The Biomedical Engineering (BME) sector is among the biggest industrial sectors worldwide, with tens of thousands of manufacturers producing more than 500,000 different types of biomedical products. 

In particular, in 2022 the European medical technology industry employs over 730,000 people in 32,000 companies with a dynamic and increasing job outlook (source: Medtech Europe). Similarly in the US, the biomedical engineering sector currently supports about 19,300 jobs, which are expected to increase up to 6% until 2030 (source: United States Bureau of Labor Statistics).

Considering that a/ modern medicine and biology rely (and evolve) on technology, and b/ ageing of population will boost the necessity for technologies able to support the prolongation of life with good quality of living, biomedical engineers are expected to play a crucial role in the forthcoming technological era.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exploded the requirements for biomedical engineers in the labor market, since management of the pandemic profoundly relies on biomedical technologies.

For example:

• treatment of patients with serious complications may require hospitalization at an Intensive Care Unit, which relies on technologies, such as the vital signs monitors, the mechanical ventilators, the gas/oxygen flow installations, the drug delivery automation, the extracorporeal blood purification, etc
• diagnosis of affected patients requires specific diagnostic examinations, which are possible due to technologies, such as the PCR instruments, the Serology/Antibody instruments, the Rapid Testing Devices, the X-ray Computed Tomography, etc.
• monitoring of the virus mutations/variants, such as the Delta and the Omicron variants, requires sequencers and bioanalyzers, optical instruments and microscopy, bioinformatics, etc.
• epidemiology requires sophisticated data analysis algorithms based on artificial intelligence and deep learning
• research requires specialized instruments and methods for the design/discovery of new vaccines, drugs etc.

Biomedical engineers have been supporting and sustaining all of the above technologies over the last 2.5 years of the pandemic.

Biomedical engineers can be employed into many different areas, such as:

• Biomedical Technology Industry (service, application specialist, sales and marketing, field engineer etc)
• Hospitals, clinics, healthcare centers
• Research and academia
• Computing and information technology
• Other engineering related fields
• Business and administration
• Management and finance
• Start-ups, spin-off businesses
• Teaching