Instead, mention some of the latest advances in the medical field. Mention combination heart-lung transplants. Maybe talk about hip joint replacements, artificial hearts, or prosthetic devices. Those are things the average person is very familiar with; what they don't realize is that all those advances came about because of bioengineering.

For the record, bioengineering is a fast-growing part of the engineering profession and mechanical engineers are very involved in it. Bioengineering applies engineering principles and methods to medicine, biology, and behavior. It has made enormous contributions to the advancement of health care in the United States and around the world.

While biomedical companies have made great strides in bioengineering research on their own, the federal government, through grants to universities by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, remains the main source of basic bioengineering research funding. Bioengineering-related funding in the fiscal year 1999 NIH budget is estimated to be $571 million, an increase of about $51 million over the FY 1998 funding level. Budget figures are approximate because bioengineering activities are spread over several functional areas of NIH, something that pending legislation aims to remedy.

To help inform Congressional staff about new advances in bioengineering and the federal role in funding bioengineering research, ASME, in conjunction with six other engineering societies, recently hosted a luncheon briefing on Capitol Hill featuring a panel of national experts in the field of bioengineering.

The briefing featured Winfred Phillips, ASME president and dean of engineering at the University of Florida, moderating a distinguished panel of experts from across the country. The panel addressed tissue engineering, advances in diagnostic medical imaging and therapeutic devices, and the importance of biomedical engineering to the economy and patient health.

The four panelists then brought the audience up to date on the latest in bioengineering wizardry. Gail Naughton, president and chief operating officer of Advanced Tissue Sciences Corp., amazed the audience with information about a new product pioneered by her company to revolutionize treatment of burns. She showed slides of the company's new product, Dermagraft-TC, which delivers human skin components beneficial to wound healing. Naughton profiled the case of a 2-year-old boy who had been severely burned on his chest and chin by scalding water. Application of the Dermagraft-TC virtually eliminated the boy's pain within 15 minutes, and made possible his release from the hospital within two days of admission, rather than the normal 10 to 12 days. His wound was completely healed by the sixth day.

Paul Citron, vice president of science and technology at Medtronic Inc., also discussed tissue engineering and listed truly astounding developments that he believes are possible within a relative-ly short period of time, given an enhanced commitment to bioengineering research by the federal government. Among those developments are tissue-engineered replacement heart valves that do not require life-long anticoagulation therapy; the regrowth of peripheral nerves, including spinal nerves damaged by injury or disease; and regrowth of sections of heart muscle damaged by heart attacks.

Medical imaging advances are an important result of bioengineering research, according to Ernest Stokely, an engineering professor at the Univer-sity of Alabama, who focused on new developments in diagnostic medical imaging. He gave several examples, such as the world's first all-solid state X-ray detector, called DirectRay, which can provide a digital image that can be displayed and interpreted immediately, saving critical time in emergencies. The image is then stored in a digital file for easy retrieval.

Robert Nerem, an ASME Fellow and professor and director of the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience at Georgia Institute of Technology, with the agreement of the other panelists, emphasized the importance of federal funding. He said that the private sector cannot provide the capital that is often necessary to lay the groundwork for breakthroughs in bioengineering research.

In February 1998, ASME's bioengineering division issued a position statement endorsing S. 1030, a bill by Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) to establish a National Center for Bioengineering at the National Institutes of Health. Rep. Gil Gutknecht (R-Minn.) introduced companion legislation, H.R. 4170, in the House. Both bills are expected to be reintroduced in the 106th Congress.

Francis Dietz works in ASME's Government Relations Office in Washington, D.C.

home | features | weekly news | marketplace | departments | about ME | back issues | ASME | site search

© 1999 by The American Society of Mechanical Engineers