An Overview of Biomedical
Engineering
Murray Loew
Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering
George Washington University
Washington, DC 20052
Biomedical Engineering
• Who?
– GW faculty, GW students
• What?
– Applying engineering to health care
• Why?
– Curiosity, satisfaction, contribution, jobs
• How?
– Research, design, clinical
Who
• Zhenyu Guo
Murray Loew
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
What
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Bioinstrumentation
Biomaterials
Biomechanics
Biomedical computing & signal processing
Biomolecular engineering
MEMS
Minimally invasive surgery
Tissue engineering, ...
Major advances
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Hip joint replacement • Heart pacemaker
Magnetic resonance imaging
Arthroscopy • Heart-lung machine
Angioplasty • Bioengineered skin
Timed-release drug capsules
Artificial articulated joint
Kidney dialysis
Bioinstrumentation
• The application of electronics and
measurement principles to develop devices
used in diagnosis and treatment of disease.
• EXAMPLES are the electrocardiogram,
cardiac pacemaker, blood pressure
measurement, hemoglobin oxygen
saturation, kidney dialysis, and ventilators.
Biomaterials
• Describes both living tissue and materials
used for implantation.
• Choose appropriate material
• Nontoxic, noncarcinogenic, chemically
inert, stable, and mechanically strong
enough to withstand the repeated forces of a
lifetime.
• Metal alloys, ceramics, polymers, and
composites
Biomechanics
• Mechanics applied to biological or medical
problems
• Study of motion, material deformation, flow
within the body and in devices, and
transport of chemicals across biological and
synthetic media and membranes.
• EXAMPLES: artificial heart and
replacement heart valves, the artificial
kidney, the artificial hip, function of organs
Biomedical computing & signal
processing
• Computers are becoming increasingly
important in medical signal processing,
from the microprocessor used to do a
variety of small tasks in a single-purpose
instrument to the extensive computing
power needed to process the large amount
of information in a medical imaging system.
Segmentation and labeling of electron
microscope images at GWU
Micro-electromechanical systems
(MEMS)
• Microtechology and micro scale phenomena
is an emerging area of research in
biomedical engineering
• Many of life's fundamental processes take
place on the micro scale
• We can engineer systems at the cellular
scale to provide new tools for the study of
biological processes and miniaturization of
many devices, instruments and processes
MIT
Minimally invasive medicine &
surgery
• Uses technology to reduce the debilitating
nature of some medical treatments.
• Minimally invasive surgery using advanced
imaging techniques that precisely locate and
diagnose problems
• Virtual reality systems that immerse
clinicians directly into the procedure reduce
the invasiveness of surgical interventions.
GWU
Robarts Research Institute, U. of Western Ontario
Rehabilitation engineering
• A new and growing specialty area of
biomedical engineering
• Rehabilitation engineers expand capabilities
and improve the quality of life for
individuals with physical impairments.
• Because the products of their labor are often
individualized, the engineer often works
directly with the disabled individual
Biosensors and electrodes
• Sense signals within the body as required
for diagnosis
• These are used to measure the signals from
the heart (electrocardiogram), lung
(spirometer), blood (glucose sensor),
vessels (blood flow) and body (temperature)
Telemedicine
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Delivering health care at a distance
Diagnosis
Therapy
Real-time consultation
Tissue engineering
• The principles of engineering and life
sciences are applied toward the generation
of biological substitutes aimed at the
creation, preservation or restoration of lost
organ function. This field is dedicated to the
creation of new functional tissue
Biomedical Engineering
Research at GW
• Elastography for breast cancer diagnosis
• Doppler signal processing in carotid plaque
detection
• Multimodality medical image registration
• Task-based quality measurement of
compressed medical images
• Impedance imaging sensor development
• Tissue characterization using fluorescencelifetime imaging
Recent
Accomplishments
at GWU
Portable Doppler device
Catheterization simulation
New techniques for breast
cancer diagnosis
3D ultrasound imaging
Multimodality medical
image registration
Why?
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challenge
interdisciplinary
results are visible and beneficial
many kinds of jobs available
The new GWU program
• New BME B.S. program coming in Fall '02!
(pending Board of Trustees approval)
• Real experience at NIH, NRL, TIGR, ...
• Five areas of concentration:
bioinformatics, telemedicine,
instrumentation, premed,
biomechanics
Curriculum
• 4 years
• 2 required summer experiences
• lab experience starting in freshman year,
mentored by upperclassmen
• junior/senior design project
• interdisciplinary with Medical School,
Science, and GW Hospital
Curriculum – Specialty Labs
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bioinformatics and computational modeling
imaging and telemedicine
telemedicine and instrumentation
biotechnology, nanotechnology, and MEMS
visualization and simulation
movement and injury sciences
Call, write or visit:
• (202) 994-7180
• (loew, zguo) @ seas.gwu.edu
• Biomedical Engineering Program,
Department of ECE, George Washington
University, Washington, DC 20052
Extending the reach of Biomedical Engineering at
GWU