Engineering, science and medicine: transforming healthcare

The treatment of disease is being revolutionised by the increasing use and capabilities of intelligent medical devices. Currently, there is a translational drive from basic research into clinical realisation, with multidisciplinary teams responsible for this synergistic effort. This work is forming the era of biomedical engineering, which is manifested in many aspects of medicine at both the bench and the bedside. Here, we focus on two different categories: imaging and medical robotics; and, tissue engineering. We introduce the underlying tenets on which these fields are built before discussing current research and the possibilities for tomorrow’s practice.