Public perceptions and expectations of the biomedical engineer

Pierre M. Galletti M.D.

doi:10.1117/12.225323

27 October 1995 Public perceptions and expectations of the biomedical engineer

Pierre M. Galletti M.D.

Proceedings Volume 2499, Health Care Technology Policy II: The Role of Technology in the Cost of Health Care: Providing the Solutions; (1995) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.225323
Event: Health Care Technology Policy II: The Role of Technology in the Cost of Health Care: Providing the Solutions, 1995, Arlington, VA, United States

Abstract

The American public's perception of biomedical engineering is fuzzy, and consequently, the expectations for services provided by the profession vary widely. This becomes apparent whether one talks to scientists in academia; manufacturers of medical products who employ biomedical engineers; doctors who either see technology through the narrow view of their specialization or as generalists are one step removed from technological innovation; patients who under the stress of disease cannot distinguish between standard and experimental forms of treatment; and finally government agencies which in the main have failed to define a place for biomedical engineering in their programs, and therefore oscillate between the extreme perspectives of biomedical engineering as a basic medical science and that of a service profession. As President of AIMBE, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, an umbrella organization which groups the majority of bioengineering societies (Table 1), I have witnessed and rationalized this confused perception as the uneasy coexistence of two realities: a scientifically mature field of inquiry impacting in both medicine and engineering, and a globally perplexed, almost balkanized profession, scattered among so many subgroups that no global identity can be defined and presented to the public.

Citation Download Citation

Pierre M. Galletti M.D. "Public perceptions and expectations of the biomedical engineer", Proc. SPIE 2499, Health Care Technology Policy II: The Role of Technology in the Cost of Health Care: Providing the Solutions, (27 October 1995); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.225323

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Biomedical engineering

Biomedical optics

Aerospace engineering

Chemical engineering

Information operations

Manufacturing

Medicine

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