Biomedical Engineering: Education & Career Overview

Biomedical engineers create devices and procedures that solve health-related problems by combining biology and medical knowledge with engineering principles and practices. Although many biomedical engineers focus on medical research, others work to design the devices that are used in medical procedures. These include magnetic resonance imaging systems (MRIs) and automatic insulin injections for patients with diabetes. Aspiring biomedical engineers should have a bachelor's degree in an engineering-related field, as well as a master's or doctoral degree in biomedical engineering (BME). As one of the smallest engineering specialties—there were only 14,000 biomedical engineers working in the United States as of 2006—these professionals are projected to have a 21 percent employment growth over the next decade, and can expect to earn a median salary of $73,930 per year.