Features of the work of medical and technical engineers
Good day to all!
Today I would like to talk about people who are engaged in the scientific and educational field of medical and technical profile.
In many research institutes of our country and abroad, a specialist developing medical devices, as a rule, deals with various problems and topics. To use the device in clinical practice, you must first implement its software and hardware. Then carry out laboratory tests. Then check on the test group, publish the results, register intellectual property, make certification, etc. The design of medical devices is a complex, extremely responsible business and cannot be approached through the sleeves. As Hippocrates said: “Do no harm!”
Laboratory of the Department of Biomedical and Semiconductor Electronics of
Ryazan State Radio Engineering University. ECG recorder debugging.
What is the main goal of the profession of a developer of medical equipment? In my opinion, this is help to people who need means of treatment and diagnosis of various diseases. By itself, work in this area is interesting and affects several areas of knowledge at once:
- human and animal physiology
- biophysics
- circuit design
- design of electronic equipment
- digital processing of medical signals and data
- the basics of marketing and organization of production.
The MindWaveMobile system is a neuro-headset for analyzing brain activity.
It is used for experimental studies on the basis of RSTU.
Why, then, the development of medical equipment and related scientific research do not cause due interest in young people ?! There are several explanations for this.
The work of such an engineer should cover a wide field of knowledge, starting from studying the principles of building technology and ending with a direct study of the sciences of man. And often, many specialists have a situation of the so-called feeling of “superficial specialization”. In other words, we are "everywhere and nowhere." Indeed, if a surgeon or therapist, having been educated, only knows a person for 10 years and everything connected with him and becomes a professional in this field, then medical engineers, as a rule, do not have such a feeling of professional satisfaction. After graduation, many students leave its walls and do not realize what areas of knowledge they have fully studied. In this way,Problem No. 1 is a problem of wide specialization and, in connection with this, a feeling of insufficiency of acquired knowledge.
Visiting the exhibition "Health 2010". Expo Center. Moscow.
Another common problem in this area is the difficulty of choosing a "kind" of occupations. It is directly related to the first problem, but in addition it has a number of features. As a rule, medical engineers study at universities as manufacturers of medical equipment. Depending on the scientific interests of the graduating department and their personal interests, the student receives some specialized knowledge. Someone specializes in the analysis of tomographic images, someone in the development of blood pressure tonometers. But in the general case, the occupation may relate to some areas (most often it turns out their combination).
1) Hardware developer. In common people "electronic engineer", "zhelezyachnik". This includes the design of printed circuit boards, circuitry, the development of the design and design of the device.
2) Software developer. This can be a hardware-programmer, web-programmer, algorithmist, mathematician, analyst, etc.
3) An experimental scientist. This is a rather non-independent, but at the same time extremely necessary area of work of a medical engineer. His responsibilities include the organization of experimental research using existing certified medical devices and his own developments. The publication of the results of studies in leading Russian and foreign publications is also suitable for this occupation.
4) Marketer-organizer.This includes the study of the consumer market, the target audience, which will be offered the developed product. In addition, the skills to build a business plan, commercial presentations, working in the media and in other similar activities are useful here.
Testing a system for monitoring human motor activity based on accelerometers
and the Arduino Fio platform. Gym RGRTU.
Immediately after graduation or already in advanced courses, the specialist is faced with the choice of any of these areas, based on acquired knowledge, skills, and of course, personal desires and aspirations. And here the problem arises in the difficulty of choosing the right direction. A graduate asks himself a logical question: “But actually, who am I? Electronic engineer, programmer, scientist or manager. ” Thus, problem No. 2 is the difficulty in choosing the occupation . Another factor often mixes with this problem - it is university-based teaching. After all, she also needs to devote some time.
Problem number 3 can be called a lack of fundingmainly state. This is familiar to many firsthand, so we will not focus on this.
Often in moments of sorrowful doubt you ask yourself, well, when, when, finally, are we engineers, will we touch medicine alive, as doctors do ?! When will our devices heal people and increase the health indicators of the whole nation ?! On the basis of this rhetorical question, problem 4 arises - this is the excessive remoteness of medical engineers from medical practice and clinical trials.Sometimes we make devices, develop programs, and even publish articles. And for whom ?! Doctors and their patients should be for us a kind of gas tank in which we are obliged to constantly add “fuel” to new ideas and solutions. There is no point in a canister of gasoline standing indefinitely in the garage, just as there is no point in the endlessly conducted “internal” laboratory tests. And systematic, focused cooperation of such specialties with healthcare institutions is an everyday necessity, without which there will never be a positive result.
International Conference "Engineering, Scientific and Educational Applications Based on National Instruments - 2012 Technologies". Participation in the exhibition from the LabVIEW-Portal community
Thus, this young profession is just beginning to be built into the modern infrastructure of the scientific community of medical technology. If I may say so, then modern engineers of this kind are pioneers in this field and work by trial and error.
After all, if many professions, such as a doctor, teacher or fireman, have gained vast theoretical and practical experience over several millennia of their existence, then with medical instrumentation, not everything is so clear and understandable.
In many respects, the positioning of this specialty depends on the educational program of the graduating institution, the level of development of information technology, as well as the personal interests and lifestyle of the specialist.
Modern reality is such that from a medical engineer, as well as from representatives of the most conservative professions, full exposition and dedication is required to obtain a tangible result. This incomparable feeling of constant information hunger, lack of knowledge and the desire to achieve the set result literally torment many scientists, researchers, engineers and doctors, including. But due to this, this area is developing.
Sometimes you don’t even know what it’s best to do: write a dissertation research, publish an article in a journal, organize experiments or apply for funding and intellectual property. But many in the workload also have students who are expecting classes and gaining more and more new knowledge! But if the steel is not hardened, it will remain soft and inapplicable in production.
“Burning yourself - shine on others!” Said Hippocrates.
Today I would like to talk about people who are engaged in the scientific and educational field of medical and technical profile.
In many research institutes of our country and abroad, a specialist developing medical devices, as a rule, deals with various problems and topics. To use the device in clinical practice, you must first implement its software and hardware. Then carry out laboratory tests. Then check on the test group, publish the results, register intellectual property, make certification, etc. The design of medical devices is a complex, extremely responsible business and cannot be approached through the sleeves. As Hippocrates said: “Do no harm!”
Laboratory of the Department of Biomedical and Semiconductor Electronics of
Ryazan State Radio Engineering University. ECG recorder debugging.
What is the main goal of the profession of a developer of medical equipment? In my opinion, this is help to people who need means of treatment and diagnosis of various diseases. By itself, work in this area is interesting and affects several areas of knowledge at once:
- human and animal physiology
- biophysics
- circuit design
- design of electronic equipment
- digital processing of medical signals and data
- the basics of marketing and organization of production.
The MindWaveMobile system is a neuro-headset for analyzing brain activity.
It is used for experimental studies on the basis of RSTU.
Why, then, the development of medical equipment and related scientific research do not cause due interest in young people ?! There are several explanations for this.
The work of such an engineer should cover a wide field of knowledge, starting from studying the principles of building technology and ending with a direct study of the sciences of man. And often, many specialists have a situation of the so-called feeling of “superficial specialization”. In other words, we are "everywhere and nowhere." Indeed, if a surgeon or therapist, having been educated, only knows a person for 10 years and everything connected with him and becomes a professional in this field, then medical engineers, as a rule, do not have such a feeling of professional satisfaction. After graduation, many students leave its walls and do not realize what areas of knowledge they have fully studied. In this way,Problem No. 1 is a problem of wide specialization and, in connection with this, a feeling of insufficiency of acquired knowledge.
Visiting the exhibition "Health 2010". Expo Center. Moscow.
Another common problem in this area is the difficulty of choosing a "kind" of occupations. It is directly related to the first problem, but in addition it has a number of features. As a rule, medical engineers study at universities as manufacturers of medical equipment. Depending on the scientific interests of the graduating department and their personal interests, the student receives some specialized knowledge. Someone specializes in the analysis of tomographic images, someone in the development of blood pressure tonometers. But in the general case, the occupation may relate to some areas (most often it turns out their combination).
1) Hardware developer. In common people "electronic engineer", "zhelezyachnik". This includes the design of printed circuit boards, circuitry, the development of the design and design of the device.
2) Software developer. This can be a hardware-programmer, web-programmer, algorithmist, mathematician, analyst, etc.
3) An experimental scientist. This is a rather non-independent, but at the same time extremely necessary area of work of a medical engineer. His responsibilities include the organization of experimental research using existing certified medical devices and his own developments. The publication of the results of studies in leading Russian and foreign publications is also suitable for this occupation.
4) Marketer-organizer.This includes the study of the consumer market, the target audience, which will be offered the developed product. In addition, the skills to build a business plan, commercial presentations, working in the media and in other similar activities are useful here.
Testing a system for monitoring human motor activity based on accelerometers
and the Arduino Fio platform. Gym RGRTU.
Immediately after graduation or already in advanced courses, the specialist is faced with the choice of any of these areas, based on acquired knowledge, skills, and of course, personal desires and aspirations. And here the problem arises in the difficulty of choosing the right direction. A graduate asks himself a logical question: “But actually, who am I? Electronic engineer, programmer, scientist or manager. ” Thus, problem No. 2 is the difficulty in choosing the occupation . Another factor often mixes with this problem - it is university-based teaching. After all, she also needs to devote some time.
Problem number 3 can be called a lack of fundingmainly state. This is familiar to many firsthand, so we will not focus on this.
Often in moments of sorrowful doubt you ask yourself, well, when, when, finally, are we engineers, will we touch medicine alive, as doctors do ?! When will our devices heal people and increase the health indicators of the whole nation ?! On the basis of this rhetorical question, problem 4 arises - this is the excessive remoteness of medical engineers from medical practice and clinical trials.Sometimes we make devices, develop programs, and even publish articles. And for whom ?! Doctors and their patients should be for us a kind of gas tank in which we are obliged to constantly add “fuel” to new ideas and solutions. There is no point in a canister of gasoline standing indefinitely in the garage, just as there is no point in the endlessly conducted “internal” laboratory tests. And systematic, focused cooperation of such specialties with healthcare institutions is an everyday necessity, without which there will never be a positive result.
International Conference "Engineering, Scientific and Educational Applications Based on National Instruments - 2012 Technologies". Participation in the exhibition from the LabVIEW-Portal community
Thus, this young profession is just beginning to be built into the modern infrastructure of the scientific community of medical technology. If I may say so, then modern engineers of this kind are pioneers in this field and work by trial and error.
After all, if many professions, such as a doctor, teacher or fireman, have gained vast theoretical and practical experience over several millennia of their existence, then with medical instrumentation, not everything is so clear and understandable.
In many respects, the positioning of this specialty depends on the educational program of the graduating institution, the level of development of information technology, as well as the personal interests and lifestyle of the specialist.
Modern reality is such that from a medical engineer, as well as from representatives of the most conservative professions, full exposition and dedication is required to obtain a tangible result. This incomparable feeling of constant information hunger, lack of knowledge and the desire to achieve the set result literally torment many scientists, researchers, engineers and doctors, including. But due to this, this area is developing.
Sometimes you don’t even know what it’s best to do: write a dissertation research, publish an article in a journal, organize experiments or apply for funding and intellectual property. But many in the workload also have students who are expecting classes and gaining more and more new knowledge! But if the steel is not hardened, it will remain soft and inapplicable in production.
“Burning yourself - shine on others!” Said Hippocrates.