Review by Choice Review
Biomedical engineering has rapidly emerged as a distinct discipline in the US over the past 15 years, growing from 27 academic departments in 1991 to 74 in 2006. Most of this growth can be directly attributed to the generosity of The Whitaker Foundation, which has granted numerous awards over the years to new/expanding academic departments, junior investigators, and graduate fellows in biomedical engineering. Montaigne attempts to define the field of biomedical engineering for lay audiences, and to convey some of the more exciting research being conducted to improve medical diagnosis and treatment. He interviews various department chairs and researchers from some selected universities that have benefited most from Whitaker grants, including Boston University, Case Western, Georgia Tech, UC Davis, and University of Virginia. The author chooses to focus on clinical applications such as pacemakers, ventricular assist pumps, and orthopedic implants, and writes little about the superb fundamental research being conducted at these biomedical engineering departments and elsewhere. Nevertheless, some of the great engineering successes of 20th-century medicine are discussed along with intriguing future challenges for tissue engineering, all presented in an accessible manner. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. General readers. M. R. King University of Rochester
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Imagine a time when Type 1 diabetes can be cured by implanted cells that perform the job of a healthy pancreas, or a world in which there is a noninvasive procedure to completely reverse the effects of a stroke. Imagine a day when patients paralyzed from spinal-column injuries can write their names and pick up a coffee cup--oh, wait, in that case, that day is today. We only have to wait for the first two. But that shouldn't be very long. Featuring some of the most recognized names in bioengineering as well as up-and-comers in whose hands lies the potential for cures now unimaginable, this is the fascinating story of a discipline only dreamed of by Mary Shelley. Born of a young PhD's desire to marry space-age engineering techniques to medicine, biomedical engineering has created marvels now commonplace--think pacemakers and joint replacements--and promises the simply fantastic, such as cancer as a chronic illness and medical nanosystems that can target damaged individual brain cells. --Donna Chavez Copyright 2006 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Freelance writer Montaigne (coauthor, Surviving Galeras) is clearly an admirer of the field of biomedical engineering and of its practitioners. He traces the subject's history starting with the work of one of its pioneers, Uncas Whitaker, whose Whitaker Foundation funded several biomedical engineering schools (and provided a grant for this book). Montaigne's research took him to a number of schools and companies, where interviews with students, teachers, engineers, scientists, physicians, and patients formed the basis for much of the story. Chapters deal with imaging, artificial organs and joints, robotic surgery, genetic engineering, implantable pumps, wires in the brain to calm tremors, and potential future developments. Moving from the use of early, bulky machines to methods of coaxing the body to repair itself in new ways and touching briefly on the potential of stem cells, Montaigne has written a fascinating book. Missing, however, is more than a cursory mention of the political and ethical controversies surrounding some of these advances. In Ramez Naam's More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement, many of the same subjects are covered, but the controversies are directly confronted. Recommended for public libraries.-Dick Maxwell, Porter Adventist Hosp. Lib., Denver (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Library Journal Review
