Effects of unique biomedical education programs for engineers: REDEEM and ESTEEM projects

Current engineering applications in the medical arena are extremely progressive. However, it is rather difficult for medical doctors and engineers to discuss issues because they do not always understand one another's jargon or ways of thinking. Ideally, medical engineers should become acquainted with medicine, and engineers should be able to understand how medical doctors think. Tohoku University in Japan has managed a number of unique reeducation programs for working engineers. Recurrent Education for the Development of Engineering Enhanced Medicine has been offered as a basic learning course since 2004, and Education through Synergetic Training for Engineering Enhanced Medicine has been offered as an advanced learning course since 2006. These programs, which were developed especially for engineers, consist of interactive, modular, and disease-based lectures (case studies) and substantial laboratory work. As a result of taking these courses, all students obtained better objective outcomes, on tests, and subjective outcomes, through student satisfaction. In this article, we report on our unique biomedical education programs for engineers and their effects on working engineers.