Engineering Approaches to Societal Systems

Abstract

There are two reasons why biomedical engineers are concerned with the analysis of social systems. The first relates to an operational definition of biomedical engineering, which identifies the profession with the solution of problems relating to health—the problems ranging from the analysis of normal and abnormal functions of biological systems through the development and application of a variety of technologies to the analysis and design of health care systems. Many of these problems cannot be treated outside the context of their socioeconomic environment. The second reason relates to similarities in organization and behavior between biological and social systems, which indicates that the competence and experience of biomedical engineers might be suitable for the analysis of problems that are relevant to societal needs. A system has been defined as the totality of elements in interaction with each other, the totality of objects together with their mutual interaction, unity consisting of mutually interacting parts, and a recognizable delimited aggregate of dynamic elements that are in some way interconnected and interdependent and that continue to operate together according to certain laws and in such a way as to produce some characteristic total effect.