Occupational Fields

The increasing automation of medicine in diagnosis and therapy and the importance of the environment for healthcare require intensive collaboration between doctors, scientists and specially trained engineers. Medical engineers understand the mechanics associated with this field and are often involved in the development and manufacture of devices, prostheses or related products. They also play an important role in biological research groups involved in cell and tissue engineering, where they assess material properties or control mechanical properties in studies.

Medical technologists work with other healthcare professionals, including physicians, nurses, therapists and medical technicians, to design instruments, devices and software, develop new technical methods and research clinical problems.

In Germany, medical engineering is a multidisciplinary and broadly diversified field of application and research that is characterised by a high degree of innovation and high development quality.

Medical engineers have, for example, developed infusion pumps, complete joint replacements, artificial kidneys, highly complex image processing and even robotics.

Medical engineers design and develop:

Artificial limbs
Replacing parts of the upper and lower limbs that have been damaged by illness or trauma. Engineers in this field work for numerous European manufacturers.

Implants
Permanent or long-term implants that are implanted in the human body are categorised into medical, plastic and functional implants. These include heart and brain pacemakers, heart, cochlear, retinal and dental implants.

Orthopaedic implants
The replacement of human joints and the repair of bone fractures are two of the most important aspects of this industry sector. Many companies across Europe are actively involved in the research and development of new materials and components and are currently also facing new legal challenges.

Artificial organs
Replacement of the kidney, lung, heart or other organs where the interaction of blood with materials is of paramount importance.

Cardiovascular devices
Artificial hearts and arteries, together with diagnostic software and repair devices, represent a multi-million euro industry. Given the incidence of heart disease, arterial regeneration is of great benefit in the treatment of human heart disease. Equally complex and demanding is the support of open heart surgery.

Tissue engineering
Interdisciplinary field of research concerned with technologies for growing and cultivating artificial tissues, developing tissue replacement systems to replace or support tissues and organs, and developing test systems for drug development.

Diagnostic devices
Non-invasive examinations such as X-ray, PET, MRI and ultrasonic are part of everyday clinical practice and are being developed by a few key industries. Skills in data processing for image analysis and related decision making are the future of this sector.

Robotic surgery
Thanks to advances in medical image processing, it is possible to create a digital 3-dimensional representation of parts of the human body. The use of robots in surgery is still in its infancy, but heralds a new era of accuracy and efficiency in surgery.

Measurement technology and biosensor technology
The improvement of existing diagnostic methods and the prompt analysis of laboratory values ("point-of-care") with immediate therapeutic consequences requires intelligent measurement and sensor technology.