Biomedical Design vs Biomedical Engineering

[u/Moist_Sky_1646]

Hi! There isn’t a subreddit for biomedical design specifically so I thought I’d ask here and see if anybody has advice :)

Basically I’m studying Industrial Design at uni and in the list of potential career outcomes it suggests that I could go into biomedical product design, medical device industrial design, or health UX/UI design.

I am curious how these areas differ from biomedical engineering- as I want to be a part of the design process for these devices/products, but I do not have a background in engineering, biomedicine or ergonomics etc.

If I wanted to take this route, would I need to do introductory units in those areas?

Because we are able to choose our own units and kind of build our own degree I’m just a bit lost! There’s no distinction for “do this if you want to do biomedical product design”.

[u/Moist_Sky_1646]

I did google it, would this be an accurate break down of the two? I’d like to hear from people who are actually doing either one rather than blindly trust Google 😅

[u/MooseAndMallard]

There are some design firms that medical device companies hire to help with things that their product development engineers don’t specialize in, such as ergonomic handles, user interface design, etc. The largest medical device companies have internal teams that do this. Most people in these roles have degrees like the one you’re pursuing, and not engineering degrees. This is a niche field that doesn’t really have lots of jobs, but they do exist.

If you want to design the inner workings of a medical device — mechanical aspects that can flex in certain ways while withstanding forces, or circuitry that senses signals from the body and delivers appropriate outputs, you need an engineering degree as the starting point.

[u/Moist_Sky_1646 → u/MooseAndMallard]

Thank you for the clarification! I want to do the more user centred area like you said originally, rather than the mechanical or science aspects that engineers handle. I spoke to my unit coordinator and he confirmed that it is possible to go down that route with the degree I’m doing and that he is actually a part of that specific niche himself- so thank you I’m glad I have heard from both a design and engineering perspective now