Most biomedical engineers dedicate themselves to technically daunting challenges such as neuromuscular stimulation or tissue regeneration. However as American corpulence continues to skyrocket, new device engineering might just be dedicated to making existing tools longer, larger, or higher capacity…
“Bariatric equipment such as wheelchairs, beds, scales, and longer-length devices are often required when surgery or other procedures are performed on very obese individuals,” said Lexie Code, Senior Analyst at MRG. “For example, when laparoscopic surgery is performed on morbidly obese patients, the distance between skin-level incisions where specialized devices enter the body and the internal organs is much longer. Hospitals must therefore purchase more expensive, longer-length devices to accommodate such procedures.”
That’s from Millennium Research Group, who’s just released a new study entitled US Markets for Bariatric Equipment and Devices 2007. There’s more in the press release.