What Are the Roles of a Biomedical Engineer?

The simplest definition of engineering may be stated as follows:

"Engineering is the evaluation, through scientific approaches, of the wide variety of materials and energy resources found in nature for the benefit of humanity."

A notable aspect of this definition is that the general way in which the term engineering is expressed, in a sense, contains the fundamental concepts that should also be reflected in the definition of biomedical engineering. In other words, the main goal is to adopt an approach that encompasses a body of thoughts, ideas, approaches and methods that will provide definite benefit to people and, on this basis, can offer solutions to existing or potential real-world problems.

In fact, biomedical engineers, like all other engineers, work to serve a common goal: improving the quality of human life. However, the fundamental difference that distinguishes biomedical engineering from other engineering disciplines is the bridging role it plays between doctors and patients in monitoring and improving human health in many respects. From the diagnosis of diseases to the very last stage of treatment monitoring, almost every kind of method, approach and medical device application falls within the scope of biomedical engineering. Considering the years in which it was first defined (the end of the first half of the 20th century), biomedical engineering was perceived and evaluated as a subfield of electrical and electronics engineering, as a natural result of the direction of technological advances at the time. In other words, the view that biomedical engineering consisted of medical applications of electronics engineering was quite widespread in that period. However, under today's conditions, it is evident that not only engineering subfields but almost all fields of scientific study operate on common ground with one another, forming separate parts of a whole. At the core of this common ground lies the factor of human health. From this perspective, the ability to evaluate and plan biological applications from an engineer's point of view, and to make the results achieved applicable in practice, is becoming more important every day.