Biomedical Engineering Centre will work closely with industry
From a golf swing to a spinal implant, Memorial's new Biomedical Engineering Centre (BEC) has the capability of making the human body more efficient in health, work, and play.
The Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science and the Faculty of Medicine have teamed up to create a a research centre that will work closely with the biotechnology industry in the province. Anything that affects the human body -- from the force required to move a hospital bed over a bump to ways of controlling a computer without any hands - is within the scope of the centre's research capability.
Funding of $300,000 from the Canada Newfoundland Co-operation Agreement on Resource Development has allowed the centre to purchase two new pieces of equipment which have improved the centre's ability to serve the community and industry in health care and related industrial and technological development. The equipment was demonstrated at the official opening of the centre June 10.
The HRDA funding has enabled the centre to purchase a biomechanical test frame and motion analysis equipment (gait laboratory), both the best of their kind in the Atlantic provinces. The biomechanical test frame is used for tests on materials, constructs and fixtures. The six-camera motion analysis system is used for clinical work in association with the St. John's Health Care Corporation and for testing and research in occupational health.
Dr. Ian Bowmer, dean of the Faculty of Medicine, noted the benefits of the academic partnership. "This collaboration between orthopedic surgeons and engineers will benefit the health care needs of people in this province, and is an excellent example of the benefit of inter-disciplinary research," he said.
The Biomedical Engineering Centre has already undertaken projects with local industry. For example, a study for Abitibi Price looked at localized vibration induced circulatory disorder in the hands.
The Biomedical Engineering Centre started as a Medical Engineering Group, and was established in 1996 by orthopedic surgeons in the Faculty of Medicine and engineers in the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science. It is co-chaired by Dr. John Molgaard, Engineering, and Dr. David Peddle, Medicine. The centre occupies a 1,500 sq. ft. laboratory in the S.J. Carew Building.
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