Destination Field: Medical. How to get there?

[PeacefulKancer]

At this current moment I have a BSEET am am working in the semiconductor field. It is a good job however it is time to move onto something that my heart is more into and has been more into for many years.

What I would like to do is be working more in the medical field. The human body/mind and electronics are two things that have always amazed me. It is now time to combine them.

What direction to go? Poking around it seems like the general field that I am aiming at is biomedical engineering. Specific locations of study may be bioelectrical or neural engineering. Maybe making neuro cybernetic, bioinstrumentation, biomedical imaging, or just general medical devices.

So the question is, where do I go from here now that I have a couple years of experience and a BSEET?

I am looking at attenting Arizona State University (ASU) but I am not even sure what specialization field would jive best for the end result (

http://engineering.asu.edu/ecee/sampleprograms).

Seems control systems may line-up best with what I described above. Or should I just be looking elsewhere for a degree?

Any thoughts, comments, or questions are more than welcome! Thank you for your time.

 

[MikeHalloran]

Get a job with a medical electronics manufacturer.
You shouldn't need further training to do the electronics.
The 'medical' part just means they have to be careful.


Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[DesignerGuy16]

Aye, medical like the food industry (which I moved into a couple years ago) is going to be much more stringent on sanitation, cleanability, materials, special coatings, etc.

There are likely special standards for medical that I don't even see in food. Ie ANSI/NSF 8 is the sanitation standard for powerd equipment.

James Spisich
Design Engineer, CSWP

 

[PeacefulKancer]

I am not quite sure I understand either answer. I have a BSEET and wish to continue on to get a Masters at the very least. My goal is to be in R&D of a medical device facility, so what is the best course of action to get to that position?

Specifically, what is the best course to take at ASU to be most applicable to this long-term goal?

# Control systems
# Electromagnetics, antennas and microwave circuits
# Electronic and mixed-signal circuit design
# Electric power and energy systems
# Signal processing and communications
# Solid-state electronics

 

[MikeHalloran]

All of those courses are directly applicable to medical devices of some kind.

I forgot to mention there are two kinds of medical devices:

"In Vivo" means the product contacts a live patient in some way, and the customers are really fussy about keeping the patient alive. You won't be able to get in the door with a -T degree, and maybe not without a PhD.

"In Vitro" means that the products don't touch the patient directly, e.g. they measure blood cells which are then discarded. The rules are somewhat looser, focusing more on the product's health than the patient's. ... in the sense that if a machine reports a number, the number had better be accurate. You'd have a better chance of getting in to a place like this with a -T degree, you'd be allowed to do actual interesting work, and you wouldn't have to put up with so many insufferable physicians.




Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA