Free Post 7: Bioimplant Materials

In my materials engineering class we recently finished a series of lectures discussing biomaterials. In these talks my professor talked about a great may ways to use materials to be implanted in the human body. Most of his talks revolved around the use of metals in the body. He also talked about ceramics and plastics the rest of the time. For this post I would like to outline what I learned of the course of this unit.

For hard tissue replacements and augmentations, doctors will use ether metals or ceramics. Hard tissue would be pretty much limited to bones and the areas around joints. A common metal used for these applications is a titanium alloy that includes vanadium and aluminum. They use this alloy because it is very strong and has a relatively high ability to bend. Another major reason this alloy is used in the body is because it wound corrode inside the body like iron would. The down fall of these applications is that metals are very heavy and since they are so strong, they can lead to a weakening of surrounding hard tissue. Ceramics are used because they are also very strong and they are inert. This means they won’t react with other components of the body that might cause problems. Because ceramics are porous, surrounding tissues can grow into the gaps in the ceramic implant. This means that there is no need to secure the implant with something such as screws like is necessary with metals. Another really cool thing about ceramics is that their chemical makeup can be made to be very similar to that of natural bone. If the concentrations of elements in the implant are close enough to the natural bone, the implant can actually become part of the bone structure over time. The biggest flaws with ceramics are that they are brittle in certain applications of force and can break in these cases. They are also very difficult to shape very accurately. Because of these flaws metals are more commonly used to replace bone tissue.

Plastics are also used for applications in the body. Plastics are used because they are lightweight and can be very flexible and are very easy to shape. Scientists also have lots of ways to make different plastics to they they can be made to fit a variety of applications. One application of plastics in the body is artery replacements. Arteries can be replaced with a plastic tube that is very flexible and coated with a body protein that makes it be accepted by the body. Another application is in artificial organs such as many models of artificial hearts, which I have talked about in previous posts. Another common application is in the socket of hip replacements. A plastic cup is used because the common titanium alloy scratches very easily when it rubs against other hard materials so a plastic cup can prevent the shaving of the hip replacement.

Prompted Post 7: Ethical Arguments in the Field

In the world of Biomedical engineering there is a controversy about human enhancement. Human enhancement can be defined as to” improve the state of an organism beyond its normal healthy state” (Bostram). This article also talks a lot about how defining enhancement id difficult because of the fact that some enhancements may be therapeutic and not necessarily enhancements at all, because therapies are designed just to bring an organism from a state of disrepair to a healthy state. The main parts that are looked at when it comes to human improvement are: life extension, physical enhancement, mood and personality enhancement, cognitive enhancement, and designer children. The two sides of this argument are biological conservatives and transhumans. Biological conservatives are against human improvement and transhumans are for it.

Biological conservatives: These people believe that it is unethical to try and make the human population better than it is. They believe that making these transformations for people would be unfair for everyone who couldn’t afford the processes that would improve themselves. This would create a very wide and distinct physical difference between the rich and the poor. Another thing biological conservatives think is that there would still be drastic differences between people naturally. The article talks of one example regarding cognitive ability the writers said that it is unfair if a person is below average intelligence and receives some sort of treatment that would increase their intelligence then there would still be people who were smarter than this person that had not been exposed to this treatment. This kind of enhancement can easily be viewed as cheating in an academic sense (Bostram).

Transhumans: They believe that human potential has not been reached and that with the enhancements that are scientifically possible, and on their way, we as a species might be able to do the greatest things that humanity can accomplish. They push for the funding of any technology that could alleviate human suffering and try to improve life for as many people as possible. This group also advocates for the well-being of all sentient being that may come about be it humans another species that gains sentience or when and If humanity encounters another sentient race (The Transhumanist Declaration).

Works Cited

Bostrom, Nick, Rebecca Roache. “Ethical Issues in Human Enhancement.” nickbostrom.com. New Waves in Applied Ethics. 2008 Web. 20 October 2013

Baily, Doug, Anders Sandberg, Gustavo Alves, Max More, Holger Wagner, Natasha Vita-More, Eugene Leitl, Bernie Staring, David Pearce, Bill Fantegrossi, den Otter, Ralf Fletcher, Kathryn Aegis, Tom Morrow, Alexander Chislenko, Lee Daniel Crocker, Darren Reynolds, Keith Elis, Thom Quinn, Mikhail Sverdlov, Arjen Kamphuis, Shane Spaulding, and Nick Bostrom “The Transhumanist Declaration.” Humanityplus.org. Humanity+.  March 2009. Web. 20 October 2013

Free Post 6: #1 in America!

This week I was wondering about how the profession of being a biomedical engineer was paid. I know it requires a lot of schooling to be one so I would think, or at least hope, that they get paid pretty well. So my first thought was to go to Google. My search was for “biomedical engineer jobs”. The top hit is an article from CNN. This article ranked the top 100 professions in America. And what was number one? Biomedical Engineer was ranked as the best job to have in America during 2012.the article briefly describes some statistics, such as median pay, max pay, and job growth. The profession is also broadly described. Then the article has a few short sections about how to become eligible for this kind of job as well as why it is a good job, and lastly what the hard part of the job is. The end of the piece about biomedical engineering has a letter grade for various quality of life categories.

The page says that it is a good job because it is high paying and there are a lot of different places a biomedical engineer could work. And at the bottom of the page the grade rankings gave this job an A for personal satisfaction, as well as benefit to society. It also received B’s for stress level and flexibility. The biggest problem, according to this article, is that professionals need to spend lots of time to keep up to date on the new advancements that their peers are making.

I was honestly surprised by some parts of this article. I was not really expecting that this profession would be ranked #1. I knew it was a good job but I wasn’t expecting a gold medal. I also found it surprising that this job got a B for stress. It seems to me that people would be more stressed out because they are making things that could be very harmful to people if their design fails once implemented. Just today I learned in class that a hip replacement that was used to replace around 10,000 hips had an 80-90% failure rate because of a problem with cleaning the hips. This led to most everyone needing a second procedure. The recipients led a law suit against the prosthetics company bankrupting them.

I was not at all surprised that this job was ranked highly, partially, because it allows engineers to improve the quality of life for many people by working with cutting edge technology. This is part of the reason I was drawn to the profession for my blog. I wanted to know about all the fancy do-hickeys that these engineers make. I was also not surprised that the biggest problem with this job was that engineers have to keep up on technological developments. The way technology is advancing, things become obsolete in record time. In this climate it makes it a necessity to keep track of what processes and programs are still relevant.

Work cited

“Best Jobs in America”. CNN Money. Cable News Network. 29 October 2012. Web 13 October 2013.

Prompted Post 6: Analyze an Argument

For the first of this week’s post, I found an article that talk about electrical interfaces that can send electrical signals to neurons and communicate with sensory neurons. However, the author makes a claim that there are huge amounts of improvement that can be made down the road of this technology. The author of this article describes multiple modern day neural interface electrodes during the bulk of the article. At the end he begins to talk about the cutting edge technology relating back to his into section of the article. (Grill).

To me it seems that this is a pretty easy argument to back up. Of course we can improve new electronic technology. This tech is already cutting edge but there are lots of possibilities in the future. People have known about the wheel for long enough to where there is not much we can do to make it better. A device that can communicate with the nervous system is being held back by so much at this point in time. Because scientists still know so little about how the brain works, there are very definite limits to what a device like this can do. There are a lot of great things that can happen with this technology. It is being tested that such an anural device could restore a neural connection to parts of the body that have been cut off from the brain restoring their functionality. This technology could save lives and make many lives that much better. Down the road, albeit a long way, perhaps we could make computers that can think like people. Given we know enough about the functioning of the brain and have the technological capabilities, there is almost no limit to what could happen with this technology.

Work cited

Grill, Warren M. "Neural interfaces: communicating with the nervous system through implanted devices requires engineering solutions to biomedical problems." American Scientist 98.1 (2010): 48+. General OneFile. Web. 11 Oct. 2013.

Free Post 5: Bionic Contact Lens

For this week’s free post I was looking around for some other cool biomedical inventions. I found on a list of great inventions that there was contact lenses that uses tiny LED’s and can show information such as maps and other things into the visual field and it appears that the information floats out in front of the eye. This sounded very cool so I tried to look into it more but instead stumbled upon a related invention. I found an article about a contact lens for blind people. I know what you are thinking,” why would a blind person need corrective lenses?” Well this is not a traditional contact lens. It is worn over the eye and is connected to a camera and the contract makes minute movements and, much like brail, a person can be taught to read these movements.

 I find this fascinating. I think it is such an interesting way to try and help the visually impaired. The article says the cornea of the human eye has 600 times more tactile receptors than the human fingertip. This seems like a statement that is taken a bit out of context. But if that is accurate I have no reason to believe that a cornea couldn’t read. The article also says that healthy people can distinguish things through the device after as little as 5 minutes. I do have another thing that I have a hard time getting my head around is how this device is tolerated being on the eye. I wear contact lenses. And I know it was a struggle to get used to them and they aren’t supposed to be felt.  Based on my experiences, I would have to believe that wearing something like this would be agonizingly uncomfortable.  The article also stated that the device has only been tested on healthy people. So I am wondering if there would be a difference in how a blind person would interpret the tactile images. Although it might be safe to say that they would take to the product very well seeing as how people with sensory defects tend to have their other senses increased to make up for the deficit.

Works Cited

Kloosterman, Karina. “Bionic Contact Lenses Turn Touch Into Vision” ISRAEL21c. israel21c.org. 23 July 2013. Web. 6 October 2013.

Prompted Post 5: Code of Ethics

For this week’s post I found the code of ethics for the Biomedical Engineering Society. This Particular code was approved by the society in February of 2004. The code is as follows:

Code of Ethics

Biomedical engineering is a learned profession that combines expertise and responsibilities in engineering, science, technology, and medicine. Since public health and welfare are paramount considerations in each of these areas, biomedical engineers must uphold those principles of ethical conduct embodied in this Code in professional practice, research, patient care, and training. This Code reflects voluntary standards of professional and personal practice recommended for biomedical engineers.

Biomedical Engineering Professional Obligations

Biomedical engineers in the fulfillment of their professional engineering duties shall:

1. Use their knowledge, skills, and abilities to enhance the safety, health, and welfare of the public.
2. Strive by action, example, and influence to increase the competence, prestige, and honor of the biomedical engineering profession.

Biomedical Engineering Health Care Obligations

Biomedical engineers involved in health care activities shall:

1. Regard responsibility toward and rights of patients, including those of confidentiality and privacy, as their primary concern.
2. Consider the larger consequences of their work in regard to cost, availability, and delivery of health care.

Biomedical Engineering Research Obligations

Biomedical engineers involved in research shall:

1. Comply fully with legal, ethical, institutional, governmental, and other applicable research guidelines, respecting the rights of and exercising the responsibilities to colleagues, human and animal subjects, and the scientific and general public.
2. Publish and/or present properly credited results of research accurately and clearly.

Biomedical Engineering Training Obligations

Biomedical engineers entrusted with the responsibilities of training others shall:

1. Honor the responsibility not only to train biomedical engineering students in proper professional conduct in performing research and publishing results, but also to model such conduct before them.
2. Keep training methods and content free from inappropriate influence from special interests.

Some of my beliefs are mirrored by this code of ethics.  From the first section about professional obligations, I whole-heartedly believe that a position like this is responsible for improving the quality of life for anybody that their field can reach. This relates to one of the sections from the second category relating to engineers in the health care field. This part talks about the duty of engineers to consider the applicability of their work as in the cost and availability of their work. During my free posts I have often considered cost of the advancements I have looked into. To me it seems as if the engineers could have put more work into their creations being made available to everyone. In the case with the artificial hearts that brand hasn’t been available for years even though it is more effective than it was supposed to be.  Another example is from the section about training and keeping training free of special interests. I think it is a good thing to mention and uphold in the code of ethics. I think it could be expanded, however. I believe that all of a bioengineers work should be carried out with the intent of improving the quality of life for everyone they can and not just a paycheck. I think that this is an idea that should be applied to every professional field it can.

        One thing I am doing in college to prepare for this field is learning about the field. This will help me in a variety of areas of fulfilling the code of ethics. One in particular is the very first obligation. By going to school I hope I am gaining knowledge and skills I can apply to the field in hopes of making a grand new product that has the capacity to help and many people as possible. Another aspect of the code is being covered by this class in particular. School is teaching me how to present my findings accurately. For this class we do a fair amount of research, with more to come, and I am honing my skills in stating what I have found and how it relates to my overall topic. Lastly I am going to school to learn what the guidelines and rules of the profession are. This way I can adhere to several parts of the code and pest of all not spend time in jail.

Works Cited

"Biomedical Engineering Society Code of Ethics (2004)." Codes of Ethics Collection. N.p., 24 Oct. 2011. Web. 06 Oct. 2013.