| CODE | CBC5101 | ||||||||||||
| TITLE | Medical Instrumentation | ||||||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 05 - Postgraduate Modular Diploma or Degree Course | ||||||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 7 | ||||||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 5 | ||||||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Centre for Biomedical Cybernetics | ||||||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | Medical Instrumentation is one of the core pillars which underpins the field of biomedical engineering. It provides the student with an introduction to the basic concepts of instrumentation which are essential for the proper technical use of medical equipment. The study-unit describes the physical and electrical properties of human tissues and organs, as well as their biological function. It then provides the student with the necessary specialist understanding of the sensors, circuits and technologies used to measure the physiological state of a subject. Study-Unit Aims: The study-unit aims to: - Provide a critical understanding of the role of medical instrumentation within healthcare; - Provide specialist knowledge and understanding of analogue electric circuit theory, basic instrumentation building components and their limitations, digital circuits and their limitations, the role of noise, its sources, and its impact on signals acquired, and basic concepts behind amplification and filtering of biopotentials; - Provide critical awareness of the various types of medical devices employing instrumentation techniques for measurement of physiological state; - Provide critical awareness of the limitations inherent to physiological measurement and the future challenges associated with such limitations; - Provide a critical awareness of the fundamental concepts behind medical electrical safety. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Explain the foundations of electronics, including voltage, current, resistance, inductance, capacitance, impedance and Ohm's Law; - Identify and describe commonly employed transducers in medical instrumentation systems, and describe their operating principles; - Identify and describe the basic different components of a typical medical instrumentation system, required for the acquisition of physiological signals, including: (a) Signal generating devices; (b) Different transducers and different electrodes and materials; (c) The amplification process; (d) Analog-to-digital conversion; (e) Signal processing; (f) Signal visualisation devices. - Identify and describe basic instrumentation circuits for physiological measurement, including amplifiers and signal processing circuits; - Identify and describe problems and concepts frequently encountered with biopotential amplifiers, including: (a) sources of noise in electronic systems, their impact on physiological systems, and what counter-measures are available to limit their effect; (b) referential and differential amplification, common mode rejection ratio, and phase cancellation; (c) electrical transients and protection measures; (d) Use of analog filters (bandpass, bandstop, notch, lowpass and highpass filters) in the context of physiological signals鈥� expected frequency band and magnitude. - Identify and describe the function of various medical devices in a healthcare setting; - Identify and describe physiological effects of electrical shock, and approaches taken to protect against electric shock. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Correctly identify and describe different physiological signals and the correct transducers being applied to acquire signals; - Correctly identify and describe simple analogue and digital building blocks present in medical devices for physiological measurement; - Correctly identify and describe device specification and performance characteristics (and limitations) - in the context of signal acquisition, amplification and filtering; - Use the above fundamentals and principles to operate and test medical acquisition devices and choose their advanced settings - in the context of signal acquisition, amplification and filtering. Main Readings: - Webster, J. G. (2009), Medical Instrumentation: Application and Design (4th ed.), Wiley. |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture, Practicum & Tutorial | ||||||||||||
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2025/6. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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