Tracking the historical development of biomedical engineering: the 1960s and 1970s

Biomedical engineering has evolved with unique multidisciplinary characteristics. In its lifespan this discipline has grown to encompass an ever-widening array of clinical, scientific, and engineering areas. This field offers a picture of an engineering science that has matured in an alternative direction from other scientific areas in the 20th century. This article proposes a historic research overview or matrix (3D) of biomedical engineering in the 1960s and 1970s. A derivative methodology is presented that was utilized to create this matrix. The immediate goals are to see what practitioners of that time were defining as biomedical engineering and the nature of its expansion. The primary concern of this preliminary assessment is to determine the general direction of research for the early community. The disciplinary or institutional organization of this body of knowledge is also an important key. While other questions about the dynamics of the community are also important, the first step is to understand the types of problems that were focused on.