Biomedical Engineering Education and Social Contribution
To create next-generation medical technology together
As a part of the courses offered by the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, Tohoku University, we are creating a place where students of biomedical engineering and medical professional can lear from each other, think, and create new seeds of medical technology. We are also sending students from the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering to a university in Netherlands, where biomedical engineering and entrepreneurship are flourishing, to promote academic exchange with local researchers and biomedical engineering students. In addition, we provide human and technical support to various communities, such as holding information exchange meetings on ultrasound technology, mainly for cardiologists and clinical laboratoy technicians, and medical engineering education for working people.
Carotid artery echocardiography with a portable ultrasonic diagnostic device
The aim of our laboratory is to develop new diagnostic devices and to contribute to society with these devices. At the time of the Iwate-Miyagi Inland Earthquake in 2008, we brought the portable echo we had developed to participate in the economy syndrome preventive medical checkup, which was jointly organized by Kurihara City, Miyagi Prefecture, and Nigata University. We were able to detect the thrombosis in the veins of the lower extremities with this device and prevent economy syndrome through early drug administration. The upper left figure shows a medical checkup, with a portable echo hanging from the neck. The upper right figure shows an ultrasound image of the detected blood clot. Since 2009, we have developed a portable echo machine that is slightly larger than this machine but has excellent diagnostic capabitlites, and we use it for carotid artery echo screening.
