Clinical engineering future trends

Future trends in IA reside in several areas, including (a) new labels and improved sensitivity, (b) automation, (c) simultaneous multianalyte assays, and (d) genetic engineering. The trend must be to exploit the current advantages of IAs, which include sensitivity, simplicity, limited cost, and speed. Our goal must be to make the assays faster, better, and more accessible. However, it must be remembered that what is appropriate and acceptable in the clinical chemistry laboratory may not be acceptable or may be much less appropriate in the biopharmaceutical laboratory. Only trends that may apply to the pharmaceutical analyst will be discussed here. 

Dyro, Joseph E Clinical Engineering Handbook Burlington, Mass. Academic Press, 2004. Comprehensive guide to clinical engineering, including history and worldwide practice in the field, ethics, and future trends. 

Use of software in medical devices, especially in life-critical and clinical settings, is beginning and will increase in the future. In practice, as well as artificial hearts, a robotic surgery system is another notable example where software has direct and immediate impact on a patient s life. Such trends, however, will surely increase and appear to be irreversible. In order to ensure the safe operation of such devices, researchers in the software engineering and software safety communities need to work more closely with domain experts. The research reported in this paper could... 

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