Bioinstrumentation

John G. Webster, Department of Biomedical Engineering

Abstract

The tutorial will present methods of sensing, amplifying and displaying medical variables. It will include design of electrocardiographic amplifiers and methods of avoiding interference and motion artifacts. It will include design of therapeutic devices: cardiac pacemakers, defibrillators, electrosurgery, and RF ablation. It will present electrical safety. 

Outline of topics

1.  Sensors for displacement, temperature, radiation

2.  Origin of biopotentials

3.  Biopotential electrodes

4.  Biopotential amplifiers

5.  Blood pressure and sound

6.  Blood flow

7.  Respiratory flow

8.  Medical imaging

9.  Cardiac pacemakers, defibrillators

10. Electrosurgery, ablation

11. Electrical safety

Educational goals

The participant will learn the fundamental principles of operation and general types of equipment used in hospitals and biomedical research. A biomedical engineer with some background in electronics and instrumentation will learn how to use and design new medical instruments. This knowledge will be useful for all those who work in the medical device and instrumentation field.  

John G. Webster received the B.E.E. degree from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA in 1953 and the M.S.E.E. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA in 1965 and 1967, respectively.

He is Professor Emeritus of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. In the field of medical instrumentation he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in bioinstrumentation and design. He does research on improving electrodes for ablation liver to cure cancer. He does research on a miniature hot flash recorder. 

He is the editor of the most-used text in biomedical engineering: "Medical instrumentation: application and design", Fourth Edition New York, John Wiley & Sons, 2009, and has developed 22 other books including the Encyclopedia of medical devices and instrumentation, Second Edition, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2006 and 200 research papers.

John Webster is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Instrument Society of America, American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, and Institute of Physics. He has been a member of the IEEE-EMBS Administrative Committee and the NIH Surgery and Bioengineering Study Section. He is the recipient of the 2001 IEEE-EMBS Career Achievement Award.