Bioengineering Education in Romania D. Zaharia1 and R. Ciorap1 1
“Gr.T.Popa” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Faculty of Medical Bioengineering, Iasi Romania
Abstract— The rapid development of medical technology in the fields of medical diagnosis and therapy (including rehabilitation and functional adaptation) establish of complex interdisciplinary undergraduate programs initially described as Biological and Medical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Chemical Engineering and currently known as Medical Bioengineering. In Romania are two major directions in this field: bioengineering that are developed in Iasi at University of Medicine and Pharmacy and medical engineering that are implemented in Cluj at Technical University and Bucharest at Politehnica University. Keywords— bioengineering, biomedical engineering
I. INTRODUCTION The creation of Bioengineering consortium attached to the National Institute of Health (USA) and the appointment of Committee to produce a definition of Bioengineering, on 19 July 1997: Medical Bioengineering applies electrical, mechanical, chemical and optical principles, as well as other engineering principles, to the modification and control of biological systems, and to the design and the manufacturing of products to be used in the diagnosis and treatment of patients. Bioengineering found its costs in biology, physics, mathematics, chemistry and life sciences. Bioengineering is a systematic, quantitative and integrative approach trying to find solutions to important problems in biology, medical research, clinical practice and epidemiological studies. Bioengineering brings forth fundamental concepts and deepens our understanding of the biological structures, from the molecule to the biosystemic level; also, it develops new biological materials, implants, devices, techniques and information science strategies on the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation end on the improvement of the health status. This view of Bioengineering does not eliminate previous definitions creation variants which describe particular specialties such as Genetically Engineering, Tissue Engineering, Clinical Engineering, Rehabilitation Engineering, Bioinstrumentation, Biomechanics, Biomaterials, Biotechnology, are also acceptable. At the Gr.T.Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy faculty of Medical Bioengineering was founded in 1994,
and it is the only Romanian institution of its kind and one of the first such academic structures in Eastern Europe II. DISCUSSIONS A. First curriculum The training program has been developed, based on an interdisciplinary curriculum. The curriculum has 2 cycles. Cycle I (terms 1-6) trains the students in fundamental science belonging to the biological, exact, informational and technical domains; the training is completed by the inclusion of a humanities programme Cycle II (term7 through 12) introduces the students to clinical science applied sciences selected according to the requirements of the 4 Tracks: Medical Biotechnology; Prosthetic Technology; Medical Bioinstrumentation; Health Care Management.
Figure 1: The structure of first bioengineering curriculum
O. Dössel and W.C. Schlegel (Eds.): WC 2009, IFMBE Proceedings 25/XII, pp. 275–276, 2009. www.springerlink.com
276
D. Zaharia and R. Ciorap
B. Actual curriculum In 2004 the Romanian Minister of Education giving a law that implementing the Bologna process in Romanian higher education system. In the same time some represented of Medical Bioengineering Faculty join to BIOMEDEA initiative for realisation of the European Higher Education Area in Medical and Biological Engineering and Sciences. The actual curriculum is also structured in 2 cycles but this time first has 240 ECTS and the second, master degree, has 120 ECTS. For bachelor degree the module are broken in 4 categories like in figure 2.
Fig. 2 Contents of the Bioengineering bachelor program The structure of the curriculum, its contents and coherent succession of disciplines and modules expose the students to an adequate theoretical and practical input. In order to make the best of the students’ attachments, the practical activities are scheduled to take place not only in the industrial and administrative environments but also in hospital or health center laboratories, medical and surgical wards and in public health institutions. The purpose of the practical training is the acquisition of technical and managerial skills in accordance with the specificity of various work places such as laboratories, pharmacies, plants specialized in the production of drugs, biomaterials, biomedical research equipment, diagnostic and therapeutic equipment, information processing hardware and managerial departments in the health care system. The bioengineer is able to deal successfully with applications belonging to the fields of diagnosis, treatment, prophylaxis and prevention due to his education which focuses both on biomedical knowledge on the one hand and on chemical engineering and biopharmaceutical technology on the other hand. An interesting type of activity within the domain is medical rehabilitation. In this case, the specialist can engage
in the production of customized prosthetic devices, adapted to the needs of each patient. Due to his/her knowledge of cytotissular engineering, genetics and cryobiology, the bioengineer becomes indispensable for laboratories focusing on the assessment of biocompatibility, including its immune and oncological aspects, and functioning in transplant centers, bioartificial organ development centers, and organ banks, whose presence became a priority in the long term reform strategy of the health care system in the developed countries, Romania having obtained already its first promising results in this respect. The bioengineer as part of the health care team is responsible for the development of the computer data bases, the recording of the biosignals and the use of sophisticated medical equipment. The specialist may also work, alongside with the physician, on the adaptation of the medical equipment to the specific needs of the doctor or to those of the hospital. The bioengineer meets the requirement determined by the reformation of the educational and health care institutions and systems in Europe regarding his/her participation as an interface in the establishment of an organic, mutual link between the universities, on the one hand, and the research and development centers and the manufacturing units on the other hand, thus contributing to the creation of state of the art medical technology. III. CONCLUSIONS The evolving of bioengineering education in Romania will substantially influence the development of medical and applied engineering programs. These developments will be beneficial to the bioengineering profession and to society as a whole.
REFERENCES 1. 2.
Topoliceanu F, Burlui V. (2004) Bioengineering in Romania Proceedings of MEDICON, Iaschia, Italy, 2004 http://www.biomedea.org
Author: Institute: Street: City: Country: Email:
IFMBE Proceedings Vol. 25
Dan Zaharia “Gr.T.Popa” University of Medicine and Pharmacy Kogalnicenu 9-13 Iasi Romania
[email protected]
