Biomedical Engineering: Bridging Medicine and Technology

Citation

Saltzman, W. M. (2015). Biomedical Engineering: Bridging Medicine and Technology (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Chapter Summary

The book has sixteen chapters in three parts, about 700 pages of text before the appendices. It is organised as a ladder from biology up to engineering: Part 1 covers molecular and cellular principles, Part 2 physiological principles, and Part 3 the subfields of biomedical engineering that use them. The publisher describes the book as including the essential molecular biology, cellular biology and human physiology so that students understand the context in which biomedical engineers work, and as using examples, applications and profiles of biomedical engineers to show how theory is used on real problems in human medicine.

Chapter 1: Introduction: What Is Biomedical Engineering?

A single introductory chapter of about thirty pages that asks what the field is. The publisher notes that the second edition expands the profiles of leaders in biomedical engineering, which show the range of careers open to graduates.

Part 1, Molecular and Cellular Principles: Chapters 2–5

The part runs through Biomolecular Principles, Biomolecular Principles: Nucleic Acids, Biomolecular Principles: Proteins and Cellular Principles. Its first chapters are the molecular building blocks, and the part ends at the level of the cell. By page count the nucleic acids chapter is the longest of the four.

Part 2, Physiological Principles: Chapters 6–9

Four chapters move from the cell to the body: Communication Systems in the Body, Engineering Balances: Respiration and Digestion, Circulation, and Removal of Molecules from the Body. The title of Chapter 7 signals where quantitative engineering first becomes the main tool, using balances to describe respiration and digestion; the chapters on circulation and on removal of molecules continue in the physiological setting.

Part 3, Biomedical Engineering: Chapters 10–16

The final part is a survey of subfields. Biomechanics, Bioinstrumentation and Bioimaging come first (Chapters 10–12); then Biomolecular Engineering I: Biotechnology and Biomolecular Engineering II: Engineering of Immunity (Chapters 13–14); and finally Biomaterials and Artificial Organs and Biomedical Engineering and Cancer (Chapters 15–16). The publisher lists imaging technology, biosensors, drug delivery systems and nanomedicine among the updated topics of the edition; the chapter titles do not make clear which chapters hold drug delivery and tissue engineering, so a reader needing those topics should check the full contents or index.

Appendices

Three appendices supply Physiological Parameters, Chemical Parameters, and Units and Conversion Factors, a reference set for the quantitative exercises.

Key Concepts

Part 1: Molecular and Cellular Principles

• Nucleic acids and proteins: the two biomolecule classes that receive their own chapters.
• Cellular principles: the cell as the unit that connects the molecular chapters to physiology.

Part 2: Physiological Principles

• Engineering balances: the quantitative approach applied to respiration and digestion in Chapter 7.
• Circulation: the circulatory system as a physiological system, Chapter 8.
• Removal of molecules from the body: how substances leave the body, Chapter 9.

Part 3: Biomedical Engineering

• Bioinstrumentation and bioimaging: measurement and imaging of the body.
• Biomolecular engineering: biotechnology and the engineering of immunity.
• Biomaterials and artificial organs: materials and devices that replace or support body function.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Biology is included, not assumed. The publisher states that the molecular biology, cellular biology and human physiology background needed to understand the biomedical engineer's context is part of the book, and Parts 1 and 2 (Chapters 2–9) are devoted to that preparation.
• Mathematics kept out of the main line. The key features say the book avoids an intimidating use of mathematics by splitting the mathematical treatments out from the main text, which suits first-year readers who do not yet have a full quantitative toolkit.
• Student-support features. Reviewers quoted by the publisher point to Key Concepts and Definitions and Useful Links sections at the end of each chapter, conceptual and quantitative problem sets, and a "Profiles in BME" vignette for each chapter. The publisher counts over two hundred quantitative and qualitative exercises, many new, with a solutions manual restricted to instructors.
• Endorsed as readable. The endorsements printed by the publisher, from faculty at Florida, Colorado School of Mines, University College London and MIT, describe the writing as clear and the coverage as broad; these are promotional quotations rather than independent reviews.

Limitations

• Breadth over depth. Sixteen chapters survey the whole field, with a single chapter each on topics such as biomechanics, bioinstrumentation and bioimaging, so a course on any one of them needs a specialised book.
• Heavy on biology for an engineering course. Eight of the sixteen chapters (Parts 1 and 2) are biology and physiology; instructors who want the engineering subfields sooner will have to skip or compress them.
• Size. The book is 779 pages (publisher data), so a one-semester course will have to select chapters rather than cover everything.

Where It Fits in the Course

Saltzman is a survey that starts from biology. Ritter and colleagues' Biomedical Engineering Principles takes an engineering-analysis approach, starting with modelling of physiological processes and moving through signals, biomechanics and design; choose it if you want the engineering framework first. Saterbak, San and McIntire's Bioengineering Fundamentals is a first-course text that builds the subject on conservation laws rather than on a survey of subfields. Enderle and colleagues' Introduction to Biomedical Engineering is a comprehensive survey textbook for biomedical engineering courses.

For readers who want more rigour afterwards, Hobbie and Roth's Intermediate Physics for Medicine and Biology applies physics across physiology and medical physics, and Wittrup and colleagues' Quantitative Fundamentals of Molecular and Cellular Bioengineering develops quantitative models of binding, reaction kinetics, gene expression and cell behaviour, topics that overlap Saltzman's Part 1 at a more quantitative level.

How to Use This Book

Saltzman suits first- and second-year engineering and science students, pre-medical students and anyone who wants a single volume that supplies both biology and engineering. Calculus and introductory chemistry and physics are the sensible background; the book is designed to supply the biology rather than assume it.

For a one-semester course, treat the introduction and Parts 1–2 as the base, skimming whichever biology the class already knows, and choose three or four chapters from Part 3 according to interest. Read each biology chapter before the application chapter that depends on it: nucleic acids and proteins before biotechnology and immunity, circulation before bioinstrumentation and imaging. Use the appendices of parameters and units while working problems, and read the "Profiles in BME" vignettes for career context. A readership already comfortable with biology can start at Part 3 and use Parts 1–2 as reference.