Educational Development of Biomedical Engineering in China Xiaohong Weng1,2, Wenxin Niu2, and Yubo Fan2 1
2
Chinese Society of Biomedical Engineering, Beijing 100005, China School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
Abstract—The evolution of biomedical engineering (BME) education in China was traced. Major events witnessed the educational development of BME in China. The current status of the educational system was discussed. In recent years, the undergraduate education has developed rapidly. Distribution of postgraduate education is similar to the location of industry clusters. Research directions in postgraduate programs have been partly transformed in comparison to those five years ago. Additionally, new educational models are in trial periods. Some other levels and models of BME education in China were introduced. Based on analysis and comparison, problems were exposed and relative suggestion was put forward. Undergraduate education should aim at two different aspects, one is to make a strong base for postgraduate education, and the other is to meet various demands of the industry. Postgraduate education is expected to facilitate industrialization. International collaboration in BME education is to become a trend. Keywords—Education, Biomedical Engineering, China.
I. INTRODUCTION The history of biomedical engineering (BME) education in China can be traced to about 30 years ago, the establishment of BME as a separate discipline group in China. In comparison with US, BME education in China is quite young; however, it is experiencing a period of rapid growth. The college education in BME in China started in 1977. In 2003, there were 66 universities or institutions with major in BME aiming to foster undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate BME education [1]. Up to now, in only five years, the number of BME programms has reached 116 [2]. Initially, BME education in China emerged in some comprehensive universities in 1970’s. Due to its interdisciplinary characteristics different from most traditional disciplines, BME education in many universities began with postgraduate training programs that enrolled students from both areas, engineering and biomedicine at one time. One of the significant events in the following period ocurred in 1987 when the Ministry of Health of PRC and General Logistics Department of PLA set up a group of BME departments in several Medical Colleges and Military Medical universities to train technicians competent for medical equipments maintenance in hospital [3]. Nowadays, BME specialties or departments can be found not only in comprehensive and technological universities, but also in medical
universities, even in certain universities featuring special research areas. The location scope already reached 20 provinces and four municipalities of China. To date, BME education in China has gone across thirty years. It is necessary to review its development. In order to realize challenges faced by BME education in China and find out the way for its future development, the paper made a statistical research on undergraduate and postgraduate education, also investigated other educational forms, levels and trends on BME, and then analyzed the development status based on the results.
II. DEVELOPMENT STATUS OF BME EDUCATION IN CHINA In China, BME educations are involved in two levels according to practical demand, one is for technician, and the other is for senior specialists in R&D. The former may include training program of technological academy and undergraduate program of university, and the latter usually consists of undergraduate, postgraduate education and some other education models. A. Undergraduate Education
Fig. 1 Classification of universities with undergraduate BME program in China, 2007 Along with rapid progress in BME discipline and industry, there have been more and more universities with undergraduate BME programs, also the types of universities are more various. Besides traditional comprehensive and medical universities, some other special universities, such as financial and economic universities and agricultural universities have set up this specialty.
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According to the data counted from the internet system for recruiting students in 2007, there are 91 universities with undergraduate programs, of which technological universities play the most important role (Fig. 1). The data of technological, medical and pharmaceutical, comprehensive and other universities are 41, 24, 23 and 3, respectively. This indicates that technological universities play the primary role in BME undergraduate education in China. In these universities, most programs evolved from their original relative engineering specialties, such as electronics, mechanics and instrument, etc. Curricula with strong engineering background are advantages. However, without their own medical schools, the lack of combination with medicine, biological technology and life science is an obvious shortage. Education model was explored all the way during the past 30 years. Taking educational system of undergraduate as an example, the first undergraduate program in medical electronics in 1977 lasted for four years. After discipline catalogue unified in 1993, the educational system of BME was adjusted into five years, and then in 2002 the Ministry of Education of PRC changed it back to four years [1]. B. Postgraduate Education In 2005, master’s degree in BME could be conferred by 39 universities and institutes, among which 16 were authorized to confer doctor’s degree. In 2007, the amount increased to 58 and 30, respectively. And up to now 67 universities have developed plans of postgraduate BME education. In China, postgraduate education curriculum consists of both engineering and life science areas, and academic-year system is the dominant form, including two to three years for master’s degree and three to four years for doctor’s degrees. Generally, to meet requirement of different kind of research, students pursuing doctor’s degrees should select 10 to 20 courses more than for master’s degrees, or 17 to 19 for bachelor’s degrees. Currently, 67 universities with postgraduate BME education spread over 17 provinces and four municipalities in China (Tab.1). Similar to BME industry distribution, the universities in question gather in some areas. There are three industry clusters in Bohai Gulf area, Changjiang Delta area and Zhujiang Delta area, whose production value and sales amount both account for more than 80 percent of the whole country. Among 67 universities in question, 42 are located in these three areas. And exclusive of Shaanxi Province and Chongqing, 6 of top 8 provinces or municipalities holding the universities in question are also in the three areas. It may indicate that the industry development is driving BME education, and the education also encourages R&D in industry.
Compared to 2003, directions in postgraduate education are still mostly focused on information technologies, medical imaging and signal processing, etc. According to the statistical data in 2008, only 6 of 67 universities are not involved in the above research areas. At the same time, other branches like biomaterials, tissue engineering and biomechanics develop fast. Currently, postgraduate programs at 23 universities have major in biomaterials, at 15 universities in tissue engineering, and at another 15 universities in biomechanics. However, few universities have special training programs in clinical engineering and medical physics. Table 1 Distribution of postgraduate BME education BME Industry distribution areas
Location Beijing
Bohai Gulf area
University Amount 11
Tianjin
5
Liaoning Province
4
Hebei Province
3
Shandong Province
1
Shanghai
7
Changjiang Delta area
Jiangsu Province
6
Zhejiang Province
1
Zhujiang Delta area
Guangdong Province
4
Shaanxi Province
5
Other areas
Chongqing
4
Sichan Province
2
Hunan Province
2
Hubei Province
2
Jilin Province
2
Heilongjiang Province
2
Shanxi Province
2
Anhui Province
1
C. BME Education in other Levels and Forms Besides university education,, there are still some technological academies and vocational schools training special technicians for test, management and maintenance of simple medical devices, to be found predominantly in grass roots hospitals. The majors focus on manufacture and management of mechanical & electronic equipment. In addition, BME continuing education in China offers various forms for technicians and researchers, such as shortterm technical training and occupation qualification training, etc. As a new model of graduate education, on-the-job engineering graduate education started in 1997 in China. In that year, Zhejiang University and Southeast University first set up programs for on-the-job BME graduate, and then 12
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universities were in the procession in 2003. Up to now, there are 25 universities that offer this kind of programs for master of engineers [4]. Many universities in China are trying to explore the education model, such as to launch pilot projects for bachelor degree leading to master programs, and direct-promotion to doctor's degree programs. The latest trial of educational model is a program of joint Ph.D. between US universities the Georgia Tech / Emory and Peking University in 2008. It is the first as well as the only international collaboration program of BME, offering a new paradigm in BME education [5].
III. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS With the review of the current status of BME education in China, some problems are exposed, and some aspects should be emphasized in the future: A. Challenges Facing Undergraduate Education Undergraduate education of BME has been growing very rapidly recently, however it has a trend away from social demands. It is a fact that in the recent years many students who graduated from BME departments, exclusive of those entering into postgraduate study, have been subjected to difficulties in competition for jobs. Controversy between the depth and breadth of undergraduate program never stops. Some Chinese educators even put forward cancellation of undergraduate BME education. Cancellation may not be the best way, although, to find out the way to change the embarrassment is necessary. Aims of BME undergraduate education have to be surveyed over again. At the very beginning the aim was to train the engineers engaged in R&D of BME and Medical Devices. However, practice indicates that it is infeasible for someone only with BME basic knowledge to make R&D. By now, to consider actual needs, the training aim should focus on two different aspects, one is to make strong base for postgraduate education, and the other is to meet various demands of the industry. Some current pilot programs of bachelor leading to master or direct-promotion to doctor’s degree may be helpful for the former aim in the future. For the latter aim, curriculum and model should make students more competent for jobs. For universities without strong ability for basic research, a better choice is to pay equal attention to engineering education and technical training practice, and to emphasis on complex abilities fit for industry demands.
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B. Postgraduate Education in Respect to Clinical Application and BME Industrialization a) Postgraduate education should make up applied directions in term of clinical need. Information technologies and medical imaging still dominate directions of postgraduate education of BME in China. Meanwhile as traditional directions transformed into micro-world, the training programs on biomaterials, mechanical biology and tissue engineering appeared a rising trend. But there are almost none of systematical programs for training medical physicists in universities in China. In addition, in some technological universities, even medical education is missed. It is reported that, engineers in medicine only account for 10% of staff in sixty thousand hospitals in China. This proportion is much lower than 30% of developed countries [6]. So, Clinical engineering and medical physics should be included as the directions of BME education. Additionally, to meet BME education demands, technological universities should strengthen cooperation with medical universities. b) In China, transfer from universities to industry has a lower rate in BME area compared to other technical sciences, which is another typical problem. One of reasons is weak connections of education with industry, so that developers know less about the requirements and demands of the industry. There is almost nothing about industrialization process taught in postgraduate education. Actually, when it comes to curriculum, more attention should be paid to the industry demands especially since the implementation of regulation and standardization for medical devices has to begin from early design phase. C. Diversification and Modernization Education Models to Supplement Traditional College Education In China, the integrated system of BME education is not mature. Especially, forms and channels of continuing education are not enough. Although there are 25 universities offering on-the-job graduate programs, the training quantity and effect may not be as good as it should be. It also reflects the lack of education collaboration channels between universities and enterprises in BME area. On the other hand, modern operation educational model should be developed. BME is a multidisciplinary area based on all other science and engineering subjects. Its span widened continuously along with the development of times. Traditional way of education in college may not follow on its heels. The education system of BME in China should pay attention to develop more new and modern ways like practice on-site, virtual laboratory and online education, etc.
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Introducing and use of international training model of tele-system for reference may be another good way.
REFERENCES 1.
D.
International Collaboration of BME Education
In today’s global economic environment, it is a trend to teach student how to conduct research and business in a global arena and prepare them to become international leaders in the 21st-century biomedical engineering industry and academia. Students will benefit from cross-cultural exchange of research ideas and methods. However, as it is just in a trial period in China, many problems may not be in our anticipation. The BME educational reform should explore more about education model with international experience.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT The author wishes to thank Professor Ratko Magjarevic from University of Zagreb, Professor Yi Peng form PUMC and Dr. Rongyu Tang from GU for their valuable suggestions.
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Zou Huiling, Dong Xiuzhen, Zhao Ruigang. (2004)Comparison of Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Education between China and USA. Information of Medical Equipment (4): 1-4 Xiaohong Weng. (2008) Undergraduate Education on Biomedical Engineering of Comprehensive University in China. IFMBE Proceedings(19): 629-632 Xiaoxiang Zheng. (2006) The education of biomedical engineering in China. Chinese Health Pictorial (3):52-53 The list on the website of national education of Master of engineering at http://www.meng.edu.cn/ Article at http://www.globalatlanta.com Anli Ju, Xin Yan, Xiuwen Cheng. (2005) Medical core curriculum in biomedical engineering education. Medical Information (18):16-18
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