The vision that drives this Topical Collection is a major gap in the current journal landscape for bringing engineering technology to the patient. Clinicians that understand these engineering concepts therefore and the pathway from prototyping to the patient will be at the forefront of medicine in the future. Clinical medicine is on the verge of undergoing a significant revolutionary change through transformative engineering technologies. As front line workers, a thorough understanding of engineering can help to recognise limitations in current engineering platforms and develop new solutions accordingly.
However, clinicians have limited knowledge of how these engineering solutions work. We use CT scans for imaging, cardiac stents for heart attacks, dialysis machines for kidney failure, ventilators for respiratory compromise, endoscopy for digestive bleeding. Clinicians utilise engineering solutions for every patient as opposed to the former days of a simple history and physical examination.
This is the first international collaboration that aims to educate a new generation of clinicians with engineering expertise. In February 2019, we launched The Clinician Engineer hub.
