COURSE STRUCTURE
This multidisciplinary MSc builds your knowledge of core principles and practices in medicine, science, engineering and product design, preparing you to contribute to the development of novel technologies, instrumentation and treatment.
Accredited by the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM), it takes you through the entire innovation life cycle – from conceptualisation and design, to production and implementation, both here in the UK and abroad. This in turn opens up career possibilities at any point in the process, for instance in R&D, hardware or software engineering, manufacturing or the sale of equipment, as well as maintenance and management in-situ.
In accordance with the IPEM’s mission to promote a diverse and inclusive professional community, our course is suitable for those with a wide range of backgrounds, including bioscience, life science, medicine and subjects allied to medicine, as well as the conventional disciplines of engineering and physical sciences.
Depending on your background, we offer two entry-level conversion modules: Engineering for Medical Applications for those without an engineering background, and Human Anatomy and Physiology for those without a medical science background. The flexible structure enables you to personalise your study according to your interests, choosing optional modules which enable you to learn more about exciting new fields, like nanomedicine or stem cell therapies.
The flexible structure of the course enables you to personalise your study according to your interests, choosing optional modules from a broad range of subjects, which span the disciplines of biology, maths and engineering. This, coupled with clinical visits, specialist seminars and a choice of dissertation projects that span fundamental research to clinical translation of technologies, ensures a truly ‘bench to bedside’ approach.
Interacting with active researchers, clinicians and practitioners also gives you a greater appreciation of the context in which healthcare engineering operates, including vital safety, environmental and economic concerns, for instance, in relation to medical devices and technology services.
The MSc Biomedical Engineering can be studied as either a one-year full-time or two-year part-time course, starting in January. You will complete 180 credits to obtain the master’s qualification, comprising five compulsory modules and four optional modules, including the core Project Dissertation (60 credits). There are also two interim awards available, depending on how many modules (and credits) have been successfully completed: a Postgraduate Certificate for 60 credits; and a Postgraduate Diploma for 120 credits.
Core modules
MTE-40029 Medical Equipment and Technology Services Management (15 credits, Semester 1)
Medical devices play a key role in healthcare, vital for diagnosis, therapy, monitoring, rehabilitation and care. Effective management and maintenance is critical to ensure high quality patient care and satisfy clinical and financial governance. You will gain an insight into technology management processes that allow healthcare providers to make the best use of their medical equipment and technology services, limiting clinical and financial risk. You’ll learn about the lifecycle of medical equipment and he role of clinical engineers in ensuring its safe and effective management, comparing and evaluating different models of equipment maintenance. You’ll also be introduced to the legislation and obligations of the various health professionals involved as part of good clinical governance.
MTE-40026 Physiological Measurements (15 credits, Semester 1)
Learning why and how physiological processes of humans are measured and monitored, this module aims to improve your analytical skills in different physiological measurement, diagnostics and therapy techniques. Studying the basic principles of biological sensing within research and clinical environments, you’ll be given demonstrations and hands-on use of devices commonly used for physiological measurement, such as the use of biomedical transducers, biosensors, devices for oscillometry, ECG (electrocardiogram) and EOG (electrooculography). To help you better understand how to select appropriate biological tests and devices, you will discuss and evaluate the different instrumentation used to assess specific anatomical structures, such as the heart and lungs, to measure their physiological properties by medics and in biomedical research.
MTE-40038 Medical Device Design Principles (15 credits, Semester 2)
You will develop your understanding of the systems engineering approach to medical device design, including the role of ergonomics in the design of safe and reliable medical devices. You’ll learn the importance of standards and regulations for medical device design, gaining an overview of aspects of the mechanical, electrical and software components of medical devices.
MTE-40031 Biomedical Signal Processing and Analysing (15 credits, Semester 2)
All living things, from cells to organisms, deliver signals of biological origin, which can be electric, mechanical or chemical. Analysing these signals can provide clinical, biochemical or pharmaceutically relevant information to improve medical diagnosis, either for patient monitoring and biomedical research. You will be introduced to the fundamentals of signal and image processing, applying theory to practical examples, learning to filter signals of interest from noisy, redundant background data.
MTE-40039 Experimental Research Methodology (15 credits, studied throughout the course)
Developing the academic skillset required for your master’s research and future scientific career, you’ll gain a strong grounding in appropriate level literature search, academic writing, statistical evaluation and manipulation of data. From learning how to take notes in research seminars, to managing your time efficiently in written examinations and writing a comprehensive literature review, this module addresses your personal and professional development. Research seminars provide direct access to innovative research, with students introduced to trending research topics in areas of cancer, neuroscience, heart, lung, drug development, nanomaterials, medical device and biomedical engineering, by national and international speakers. The module also includes a statistics workshop and sessions to improve soft skills to support the theoretical and practical aspects of the course.
MTE-40015 Project (Dissertation) (60 credits)
Representing the culmination of your studies, the Project provides an exciting opportunity to undertake laboratory-based research under the supervision of an expert in an agreed field of interest, based here in the Research Institute, a local hospital or within a collaborating industrial partner or clinical team. Applying the skills and knowledge gained throughout the course, you will design, conduct research and produce a 15,000-20,000-word dissertation. Projects cover a span of research interests related to Keele expertise in the fields of medical device design and manufacture, and regenerative medicine manufacture including storage conditions, scale-up, platform development and drug development/screening.
