What is the difference among a medical scientist, a medical researcher, and a medical engineer?

Question

what is a biomedical engineer also?

what are the types of engineers that specialize in medicine?

thanks

Answer 1

This is a very good question.

"Research" and "science" are words that are used interchangeably, although there are some subtle differences in what I and many other people think about when we use these terms.  For example, I would talk about going to the books and journals to learn about a topic as "researching" the topic, but I would not describe doing this as "science".  The word "science" tends to conjure images of test tubes and centrifuges in my mind, but at the same time it also suggests large collections of experimental data and complex statistical analysis.  "Research" makes me think of "looking back" through recent history to see if something stands out as a better way to do things...

None of this has a lot of meaning, though.  The words "research" and "science" are essentially equivalent.  They both describe the effort to apply the rules of logic to observations about our world, in a way that would help us to predict how we can influence the way that things go in the future.  In the medical field, this ultimately relates to finding better ways to treat illness.

In medicine, there are a variety of types of scientific research.  We can roughly divide it into "basic science" (also sometimes called "bench" science), translational research, and clinical research.  

Basic science primarily involves things like the work that biochemists and molecular biologists do.  It involves mostly working with chemical and physical processes and their measurements.  The types of projects being done are usually related to issues of health and disease, but are not necessarily directly applicable to treatment... yet.

Translational research occurs after interesting results at the basic science level suggest ways in which new treatments for disease might be designed.  The idea is to "translate" basic science results into treatments.  Basic science does not necessarily need to be conducted in a hospital, but translational research does.  Translational research involves carefully designed studies where volunteer patients consent to undergo promising new treatments and the results are carefully analyzed.  Translational research typically happens only at large academic hospitals and universities with medical centers.

Clinical research is much more accessible than the categories above.  Typically, clinical research is done by medical doctors who want to ask a question about how to take care of patients better.  Often, clinical research involves reviewing the recent history of taking care of patients and comparing the outcomes between groups of patients cared for in different ways regarding similar problems.  

Clinical and translational research/science is mostly done by doctors with the MD degree.  There are also some doctors who have a "DO" degree which is equivalent in many ways, but these DO doctors are less often in academic centers doing research.  Some doctors have a combined MD/PhD degree, and many of these are substantially interested in research, devoting large amounts of their time to it.  At the "bench science" level, where the work happens mostly in biochemistry type laboratories, the researchers are mostly PhD scientists, with a smaller number of MD/PhD's and MD's.

Biomedical engineering is really just engineering.  Most of the people who work in the medical device industry depend on engineers who have specialized understanding in what types of needs doctors have at the bedside.  Many times, the development of new devices happens in collaboration between medical doctors and engineers.  There often has to be some degree of scientific study to prove that a device is safe to use in hospitals, and then the remaining research involves whether or not that device is as good or better or worse than the other types of devices that do similar things, already on the market.  

Biomedical engineers are also employed by hospitals to maintain and troubleshoot many of the complex systems found in hospitals.

When you ask what types of engineers specialize in medicine, that becomes much more difficult to answer.  Few engineers ever get close to patients, and then only because they may be working on a project that surrounds the use of a new product that is being studied.  They make no medical care decisions, and just having them in the hospital environment requires obtaining special permissions.

There are lots of different kinds of engineers that are critical in the development and production of devices for the medical industry.  Chemical engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers computer engineers, manufacturing specialists and even nuclear physicists are all employed by the large companies who make medical equipment.  The rapidly growing field of medical technology ensures that these jobs will be durable.  Unlike many other types of jobs, these are relatively insensitive to changes in the economy.  Any kind of engineer can find work in the medical technology industry.  It's just a quest

Answer 2

A scientist is seeking new knowledge.

A researcher is looking for specific knowledge.

An engineer is developing practical uses for new and existing technologies.