BIOMEDICAL ENGINEER: UNSEEN HEROES

FORCE B​iomedical DURING THE PANDEMIC OF COVID-19

BIOMEDICAL ENGINEER: UNSEEN HEROES DURING THE

PANDEMIC OF COVID-19

From November 2019 the world is suffering from one of the pandemic diseases,
Covid-19(Novel CoronaVirus Disease-19). This virus spreads through droplets in the
air which are created by humans when they cough or exhale. In Covid-19, it mainly
slows down the function of the lungs and creates shortness of breath in Humans. To
keep a constant eye on the patients, medical practitioners use medical technology
such as Ventilators, Multipara Monitors, Pulse Oximeters and many more. During
such critical times a person with the technological as well as medical knowledge
plays a vital role in the medical industry.

What do BioMedical Engineers do?

As a profession, biomedical engineers are qualified to design medical instruments
which can be used inside or outside of the body for therapeutic or diagnostic
purposes. In the hospital environment their presence is utmost necessary to timely
check the functionality of all the instruments inside of the ICU, Operation Theaters
or wards. They also keep track of inventory and specific requirements of hospitals.
Biomedical engineer requires having multiple skill sets such as thorough knowledge
of biology, engineering, computing; good problem solving skills, as well as
fearlessness to be able to work under such conditions.

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 BIOMEDICAL ENGINEER: UNSEEN HEROES
FORCE B​iomedical DURING THE PANDEMIC OF COVID-19

Constant Check of Instruments: ​In the hospital, all the departments have the
specialized instruments such as X-ray machine, MRI Machine, C-Arm, CT Scan
machine in Radiology department; ECG, Multipara Monitors, Flow meters in ICUs,
Clinical instruments in laboratories; etc. All these instruments are under constant
supervision of a biomedical engineer. Before they even receive the complaint that the
machine is not working, they check and resolve the issue.

Instruments to staff Introduction: ​Hospital staff such as Nurses or wardboys or

other kind of medical practitioners have never dealt with such instruments during
their education and manier time it is difficult for them to understand the machines
and work easily with it. Hence, as the role of a biomedical engineer they have to
train these hospital staff and make them machine friendly which helps them to use it
on patients on a daily basis.

Inventory Check: Hospitals not only have requirements for Therapeutic-Diagnostic

Instruments and small devices but they also have demand for PPE kits, surgical
instruments, sterilisation material, etc. Biomedical engineers need to check these
inventory on a daily basis and restock all the items within short time frames.

Market Search for Best Instruments: In the market there are hundred different
companies manufacturing the same instruments. However, biomedical engineers
need an eye for a perfect instrument as per the requirement of the doctors.

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 BIOMEDICAL ENGINEER: UNSEEN HEROES
FORCE B​iomedical DURING THE PANDEMIC OF COVID-19

Easy Reach to Meet The Desperate Need of Market: ​As the market needs ventilator
and multipara monitors in the highest quantity, biomedical engineers have to put
their other tasks aside and manufacture the instruments which are the need of the
hour. They have to design these instruments from scratch where they have to lower
down the pricing and standard production timeline. If the normal cost of an
instrument is around 15K $ to 20K $ per instrument which might not meet the
requirement, biomedical engineers can redesign such machines and eliminate some
parts which can reduce the costs of it and deliver the final products within a few
days or week. Along with this technology aspect biomedical engineers are also
helping the hospital management to make strategic decisions about the safety
standards, specialized wards and testing process.

From Machine to Gas Cylinders; checklist of everything: ​Gas Cylinders for the
Oxygen, nitrogen and Pure Air, patients consume it the most. It can be the toughest
part for the engineers to check the cylinders during such pandemic where the
patients are overflowing inside the hospitals. Because more patients the more usage
of these gases. They need it as artificial lungs. Biomedical engineers have to be on
their toes to check the constant flow of these gases and zero leakage in the pipelines
as we can’t risk the lives of the patients.

This pandemic has revised the need of the Biomedical Engineer and how important
a role they play in the hospital.

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 BIOMEDICAL ENGINEER: UNSEEN HEROES
FORCE B​iomedical DURING THE PANDEMIC OF COVID-19

About Author:

Krushi Mehta

Procurement Head,
Oizom Instruments Pvt Ltd,
Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

Biography​:
Ms. Krushi Mehta was born in Ahmedabad, India in 1995. She is been awarded with
her Diploma in Biomedical Engineering from Government Polytechnic for Girls,
Ahmedabad (2013) and her Bachelor of Engineering in Biomedical Engineering from
Government Engineering College, Gandhinagar (2016)

Ms. Krushi performed her two major projects during Diploma Engineering and
Bachelor of Engineering which were TENS (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve
Stimulation) to understand simulation and stimulation effect on human body and
Automatic Anesthesia Controller Using Heartbeat Sensor And Critical Para
Monitoring where the possibility of anesthesia delivery without human interference
was explored and discussed with Medical Practitioners.

Ms. Krushi is currently working with the manufacturing company who are
developing IoT based Environmental Monitoring Solutions which are majorly being
used to monitor Pollution of city, odor of Industrial area, dust particles and
meteorological parameters. She is also actively working to spread more awareness
about Biomedical Engineering for future students.

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