Medicine by Design: The Practice and Promise of Biomedical Engineering

ISBN-13: 9780801883477 Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press Publication date: 05/01/2006 Pages: 248 Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d) Age Range: 18 Years A heart that once beat erratically has regained its natural rhythm. A woman paralyzed by an automobile accident is now able to resume her favorite hobby. Physicians using a robotic surgeon named da Vinci perform lifesaving operations. These are some of the feats of biomedical engineering, one of the fastest-moving areas in medicine. In this exhilarating book, award-winning writer Fen Montaigne journeys through this little-known world, sharing the stories of ordinary people who have been transformed by technology. From the almost commonplace pacemaker to the latest generation of artificial hearts, Montaigne tells the stories of pioneering patients, engineers, and surgeons. Taking the reader behind the scenes of a dozen of America's leading centers of biomedical engineering, Montaigne recounts the field's history wh