Abstract:

The three step curriculum of academic education in biomedical engineering is well developed and offered at sixteen universities in Poland. The second option, the medical (clinical) engineering is offered at two technical universities in Poland. The model consists of the following levels:
B. Sc. in biomedical engineering (engineer) - the first level degree, consists of seven semesters, according to the Bolognian model of education,
M. Sc. in biomedical engineering - the second level degree, consists of four semesters, according to the Bolognian model of education,
Ph. D. in biocybernetics and biomedical engineering - the third level degree consists of six semesters, postgraduate medical (clinical) engineer - parallel to Ph. D., consists of four semesters study completed by 23 weeks of clinical practice in chosen departments of medical care system and the State Exam carried by the government Centre of Medical Examination related to Postgraduate Centre of Medical Education and Ministry of Health. The title of specialist in medical engineering is awarded by Ministry of Health of Poland as similarly to other medical and health care specializations.

The number of students taking part in the qualification process for the first degree study has been stable over last four years with small decrease related mostly to the demographic trends. Unfortunately during the same period the significant decrease of applications for the second degree study in the biomedical engineering has been observed. We postulate that the decrease is caused by the earlier start of professional carriers by students. The growing attendance of students working part or even full time during the second degree courses is observed practically in all technical areas. The similar situation is also observed among potential participants of the medical engineering postgraduate programs. The conflict between professional carrier and education is most acute in the technical sciences consisting of the very high amount of so called hard knowledge and the corresponding stationary classes such as laboratories, practices etc. On the other hand there is still a need for the highly specialized biomedical engineers with strong emphasis on their clinical skills and knowledge. The ever growing technology content in the health care require more medical and biomedical engineers. There are two trends observed over past few years: significantly higher acquisition rate of the high specialized equipment in the health care system and poor decision making in selection and utilization of the new medical equipment. One of the reasons for the no optimal purchasing and handling of very expensive and sophisticated medical equipment is the insufficient number of biomedical engineering professionals in the health care organizations. Presently the high number of people responsible for the medical equipment in the health care organizations or even independent advisors do not have any biomedical engineering education.

The representatives of the biomedical equipment companies face some conflict of interest between need for independent, honest information and theirs salesmen duties. Moreover they frequently lack the clinical experience necessary for the selection and usage of the new medical equipment.

In conclusion some novel education tools are required that could make the education of the medical engineers with clinical emphasis more accessible to the medical professionals.

Keywords:

Biomedical engineering, model of education, interdisciplinary study.