Health care aims to prevent, manage, and treat illness to improve physical and mental health. It encompasses medicine, nursing, and other fields. Access to health care is a human right.

Healthcare engineers work on projects related to health care.^[1][2] This can range from healthcare software engineering to designing prosthetic limbs to working on X ray machines. Goals include making things easy to use and minimally invasive.

Settings

Health care is administered at many different places, including:

• Accident scenes
• Clinics
• Homes (for house calls)
• Hospitals
• Residential facilities (e.g. nursing homes and rehabilitation centers)

Sometimes, people receive health care, especially talk therapy, through telehealth appointments.

Designing software and equipment for each setting requires understanding the demands of each potential situation. For example, ambulance equipment needs to be compact for travel, while hospitals have more space. Consulting healthcare practitioners can help engineers understand priorities and needs.

See also

• Biomedical engineering
• CT Scan
• Laparoscopic surgery
• Magnetic resonance imaging
• Medical imaging
• Medical thermometer
• Public health
• X rays

References