The Chemical-Biomedical Engineering Bond

Throughout the years, chemical and biomedical engineering have become very important areas of development and innovation. Individually they have both have a great impact on human live. However, one of the strongest impacts they have had was accomplished by forming a connection between the two. Together, these two fields of engineering have come up with new techniques and the have designed new devices to help improve the field of medicine as a whole. The combination of the two has become very important for many improvements in biomedicine, and they have led this field to grow as a whole at a very fast pace.

While chemical engineers have focused on studying molecular structures and dynamics of materials, they have been able to describe the macroscopic behavior of many different materials. These descriptions have come very handy for chemical engineers. By using them, chemical engineers are now able to come up with new ways of designing and analyzing unit processes in order to achieve the desired physical or chemical changes in an easier way.  The description at the molecular scale of these materials has become a key part of chemical engineering, and it has allowed chemical engineers to be successful when trying to improve life as a whole.

Similarly, the field of Biomedical Engineering uses the principles of chemical engineering and modifies them in different ways in order to apply them to human beings. Since the same principles are being put into practice in living organisms, biomedical engineering is considered to be one of the sub-divisions of the so broad field of chemical engineering. One of the most interesting parts about this field is that it requires the participation of different professionals specialized on different things. It requires of course chemical engineers, but it also requires biochemists, physicians, biomedical engineers, and many other health care professionals depending on what the project consists of. One of the reasons why this field has had such a great impact on the field of medicine is due to biomedical research. Biomedical research focuses on the goal of creating new materials and designing new products that will improve bodily form and/or function. This has resulted in the development of devices such as pacemakers, prosthetics, and many others.

Each of these fields has clearly had a very important role on the improvement of medicine and life as a whole. They have found a way to help those in need, and most importantly they have found new ways to treat and fix many life threatening diseases. By developing new instrumentation, and new devices they have changed the field of medicine dramatically. They have provided amazing instrumentation, they have designed new products, and they have found different ways to make the field of medicine as a whole better, and much more successful. Chemical and Biomedical engineers have become a key part of the field of medicine, and they have been the reason why such great advancements have been made in medicine in every way possible.

Chemical Engineering: The Heart of Medical Innovations

Throughout the years it has been very clear that medicine has improved dramatically in every way possible. This improvement is directly linked to those that work at hospitals including: doctors, surgeons, nurses and the medical staff as a whole. However, because they are not usually seen at hospitals, people tend to underestimate the work and the importance of other fields of study in the advancement and improvement of the field of medicine.  One of the fields that are often underestimated in such an important advancement is chemical engineering.

Chemical engineers are without a doubt, one a kind. Their field of work is incredibly broad, and they are involved in almost everything that has improved life on earth. In the field of medicine, they have clearly performed an outstanding job. The chemical engineering community has developed the use of biocompatible materials; a clever development that has provided great advances in every aspect of modern medicine. They have helped improve life as whole, they have improved the diagnosis and treatment of numerous diseases, and they have developed drugs that are capable of reducing the pain of many people.

Developing such materials is not an easy thing to do at all. They not only have to come up with devices or drugs that can successfully fulfill each patient’s needs, but they have to make sure that the materials used to do so are nontoxic to their bodies, that the bodies will accept it, and that they will be damage resistant and long lasting. This last part is very important. Almost every device has the ability to perform perfectly in the first year or so. However, once time goes by some devices have been found to stop working properly and to develop infections and that can be lethal to the patient. For that reason, chemical engineers have to be very careful in the way they design everything and they have to make sure that the materials used will last a long time and that they will not cause any problems to the patient’s body.

One task is to find those materials, but the hardest part of chemical engineers job is to turn those materials into medical devices that can be implanted or attached to the body. With the many biocompatible materials that chemical engineers have developed, they have given medicine an opportunity to give patients a second chance in life. Some of the tasks and devices that can be performed with the use of these materials include:

1. Use of vascular grafts in order to rapier and reinforce damaged arteries and veins
2. Creation of cardiovascular implant devices
3. Use of stents in order to reinforce arterial tissue
4. Creation of artificial knees, hips, arms, and even entire legs

These four uses of these so important biocompatible materials have made possible things that in the past where seemed to be impossible. They have given those who once thought they would never be able to walk or run again a second chance, and they have inspired them to keep fighting because there is always a way to overcome such difficult situations. With that, along with many other advancements, chemical engineers have helped the medical field the power to help those that need the most help, and to help their patients live a better, healthier life.

Another way, in which chemical engineers have helped the medical community, is by developing new drugs and delivering new vaccines. To read more about this topic click here

Pacemaker Implantation: Not nearly as bad as it sounds

The implantation of a pacemaker starts all the way from the designing and production of the device, to the final implantation of it on the patient. The first part of this process is one of the most important ones since this is the part where the device is created. Everything about it must be perfect. It should be the perfect size, it must be made with materials that he body will not have a negative reaction to, and it must, of course, work perfectly fine. This is the part that chemical engineers are a key part of. After this, the responsibility falls in the hands of the cardiothoracic surgeon. As time has gone by, many different techniques have been developed to implant pacemakers. With today’s amazing use of technology, implantation of pacemakers is performed without having to perform open heart surgery.

In the past years, many technological developments have helped improve not only pacemaker implantations but the field of medicine as a whole. In the specific case of pacemakers, their implantation is one that is usually done fairly quickly.  As it was mentioned before, it does not require open heart surgery and for that reason, patients are usually able to go home within 24 hours if everything goes well. Even though open heart surgery is not required, this procedure can still be very uncomfortable so patients are provided with medication before the implantation in order to make them sleepy and to feel comfortable. Local anesthesia is used in most cases.

After the anesthesia has done its job and the patient is asleep, the implantation proceeds in the following steps:

1. A 2 inches long incision is made in the upper chest
2. Insulated wires (usually one or two) travel through the veins to reach the heart
3. Once the wires reach the heart, they are connected to the pacemaker, which is then programed in order to meet the patient’s medical needs
4. Once everything is programed, the pacemaker is inserted under the skin and the incision is closed
5. After the incision is closed, the pacemaker is tested in order to make sure that it is doing what is supposed to do in a perfect manner

Even though it is a fairly simple procedure, patients stay in the hospital for the rest of the day. The following day, they are allowed to go home with the instructions provided by the doctor to take care of the incision. After patients leave the hospital they are encouraged to go back to their normal lives. However, movement of the arm closest to the incision might be limited, but that should be gone within a couple of days.

Pacemaker implantation is a very common procedure in which chemical engineers play a big role. They work in the designing of the device, so they are the ones that make sure to use the right materials and that make sure that the pacemaker will successfully perform its role. Even though it is very simple, pacemakers are able to control abnormal heart rythms that can be lethal if not treated.

For more information about pacemakers, click here

Chemical Engineers: Medicine’s Best Friends

Throughout the years chemical engineers have gained a very important role in the field of biomedicine. Together, the communities of biomedicine and chemical engineers have been able to create and improve many different devices in order to improve health care as a whole: in order to make it more efficient, easier to manage, and better in every way possible. Some of the ways in which chemical engineers have been of great help to the improvement of biomedicine include:

• Helping modernize disease diagnosis and treatment options
• Improving the safety and efficiency of drug delivery mechanisms
• Achieving better therapeutic outcomes

These great advancements have had a great impact on the lives of every patient. It has made treatments and drugs much more efficient, made them much healthier for patients, and as a result it has provided these patients with much more productive lives.

One of the biggest ways in which chemical engineers have helped improve biomedicine was by analyzing the issues and the mass transport phenomena of artificial organs like blood pumping valves, kidney dialysis machinery, and lung oxygenation devices. Chemical engineers have found use to their knowledge in the field of biomedicine, and this is one of the reasons why medicine has been so successful. Chemical engineers have applied mathematical models to study and understand complex biomedical phenomena such as cancer, and they have developed much advancement in order to improve the detection, analysis, and treatment of such phenomena.

As a result of these advancements, many challenges faced in the biomedical field have been overcome. For example, chemical engineers have had a great impact on the pharmaceutical industry, which is very important when it comes to patient care and treatment for different diseases. Chemical engineers have made many discoveries in this field, and the principles of those discoveries have been successfully applied to design and produce antibiotics, vaccines, along with many other therapeutic drugs.

Although all of the discoveries and different ways in which chemical engineers have helped improve medicine, the most important way in which they have helped this field is dealing with the improvement and production of artificial devices. From pacemakers, to prosthetic legs chemical engineers have helped the community of biomedicine improve the devices and the techniques used to help patients whose organs have stopped working properly, and those who have lost important body parts due to accidents, diseases, etc. They have found ways to treat patients who in the past would be thought of as untreatable, and they have given them back happiness and hope.

These are just some examples of the ways in which chemical engineers have had a great impact on the improvement of the medical field. They have worked hard in order to make it better, and they continue to work on ways to make the field of biomedicine much simpler, and much more efficient. Even though the community of biomedicine has obviously been the main part of the advancement of its field, without chemical engineers many treatments, drugs, and devices would remain unknown. They have become a significant part of biomedicine, and they are now a key player on finding new ways, and new techniques to improve the field medicine.

For more information about how chemical engineers have helped improve this field, click here

Bellow is the link to a video that gives a great example of how chemical engineers and the biomedicine community have found new techniques and devices  to give patients a second chance in life:

What do Chemical Engineers do?

Chemical Engineering is definitely a special type of engineering. It is so powerful and so important that it we see it every day of our lives. It is so broad, that it is easier to find the many different fields in which it is applied than to find somewhere where chemical engineering is not involved at all. As a chemical engineering student, one of the hardest questions that I was asked often was “what do chemical engineers do?” The reason why it was so hard to answer this question was because, being aware of the broadness of this degree, it was hard to explain all of them together. Chemical engineers can do so many things, that I often found myself in situations where I felt that I did not even know what chemical engineers did for living.

As time has gone by, I have learned a lot about chemical engineering as a whole and about the many options that chemical engineers have once they graduate from college. At the beginning it was overwhelming to see how many things a chemical engineer can do, and not knowing which field to pursue made it even worse. That is when I first noticed that chemical engineers really can do anything. It may be a little intimidating at first, but that just demonstrates how important chemical engineers are to the world as a whole. They work in every way to make the world a better place. They make thins healthier, easier, and they make life much more enjoyable.

One of the common fields often pursued by chemical engineers is the biomedical field. As it is known, the biomedical field can also be ridiculously broad. And believe it or not, chemical engineering is involved in most of the biomedical roots. A very important one is in the design and the manufacturing of prosthetic: from legs and arms, to pacemakers. Another common job that chemical engineers can do in the biomedical field is: genetic engineering and biotechnology. Some of the other fields in which chemical engineering is useful include: manufacturing semiconductor circuits, special chemicals, developing waste disposal systems, synthesizing fibers and materials, and of course the petrochemical field.

As it can be concluded, chemical engineering is very complex. It is so broad that it can often be considered limitless. Chemical engineers are often underestimated. However, the role they play in the world today is extremely important. They have the power to change the world from head to toes, they have the power to make it better, healthier, and to make it easier to live in. Similarly, they have the power to have an impact on everyone’s lives by making life easier and much more enjoyable. For that reason, a simple conclusion can be made: next time somebody asks you what chemical engineers do, make it easy on yourself, be simple, concise, and just say “everything.”

Here is the link to a video for more information about the different things a chemical engineer can do.