WOLLO UNIVERSITY

KIOT
DEPARTMENT OF BIOMEDICAL
ENGINEERING
MEDICAL PHYSICS
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Lecture 1: INTRODUCTION
BY Yishak. A
At the end of this session you are expected to be able to explain & exemplify
• What Biomedical Engineering is.

• The Roles of Biomedical Engineers.

• Main areas in Biomedical Engineering

• What Medical Physics is.

• Application of Medical Physics

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 What is Biomedical Engineering
Biomedical engineering
 Is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to
medicine and biology for healthcare applications.
 It is the application of engineering skills to solve problems in
medicine and biology for:
 Prevention
 Diagnostic &
 Therapeutic purposes

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 Biomedical Engineers

 Biomedical engineers apply electrical, chemical, optical, mechanical, and other

engineering principles to understand, modify, or control biological systems.
 Biomedical engineer
Is a professional problem-solver who looks for ways to apply technological
solutions to medical challenges.
Study, design, develop and evaluate biological and medical systems and products
such as artificial organs, prosthetic and orthotic device, medical instruments and etc.

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 Main Areas in Biomedical Engineering
1. Biomedical Imaging
2. Bioinstrumentation
3. Biomechanics
4. Tissue Engineering
5. Bioengineering
6. Rehabilitation Engineering
7. Biomaterial Engineering
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 Biomedical Imaging
 It focuses on the development, application, and advancement of various imaging
techniques for medical purposes.
 It’s about imaging technologies that enable visualization of the human and animal
body's internal structures, functions, and biological processes.

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 Bio-instrumentation
Bioinstrumentation is concerned with devices and mechanisms used to measure,
evaluate, and asses biological parameters or physiological parameters.
It focuses on using multiple sensors to monitor the physiological characteristics.
For examples include: Heart rate monitor, Automated external defibrillator, Blood
oxygen monitor ,ECG,EEG and Glucometer etc.

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 Biomechanics
 It designs, develops, and maintains equipment and devices related to the human body,
such as artificial organs, valves, and limbs, as well as the equipment and sensors used to
identify or diagnose various medical conditions.

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 Tissue Engineering
 Tissue engineering is the field of biomedical engineering that's goal is to restore,
maintain, or improve damaged tissues or whole organs.
 It combines genetic engineering of cell with chemical engineering to create artificial
organs and tissues.

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 Rehabilitation Engineering
 Rehabilitation Engineering uses principles from biomechanics to develop
healthcare solutions and assistive medical devices to treat individuals with
disabilities.

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 Biomaterial Engineering
Combines principles from materials science, biology, and engineering to develop
materials that interact with biological systems for medical purposes.
For example: Implantable devices like pacemakers, defibrillators, and artificial joint .

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 Generally:
Biomedical engineering involves training essentially three types of individuals:
 Clinical engineer in health care – problem solver (install, maintain, modify, training)
 Biomedical design engineer for industry – technological entrepreneur (design engineer)
 Research scientist – engineer-scientist (academic institutions and industrial research
labs)

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 Job Opportunity of Biomedical Engineer

Clinical
Service Engineer or Clinical Engineer Engineer
Tender Management
Procurement
Sales
Quality Assurance
Sales agent
Tender
Innovative design and development Industry Management

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Typical roles of biomedical engineers:
 Research in new materials for implanted artificial organs
 Study of biomechanics of the human body
 Analysis of medical device hazards for safety
 Development of new diagnostic instruments
 Design of telemetry systems for patient monitoring
 Design of biomedical sensors
 Development of expert systems for diagnosis and treatment of diseases
 Modeling of the physiologic systems of the human body
 Development of new dental materials
 Installation and maintenance of medical devices
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 What is medical physics
Medicine is the:
 Science of healing (starts from diagnosis)
 Medication (treatment)
Physics is: the study of matter and energy including light waves, electricity and
magnetism, that seeks to understand the nature and behavior of their appearance.

Medical physics is: a science

 Where methods and theories from physics
are applied to the study of medicine. OR
 That uses the methods and principles
of physics to study science of healing.
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Cont.d

Medical physics is a branch of physics concerned with the application of physics &
its principle to medicine. It uses physics concepts and procedures in:
 Prevention
 Diagnosis and
 Treatment of disease
It deals mainly with the use of ionizing radiation in medical technologies such as:
 Diagnostic radiology – low energy x-rays
 Nuclear medicine – low energy gamma rays
 Therapeutic radiology – high energy x-rays and gamma rays or megavoltage electrons. 16
 Application area of physics in medicine
• Health sector  Health sector:
 Medical Laboratory  Diagnostic imaging with x-rays, ultrasounds,
 Radiology department MRI, OCT, radio-nuclides, etc.
Treatment of cancer with ionizing radiation
• In Research & Innovation centre Study of radiation hazards and radiation
• HTM protection
• Bio-nanotechnology

Brain storm
Relation ship between BME , medicine and physics 17
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