Medical Imaging in Medicine Engineering
Though not directly related to the manufacturing of medicines, medical imaging has a major role to play in the arena of medicine Engineering, which is considered to be an application of biomedical engineering. The process is used to generate animated sequence of images to ensure production of correct medicine, which forms the sole aim of medicine engineering.
These imaging technologies are often found to be vital for medical diagnosis, and are among the most complex equipments connected with medicine engineering subject.
Imaging in medicine engineering can be of various types.
The imaging processes which are most commonly used in the realm of medicine engineering are Fluoroscopy, Magnetic resonance imaging, Nuclear Medicine, Positron Emission Tomography, X-Rays and CT Scans, Tomography, Ultrasound, and Electron Microscopy.
Each of these imaging processes contributes in their own way in developing medicine engineering.
Medicine Engineering in 21st Century
Evolution is the hall mark of development of the new conceptions, and medicine engineering is no exception to this universal rule. In fact, medicine engineering has advanced by leaps and bounds over the years and the evolution can only be termed as phenomenal. Although medicine engineering has seen growth from time to time, it was the 20th century that saw some extraordinary developments.
A number of landmark innovations were made in the field of medicine engineering and it changed the face of medicine, as well as medicine engineering, out of proportions.
It all started in 1901, when a primary indicator of the effect of health care on mortality was evolved and it revolutionized the subject of medicine engineering.
The life expectancy at that point of time in the United Kingdom was 48 years for male and 51.6 years for females, which the scientists aimed at improving.
Medicine engineering, naturally, played a vital role in such an improvement. With developments of medical science, and so also medicine engineering, life expectancy reached as high as 71.4 years for male and 77.2 years for females, eight decades later in the 1980’s.
Most developed nations followed suit and even developing countries reaped the benefits of revolutions in medicine engineering reducing hitherto fatal diseases to non-fatal ones. This improved the life expectancy rates all around.
Biomedical engineering in medicine engineering
When engineering principles are applied to the field of medicine engineering, it is often referred to as biomedical engineering or BME.
The basic aim and objective of study of this subject is to combine the problem solving skills of engineering with that of the principles of medicine engineering to achieve the best results of the health care of human beings and animals.
Most of the branches of biomedical engineering in medicine engineering are closely related to each other making it an inter-disciplinary study. For example, there is the newly developed concept of cosmetic surgery, an important component of medicine engineering as a whole, is one of the best examples of bio-medical engineering principles applied to the use of medicine engineering.
Other components are chemical, electrical, mechanical, medical, and optical engineering associated with medicine engineering that could be called biomedical engineering as well.
Medicine engineering does not only refer to the manufacturing and evolution of pharmaceutical drugs but that of medical equipments as well.
Clinical engineering, a part of both biomedical and medicine engineering, refers to management of medical equipments in a hospital.
The objective is to ensure safety and regulatory issues that typically support biomedical engineering and therefore medicine engineering. Clinical engineers work in close association with experts of medicine engineering.
Spacecraft. A Vehicle designed for Spaceflight
A vehicle designed for spaceflight is called a spacecraft. When the spacecraft travels on a sub-orbital flight, the vehicle travels to the outer-space and returns to Earth without taking a full orbit.
On the other hand, a spacecraft taking an orbital space flight completes the orbiting of the Earth before returning to the planetary surface.
Spacecrafts may be of two types, one that carries people as its crews or passengers, and the other is the robotic spacecraft which is controlled by either autonomously or tele-robotically.
The use of robotic spacecrafts are of two types, the one which leaves just vicinity of the Earth are called space probes, and the other which remain in orbit of the Earth are called artificial satellites.
There are quite a few uses of spacecraft that goes into the outer space. They are used for several purposes, which would include communication, meteorological assessments, warfare, navigation, planetary exploration, and many more.
Depending upon the purpose for which a spacecraft has been built, the vehicle may consist of several sub-systems, which are applicable to the mission profile of the spacecraft. Few of the important sub-assemblies are briefly discussed below.
Aerospace Systems. Civil and Military aircraft
Companies, like Boeing, subcontracts major sub-assemblies manufacturing for their aircrafts to specialized organisations, in order to create cost effective integrated aerospace systems.
These skilled organisations have expertise in digital, electrical power and mechanical systems. They are also involved in manufacturing critical and precision space craft engine components, from intake mechanisms to exhaust. All the components and systems supplied by these companies are backed by guaranteed service all over the world.
The capabilities of these organisations have given them with the recognition as the global providers of integrated innovative solutions for the civil and military aircrafts, which include engines, large transport planes to fighters, and from helicopters to regional and business jets.
Some of the systems, which are developed and manufactured by the outsourced companies, are discussed very briefly below.
Birth of aerodynamics and aerospace engineering
In the early days giant leaps were taken towards aviation, but almost no progress could be achieved. From the records it is found that mankind has been toying with the idea of flying for the past thousands of years, and was experimenting with aerodynamics.
There is innumerable number of instances when magicians have tried to fly towards heaven like birds. It is said that the magician took to the sky as people gathered below in huge numbers, and he rose to the sky with the help of the demons, and a prayer said at St. Peters, drove the demons away.
As years went by, people started to think about the theories behind flying. There were several theories which were forwarded, but the Newton’s law defied any opportunity to fly.
It was late 1800’s that the topic of aviation was seriously taken up. The thought of flying was regarded as an important contradiction with the birds flying in the heaven whiles this feat eluding the humans’ understanding.
There were several technical meetings held in the 1890’s to find out what force makes the birds and some insects fly which cannot be imitated by non-living objects. This meeting conferred upon the observation that a bird could glide through the sky without any noticeable motion of its wings, losing a little or no altitude. This was a mystery for some time to come. It was then concluded that, the birds use some sort of energy which they convert into a small turbulence which they use to fly.
This theory was later abandoned and it was thought that the birds used more of the up draft rather than the turbulence.
Human factors in Medicine Engineering
Human-factors engineering is concerned with human performance, behavior as well as training in systems, which are concerned with man-machine system. This branch of medicine engineering is concerned with biological and medical research also.
Human factors approach to design in medicine engineering also includes environmental medicine, psychology, sociology, and toxicology. The study basically aims at combining the human factors with industrial design as well as operational research.
So far as medicine engineering is concerned two general characteristics are involved in the practical designing works.
The basic problem before the medicine engineering expert here is to find out the method and process of integration of human factors into medical science systems. In the past, the experts in medical engineering tend to ignore the effects of human behavior, which is rather complex and unpredictable, and as such, the problems of human factors approach to design in medicine engineering was dealt with quite subjectively.
The current challenge for these experts in medicine engineering is to objectively assess the effects of human factors and take them into consideration in designing the medicines, and to do away with the man-machine mismatch.
In essence, the study of human behavior has now become an essential part of the study of medicine engineering. As a result of conglomeration of these studies in medicine engineering, the guess works that were the haul mark of the subject previously, have now been replaced by empirical techniques.
A number of useful inventions in the field of medical science at the beginning of the World War II marked the beginning of human factor approach to medicine engineering. Such developments included innovation of internal medicines, obstetrics, gynecology, pediatrics, pathology, and such other science relating to human body.
Another very important field of medical science dealing with human body is hematology, and medicine engineering experts are now involved in the process of developing blood related medicines.
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Satellites in aerospace engineering
With the advent of mobile communication, the world has come much closer and has become accessible within reach. Across the Americas, Europe and through-out much of the world, digital phones have opened up a new generation of communication.
This has changed the way of how we keep in touch and mobile phones continue to enhance our lives. Today, we not only use mobile technology just to communicate, but it is also being used to transfer data, surf the net, download and play music and various other content applications.
On the hand, it should be noted, that there are several areas in this world, where communication facilities are totally absent. A disaster area may be one such instance where communication is an imperative necessity.
In today’s modern world, we use satellite phone to communicate.
Aerospace engineering defines a satellite is an object which revolves around another object. For example, the Moon is a satellite of the Earth, and the Earth is one of the Sun.
The phenomenon interested mankind to investigate more on this idea and experiment on man-made satellite en-circling the Earth. It was thought that if such a satellite was put in the space, communication could be set up from one part of the world to the other.
A communication satellite orbits around the earth and in effect is an artificial satellite, stationed in space for the purpose of telecommunication.
These satellites use the geosynchronous orbits, Molniya orbits or low polar Earth orbits.
Ergonomics. Human engineering in Medicine
Among the various sciences, the branches of medicine engineering are one such particular science that deals with human engineering.
The study, also known as ergonomics, is a subtle branch of medicine engineering that is mostly concerned with improvement of medicines and drugs to be applied to living being, especially in human body.
Of course a part of ergonomics is also related to designing the physical and psychological characteristics of the devices used for healing, but basically this branch of medicine engineering is concerned with improvement and modification of pharmaceutical drugs.
We all know that our diseases and their cure are mostly inherent in human characteristics, capabilities, and limitations of the body, and medicine engineering performs human engineering by manipulating these human factors.
What is basically done is that, a collection of data is used to process the inherent principles of medicine engineering. In this the components of medicine engineering are the designs of the machines and the drugs, the environments under which they give their optimum performances, methods of working, and above all, the safety of the patient concerned.
Those experts of medicine engineering who have adopted human-factors engineering as a profession, comprises of a host of scientists and engineers from multiple disciplines. A unique feature of this branch of medicine engineering is that, most of these scientists deal with a specifically identified small group of human users and operators.
This makes the task of the experts of medicine engineering easier and the result is a number of landmark innovations in the field of medical science.
Automobile Engines
The working of an automobile engine follows the same principle as an internal combustion engine. Air, from outside, enters the engine through the air cleaner and reaches the throttle plate.
The pedal in your car is the control for the amount of air that you would want to be taken in, and you control it by pressing on this gas pedal.
The air is then distributed through the intake manifold of the cylinders.
At some point fuel is injected into the air stream, and the mixture vaporizes and is drawn into the cylinders as they start their intake stroke.
This way, when the cylinder has reached its bottom, it has drawn in sufficient mixture. As it moves up, compressing the mixture, the spark plug ignites the mixture, and as the powerful gas formed expands, it pushes the cylinder to the bottom with the cylinder once again drawing in the mixture.
In designing automobile engines, you need to be a specialist in automobile engineering.
The consideration that is taken while designing such an engine is whether it should be a carburetor or a diesel one. carburetor engines are most commonly found in passenger cars and low capacity trucks, while trucks with a capacity over two tons are fitted with diesel engines, including dump trucks, trailer tractors and bus.
Increasingly the medium and low-capacity vehicles are being fitted with diesel engines, since the fuel consumption of these engines are 30% to 50% lower than the carburetor engines.
Diesel engines not only cost more, but maintenance is much more expensive than the other type of engine. Diesels require more metal parts per kilowatt.
The critical parts of diesel engines are made of alloy steel, and the fuel injection system is much more expensive than carburetor engines.
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