Biomedical engineering (BME) or medical engineering is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare purposes. BME is also traditionally logical sciences to advance health care treatment, including diagnosis, monitoring, and therapy. Also included under the scope of a biomedical engineer is the management of current medical equipment in hospitals while adhering to relevant industry standards. This involves procurement, routine testing, preventive maintenance, and making equipment recommendations, a role also known as a Biomedical Equipment Technician (BMET) or as clinical engineering.
Biomechanics is the study of the structure, function and motion of the mechanical aspects of biological systems, at any level from whole organisms to organs, cells and cell organelles, using the methods of mechanics. Biomechanics is a branch of biophysics.
A mouth ulcer (aphtha) is an ulcer that occurs on the mucous membrane of the oral cavity. Mouth ulcers are very common, occurring in association with many diseases and by many different mechanisms, but usually there is no serious underlying cause. Rarely, a mouth ulcer that does not heal may be a sign of oral cancer. These ulcers may form individually or multiple ulcers may appear at once. Once formed, an ulcer may be maintained by inflammation and/or secondary infection.
Tissue engineering is a biomedical engineering discipline that uses a combination of cells, engineering, materials methods, and suitable biochemical and physicochemical factors to restore, maintain, improve, or replace different types of biological tissues. Tissue engineering often involves the use of cells placed on tissue scaffolds in the formation of new viable tissue for a medical purpose but is not limited to applications involving cells and tissue scaffolds. While it was once categorized as a sub-field of biomaterials, having grown in scope and importance it can be considered as a field of its own.
Pressure ulcers, also known as pressure sores, bed sores or pressure injuries, are localised damage to the skin and/or underlying tissue that usually occur over a bony prominence as a result of usually long-term pressure, or pressure in combination with shear or friction. The most common sites are the skin overlying the sacrum, coccyx, heels, and hips, though other sites can be affected, such as the elbows, knees, ankles, back of shoulders, or the back of the cranium.
Cupping therapy is a form of alternative medicine in which a local suction is created on the skin with the application of heated cups. Its practice mainly occurs in Asia but also in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America. Cupping has been characterized as a pseudoscience and its practice as quackery.
Regenerative medicine deals with the "process of replacing, engineering or regenerating human or animal cells, tissues or organs to restore or establish normal function". This field holds the promise of engineering damaged tissues and organs by stimulating the body's own repair mechanisms to functionally heal previously irreparable tissues or organs.
An artificial heart valve is a one-way valve implanted into a person's heart to replace a heart valve that is not functioning properly. Artificial heart valves can be separated into three broad classes: mechanical heart valves, bioprosthetic tissue valves and engineered tissue valves.
Neural engineering is a discipline within biomedical engineering that uses engineering techniques to understand, repair, replace, or enhance neural systems. Neural engineers are uniquely qualified to solve design problems at the interface of living neural tissue and non-living constructs.
Venous ulcer is defined by the American Venous Forum as "a full-thickness defect of skin, most frequently in the ankle region, that fails to heal spontaneously and is sustained by chronic venous disease, based on venous duplex ultrasound testing." Venous ulcers are wounds that are thought to occur due to improper functioning of venous valves, usually of the legs. They are an important cause of chronic wounds, affecting 1% of the population. Venous ulcers develop mostly along the medial distal leg, and can be painful with negative effects on quality of life.
Clifford E. Brubaker is Dean of the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. Brubaker is also a professor at that institution and an adjunct professor at both Xian Jiaotong University and Carnegie Mellon University.
Ronald H. Silverman is an American ophthalmologist. He is currently Professor of Ophthalmic Science at Columbia University Medical Center. He is currently the director of the CUMC Basic Science Course in Ophthalmology, which takes place every January at the Harkness Eye Institute. He departed Weill Cornell Medical College in 2010, where he was Professor of Ophthalmology as well as a Dyson Scholar and the Research Director of the Bioacoustic Research Facility, Margaret M. Dyson Vision Research Institute at Weill Cornell.
Fung Ying-ki is a Paralympic wheelchair fencer from Hong Kong, China. At the 2000 Summer Paralympics he won three gold medals in the men's individual foil, team foil, and individual sabre events and took bronze in team sabre. Four years later at the Athens Paralympics, he won two golds in individual foil and team sabre and a silver in team foil.
A light-emitting diode tattoo is a type of body modification similar to a tattoo, but specifically involves implantation of technologically based materials versus traditional ink injection into the layers of the skin. LED tattoos are accomplished by a combination of silicon-silk technology and a miniature lighting device known as a light-emitting diode. While there is potential for many applications in the medical, commercial and personal domains, the technology is still in the development stage.
Diabetic foot ulcer is a major complication of diabetes mellitus, and probably the major component of the diabetic foot.
Wheelchair cushions are cushions specifically designed to provide comfort and protection against injury for wheelchair users. They also aid in properly positioning the user in the correct posture.
Chronic limb threatening ischemia (CLTI), also known as critical limb ischemia (CLI), is an advanced stage of peripheral artery disease (PAD). It is defined as ischemic rest pain, arterial insufficiency ulcers, and gangrene. The latter two conditions are jointly referred to as tissue loss, reflecting the development of surface damage to the limb tissue due to the most severe stage of ischemia. Compared to the other manifestation of PAD, intermittent claudication, CLI has a negative prognosis within a year after the initial diagnosis, with 1-year amputation rates of approximately 12% and mortality of 50% at 5 years and 70% at 10 years.
Rory A. Cooper is an American bioengineer who currently serves as FISA/PVA Distinguished Professor, Past Chair, in the Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology and professor of bioengineering, physical medicine and rehabilitation, and orthopedic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh. He is also assistant vice chancellor for research for STEM and Health Sciences Collaboration. He holds an adjunct faculty position at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University, and is an invited professor at Xi'an Jiaotong University in Xi'an, China.
David Harold Frakes is an American engineer, professor, and entrepreneur. He is a Distinguished Faculty Fellow in biomedical engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is also an adjunct professor of radiology at Mayo Clinic. Frakes is best known for pioneering simulation-based planning for brain surgeries and 3D printing-based planning for heart surgeries.
Fabrisia Ambrosio is a Brazilian-born physical therapist and researcher. She is the Director of Rehabilitation for UPMC International and an associate professor in the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research focuses on developing regenerative technologies to prevent or reverse the effect of age and/or environmental exposures on stem cell and tissue function. In 2022, Ambrosio was elected a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering for "outstanding contributions to the novel field of Regenerative Rehabilitation, integrating applied biophysics and cellular therapeutics to optimize tissue function."
