Visionary ideas for a new biomedical engineering education Enrico M. Staderini Western Switzerland University of Applied Sciences Haute Ecole d Ingénieurs et de Gestion du Canton de Vaud Route de Cheseaux, 1 1400 Yverdon-les-Bains (Vaud) Switzerland enrico.staderini@heig-vd.ch This presentation has been prepared for: EmbeddedCH Conference credits: language: EN date: September 2 nd 2008
Introduction The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings Shakespeare, Julius Caesar 2
Defining Biomedical engineering is the application of engineering gprinciples p and techniques to the medical field Wikipedia 3
Defining biomedical engineering bioengineering clinical engineering neuro-engineering tissue engineering molecular engineering cellular engineering rehabilitation engineering etc 4
Defining the everyday activity of the something-bio engineer more focused on biology more focused on engineering more focused on R&D more focused on informatics i more focused on business administration more focused on production more focused on maintenance more focused on sales 5
Defining Ana Maria De Jesus Ribeiro: who was she? 6
Defining like Anita Garibaldi, the biomedical engineer as a factotum by definition 7
The tasks the biomedical engineer as a factotum by definition the industry theatre research and development production regulatory assessment sales the hospital theatre t procurement acceptance maintenance safety assurance the academic theatre scientific research education 8
The money MedTech sector in Switzerland 40,000 people employed +500 companies 95% are SMEs 6 billions CHF: business per year 10% investment in R&D 90% of production exported 9
The money Health sector in Switzerland Swiss GDP: 478 billions CHF (2007) 11.5% of GDP as health expenditure cost of medical devices: 5% of health costs cost of implants: 1% of health costs yearly purchase volume for a university hospital: 200 millions CHF 10
The competences Wissen, Können, Wollen Wissen: the biomedical engineer is a specialist in being a generalist Können: skills are innate, little l to learn but humility and respect Wollen: self-esteem and commitment are mandatory 11
More data in the past 3 years than previous 40 000 years combined The Terabyte patient is coming Digital Pathology Digital Radiology Genomics 2005 E-Health Initiatives/Linkages P e t 40,000 BCE cave paintings bone tools 3500 writing 0 CE paper 105 1450 printing 1870 electricity, telephone transistor 1947 computing 1950 Late 1960s Internet Source: UC Berkeley, School of Information Management and Systems. Electronic Medical Record Digital Cardiology 1993 The Web 1999 2003 a b y t e s 12
The education curricula Switzerland well positioned in respect to other advanced Countries ETH Zurich, EPF Lausanne and University of Bern / FH Bern are leading centres for biomedical engineering education biomedical engineering programs compatible to others European within the Bologna declaration 13
The education curricula Integrated versus add-on programs: a debate add-on programs may be not enough sufficient to guarantee enough competence and acceptable level of professionalism the students remains a standard engineer integrated programs fear of producing biomedical engineers not usable on the engineer labor market if too much biomed oriented they remain standard engineers (with a biomed nuance) producing too biomed oriented engineers eventually not good as biomedical engineers and not good as physicians as well integrated programs are in any case better than addon programs 14
The education curricula The Bologna cauchemar and the debate between bachelor and master of science programs the series option: bachelor master of science what for? the parallel option (innovative) bachelor single cycle master of science what for? 15
The education curricula My visionary idea parallel option set of modules taken from the education programs in biology, medicine, economy and engineering set of modules peculiar to biomedical engineering bachelor level production, sales, maintenance master of science level all the activities of the biomedical engineer serialization possible although not mandatory and generally not advised 16
The education curricula My visionary idea single cycle master of science (parallel to the medical education) 6 years 360 ECTS program high level prerequisites on the first two years: math, physics, chemistry, biochemistry, biology, anatomy, pathology, physiology strong laboratory programs compulsive residency in the hospital 17
The education curricula My visionary idea recognition as a health profession at FMH level or equivalent hospital departments of biomedical engineering with equal status as medical departments university consortia for delivering of biomedical engineering programs 50 to 100 students per year at Swiss level 18
The education curricula Actors needed to make this dream true: CRUS, KFH, SKPH, FTAL, SNV, ASE, FASMED, SSBE, SwissT.net Federal Offices 19
Visionary ideas for a new biomedical engineering education Enrico M. Staderini Western Switzerland University of Applied Sciences Haute Ecole d Ingénieurs et de Gestion du Canton de Vaud Route de Cheseaux, 1 1400 Yverdon-les-Bains (Vaud) Switzerland enrico.staderini@heig-vd.ch This presentation has been prepared for: EmbeddedCH Conference credits: language: EN date: September 2 nd 2008