Healthcare engineering

Based on the definition of healthcare, a more elaborated definition is: "Healthcare engineering is engineering involved in all aspects of the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and management of illness, as well as the preservation and improvement of physical and mental health and well-being, through the services offered to humans by the medical and allied health professions".

Contributions have also been made by healthcare professionals (e.g., physicians, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, allied health professionals, and health scientists) who are engaged in supporting, improving, and/or advancing healthcare through engineering approaches.

Healthcare engineering is expected to play a role of growing importance as healthcare continues to be one of the world's largest and fastest-growing industries[2][3] where engineering is a major factor of advancement through creating, developing, and implementing cutting-edge devices, systems, and procedures attributed to breakthroughs in electronics, information technology, miniaturization, material science, optics, and other fields, to address challenges associated with issues such as the continued rise in healthcare costs, the quality and safety of healthcare, care of the aging population, management of common diseases, the impact of high technology, increasing demands for regulatory compliance, risk management, and reducing litigation risk.

ASHE, as well as its many local affiliate societies, is devoted to the health care physical environment, including design, building, maintenance, and operation of hospitals and other health care facilities, which represents only one sector of engineers' activities in healthcare.

Based on this white paper, a global, non-profit professional organization, Healthcare Engineering Alliance Society (HEALS), was founded by Chyu in 2015, which focuses on improving and advancing all aspects of healthcare through engineering approaches.

may benefit from training to apply engineering to their practice, problem solving, and advancing healthcare.

Figure 1. Healthcare engineering: synergy of engineering and health sciences. Red block: All engineering disciplines. Green block: All health sciences disciplines. Blue block: All healthcare engineering disciplines.