supervising biomedical engineering technicians, ensuring that safety and regulatory issues are taken into consideration and serving as a technological consultant for any issues in a hospital where medical devices are concerned. Clinical engineers work closely with the IT department and medical physicists.

Biomedical engineering is offered in 14 self financing engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu Clinical Engineering a mostly a post graduate programme is offered in Cardiff School of Engineering/Cardiff University UK, Nanyang TEchnological University also offers 2 years post graduate programme in Clinical Engineering.