Biomedical Engineering Emerging as Red-Hot Profession

Abstract

The verdict is in. Biomedical engineering is one of the hottest fields in the U.S. job market.In fact, the U.S. government recently identified it as the fastest-growing occupation in the economy. The number of biomedical engineering jobs is expected to grow by a stunning 72% by 2018—some 11,600 new jobs—according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which reported on the projections in their 2010–2011 edition of the Occupational Outlook Handbook. The report also estimated the median salary for a biomedical engineer to be $77,400 in 2008.Some in the field attribute the boom to the changing nature of healthcare—with advances in technology and the increasing use of sophisticated medical equipment—and an aging baby boomer population looking for better care. The stability of the medical device industry in this poor economy has also helped to make such jobs attractive.The growth has led to greater publicity about the field. It was featured as one of U.S. News & World Report's 50 Best Careers in 2010. “No single occupation is expected to have more job growth over the next decade or so,” according to U.S. News & World Report.The job was also featured on CNNMoney.com as one of its “10 Booming Jobs.”The Occupation Outlook Handbook describes biomedical engineers as professionals who “develop devices and procedures that solve medical and health-related problems by combing their knowledge of biology and medicine with engineering principles and practices.” Biomedical engineers are often employed in hospitals, but serve a different role than clinical engineers.“Educationally they are identical, but the clinical engineer would get more exposure to classic medical technologies,” says Larry Fennigkoh, professor of biomedical engineering at Milwaukee School of Engineering. “Unless they had specific training, most biomedical engineers would put emphasis on theoretical designs of medical devices than having courses on patient monitors, ventilators, and dialysis machines.”The profession has always acted as a bridge for medicine and traditional engineering. “Most of the problems that biomedical engineers attack are complex, and require a diverse group of people to solve,” says George Wodicka, head of the Biomedical Engineering Department at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN. “That is an attractive component to students who enjoy teamwork.”The economic health of the medical device industry is also attractive to students with their eyes on the job market, Wodicka says.A career in biomedical engineering opens a plethora of options to students. “We have a burgeoning device industry here in Indiana, so it provides job opportunities for students that are relatively close to home,” he says. “These are global companies too. They provide employees with lots of options for working in other countries, and being involved in the global marketplace.”Biomedical engineers could also end up in other parts of the healthcare industry, including biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, Wodicka adds.Funding for health information technology (IT) could also provide new opportunities for biomedical engineers. The American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 included nearly $20 billion in financial incentives to entice hospitals and physician offices to adopt electronic health record (EHR) systems.“Any time there is a massive influx of funds—such as health IT—that often tends to open up doors that weren't open before,” Fennigkoh says. “The entire Medicare program in the 1960s opened the door for clinical engineering. There was such an abundance of Medicare money able to fund new companies and devices.”Fennigkoh sees the same opportunity in health IT. “There are a lot of complicated things being introduced into healthcare that just simply weren't there before,” he says. “This network of everything being interconnected increases complexity dramatically.”On a somewhat related note, earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Labor projected that the biomedical equipment technician (BMET) profession would grow by 27% over the next nine years The BMET profession has previously been recognized by national media outlets as another hot occupation.Fennigkoh and Wodicka say they have both seen steady enrollment growth in their programs over the past couple of years, a trend they believe is playing out across the country. “Over the last decade, there have been a large number of new biomedical academic programs that have started in part to meet current and anticipated demand,” Wodicka says.Professors are excited about the newfound and growing interest in the profession. “We are able to attract the best and brightest into the field,” Wodicka says. “I think just like many other engineering fields over the years that have had growth spurts, that this is the time for biomedical engineering.”