With the growing health awareness and consciousness in India, Biomedical engineering is becoming one of the most enviable and sought-after careers. Biomedical work together with doctors and researchers to develop the medical system, equipment or devices that can solve clinically. Biomedical engineering (BME) is an emerging interdisciplinary field of engineering that has got great potential in the field of research, healthcare and development. Biomedical engineering can be defined as the study and application of engineering principles and techniques to the medical field.

Skills needed to become Biomedical Engineering

Some of the major skills that an aspirant requires are listed below:

1. Analytical skills: must analyze the needs of patients and customers to design appropriate solutions.

2. Communication skills:  they must express themselves clearly as biomedical engineers sometimes work with patients and frequently work on teams. They must seek ideas and incorporate those ideas into the problem-solving process.

3. Creativity: Biomedical engineering must be creative to come up with innovative and integrative advance in healthcare equipment and devices.

4. Math skills: Biomedical engineering uses the principles of calculus and other advanced topics in maths, statistics for analysing, design and troubleshooting their work.

5. Problem-solving skills: Biomedical engineering typically deals with and solves problems in a complex biological system.

How to become biomedical engineering?

Students who are interested in pursuing biomedical engineers must clear 10+2 in science courses such as chemistry, physics, biology, and mathematics. Courses in drafting or medical drawing and in computer programming are also useful. For bachelor degree in biomedical engineering, it is a 4 years long undergraduate program. B.E/B.TECH in biomedical engineering is an amalgamation of engineering, technology, and biology. Some of the specialisation is bio instrumental, biomaterials, biomechanics, clinical engineering, orthopedic bio-engineering, rehabilitation engineering, and clinical engineering.

Scopes and job prospects:

A biomedical engineer can earn up to 3 to 4 lakhs per annum. With relevant experience Salary also increases in the field.  Nowadays, various job types of job profiles can be found in biomedical engineering are increasing with the increase in healthcare awareness and changing lifestyle patterns. Aspirants can hold various occupations that will suit their interest and aptitude. Some of the job profiles such as a physician, software engineer, quality engineer, researcher, and manufacturing engineer.

There is a huge scope for biomedical engineers in India as well as abroad. In hospitals, they provide a suggestion on the usage of medical equipment, its update available in the market and purchasing or hiring of new medical equipment for conducting better research. These engineers are also experienced in building custom-made devices on demand. In research institutes, they either play the role of a supervisor or at times a professor, depending on the experience and knowledge in the industry. They actively participate in conducting a practical analysis of a physiological and technological issue or factors of a given subject. Another scope for these engineers is to excel in servicing of products by conducting regular functionality testing, preventive maintenance, repairs, maintaining inventory, software development, and even networking.

Top companies hiring biomedical engineers in India and abroad are Siemens Healthcare, Johnson & Johnson, GE Healthcare, Medtronic, Samsung Healthcare, Philips Healthcare, Smiths Medical, Abbott, Roche Diagnostics, and Hamilton Medical to name some few.

The wide range of the body scanning machines like Electro Encephalogram (EEC) machines and Magnetic Resonance Imagining (IMR) machines are the biggest gifts of biomedical engineering to the healthcare field. Biomedical engineering is a booming career field as health and engineering are coming together to revolutionize the field of medicine.