Medicine by Design: The Practice and Promise of Biomedical Engineering
Medicine by Design: The Practice and Promise of Biomedical EngineeringBy Fen Montaigne
Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Number Of Pages: 248
Publication Date: 2006-04-05
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0801883474
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780801883477
Binding: Hardcover
A heart that once beat erratically has regained its natural rhythm. A woman paralyzed by an automobile accident is now able to resume her favorite hobby. Physicians using a robotic surgeon named da Vinci perform lifesaving operations. These are some of the feats of biomedical engineering, one of the fastest-moving areas in medicine. In this exhilarating book, award-winning writer Fen Montaigne journeys through this little-known world, sharing the stories of ordinary people who have been transformed by technology.
From the almost commonplace pacemaker to the latest generation of artificial hearts, Montaigne tells the stories of pioneering patients, engineers, and surgeons. Taking the reader behind the scenes of a dozen of America's leading centers of biomedical engineering, Montaigne recounts the field's history while describing cutting-edge work in medical imaging, orthopedics, cardiovascular care, neurological therapies, and genetics.
Through the stories of patients whose lives have been saved and improved by biomedical devices, Montaigne reveals the marriage of medicine and engineering to be one of society's greatest advances.
Summary: Medicine by Design
The Practice and Promise of Biomedical Engineering
Rating: 3
It is an excellent book: engaging, informative, and it covers quite a bit of material.
However, the second paragraph on page 7 starts:
"The seniors were a diverse group---including students from China, India, Palestine, and Russia..."
I got stumbled on the word Palestine. I can understand that Fen Montaigne, the award-winning writer, may be unaware of the fact that there is no country with such name, but wouldn't it be reasonable to assume that the editors at the Johns Hopkins University Press are less ignorant?
Of course, the young student at Boston U. Inas Khayal couldn't have been born in Palestine (page 21) unless she is at least fifty-nine years old...And so the "young student at Boston U. Inas Khayal" has turned the award-winning writer Fen Montaigne into a useful idiot... (I am referring to the utterly descriptive term "useful idiot" which was coined by Vladimir Lenin some 85 years ago)
Allowing to push political agendas onto pages of books designed to popularize science and technology is disheartening, to say the least.
Summary: Excellent book
Rating: 5
This is a great non-technical introduction to those who are curious about the industry or who want to know more about Biomedical Engineering in general. The book is well-rounded, up-to-date as of 2006, and one of the only narrative books out there concerning BME. Its non-technical nature means it's accessible to everyone, engineering savvy or not.
The author writes about BME as a series of vignettes, each revolving around a researcher in a particular field, a patient with a condition that was alleviated by biomedical engineering, a major player in the industry, or a developing technology. For those unware, the unique characteristic of Biomedical Engineering is that it spans all engineering and science disciplines. You can have an electrical engineer working on an MRI machine, a materials engineer working on artifical joints, a programmer creating bioinformatics algorithms to decipher genetic code, a biologist trying to grow tissues to remedy organ donor shortages, etc. And you can't forget the doctors out there who straddle the line between patient care and engineering new technologies to supplement patient care.
Each chapter focuses on one of the BME sub-disciplines, such as tissue engineering, medical imaging, bioinformatics, implants, etc. Players in industry and academia are highlighted in narrative form as the author details the work of everyone from undergraduate students at Boston University using photonics to find tumors, to graduate students at UC San Diego using nanotechnology to research synthetic livers, to industry legends such as Earl Bakken, the founder of Medtronic. A few products are specifically highlighted such as Medtronic pacemakers, cardiac defibrillators, Minimed insulin pumps, Neurotech's encapsulated cell technology, and Intuitive's Da Vinci machine. Patients who have reaped the benefits of Biomedical Engineering advances are also interviewed and have their stories told.
I recommend this book highly to engineering students who are unsure what industry they want to enter, high school seniors who are searching for a college major (if I knew about BME in college, I would have definately pursued it, too bad for me), future doctors who have an affinity for engineering and problem solving, and those who are curious about the field in general. It's an enjoyable read and afterwards those who are engineering savvy but seek the altruism typically associated with medicine might feel a spark to become involved in this field.
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