Biomedical engineering education: Need for harmonisation

Abstract

Medical technology has radically reshaped the way healthcare is delivered today and continues to improve it in an accelerated pace. Biomedical Engineering (BME) is a multidisciplinary field lying in the cross-section of medical/biological sciences and engineering. Healthcare today is technology-driven and delivered by teams rather than individuals. Biomedical Engineers (BMEs) as professionals are playing a vital role in these developments, being behind the recent advances and involved during the whole life cycle of Medical Devices (MDs), from the innovative idea to their final use. More than five hundred thousand MDs models are available in the world market today. As a result, the BME profession is expected to be the first in demand amongst all other engineering subspecialties in the years to come. However, this rapid evolution creates a constant pressure for new knowledge and skills for the BMEs and therefore for continuous curriculum updates in order to meet R&D and market demands, but also for harmonisation of studies worldwide that will facilitate staff and students’ mobility and collaboration. Educational programs for graduate and postgraduate studies in BME should be built upon the basis of evidence-based data from specific studies, surveys and reviews on existing educational programs in BME and the required knowledge, skills and attitudes emerging from recent advances in medical technology and the MDs industry perspectives. The wide acceptance of a consensus-based agreement on a generic core curriculum that would be part of a great number of BME programs, based on the Bologna process [1], will promote employability, competitiveness as well as staff and student mobility through the use of the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) [2] and will facilitate a worldwide opening of the BME job market, through mutual recognition of the competencies acquired.