Analysis of the Unsuccessful Efforts to Design & Construct Invasive Mechanical COVID-19 Ventilators in Mexico: Did the Current BME Curricula at Mexican Universities Contribute to the Failure?

Mexico was caught unprepared to deal with the current COVID-19 pandemic. One of the most egregious failures was the incapability to provide an additional 10,000 ventilators in order to cope with the excess demand. The Mexican government proposed a program for funding the development of these devices and over 100 designs were submitted but were of below standard quality and performance. Only three designs have been approved up to date.This work analyzes the failures from the point of view of the incapability to design, develop and test locally made ventilator designs, and asks whether the national university system, after a history of 48 years of producing thousands of Biomedical Engineering students in over 60 institutions has become incapable of delivering a design of a medical device of medium complexity.

Gender Parity in Biomedical Engineering: Analysis of Admission to the Bachelor's Degree at UAM.

Gender parity aims to the integration of women on equality of conditions in the major activities in society. Although the context under which the concept is generally used orients to the political sphere, female participation in leadership positions where decision-making has an essential impact on society extends to such important aspects as health and education. Due to the increasing importance that it has gained over the years, this paper presents an analysis of gender parity from education in Biomedical Engineering. The study focused on the participation of female students in the bachelor's admission processes from 2010 to 2019 at Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana in Mexico. We used statistical analysis as well as the adaptation of the gender parity index (GPI). The results show that the female average accepted students represent 41.82% of the total number of accepted aspirants. The analysis of the data and GPIs also show a slightly better behavior than the data reported by organizations such as UNESCO or OCDE.

Updating the Biomedical Engineering Curriculum in Latin America: Moving from management and maintenance to Design and Development of Medical Devices.

Biomedical Engineering as an undergraduate degree in Latin America is not new. However, most programs have the objective to produce professionals dedicated to the management and maintenance of health care technology. We believe that there is an important area of opportunity in the education of engineers who are competent in the design and development of medical devices. Among the 100 programs in the region there could be a few which could stand out as providers of such professionals. This work proposes a curricular structure to fulfill these aims.

[Healthcare equity and chronic renal failure in Mexico: an analysis for the case of women]. / Análisis de aspectos relacionados con la equidad en salud y la insuficiencia renal crónica para el caso de la mujer en México.

INTRODUCTION: Kidney chronic disease patients are being increasingly identified. The disability generated by this disease must consider physical and social effects given the lack of attention and the socioeconomic conditions that generate it. Therefore, access to services to treat kidney chronic disease is determined by social and biological factors. OBJECTIVE: To analyze the effect of the social components on kidney chronic disease in a sector of the Mexican population that suffers from the disease, particularly in the case of women. METHODS: The Poisson generalized linear model was applied, selecting the variables related to equity in the administration of health services. Statistical data reported by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography of Mexico in the period 2009-2015 in women was taken. The variables considered were the level of schooling, occupation, access to health, geographical region and habitable zone, as well as stage of life. RESULTS: The highest incidence rate for kidney chronic disease is attributed to the intermediate adult woman, who works in informal services legally excluded from institutional health coverage, has low schooling and lives in a rural area of the Center zone, while the young adult woman that lives in an urban metropolis in the North zone presents lowest incidence profile. CONCLUSIONS: The economic determinants derived from people’s activities, as well as their age, the educational level and the environment in which they live influence both the acquisition of the disease and the possibilities of managing it successfully.

INTRODUCCIÓN: La insuficiencia renal crónica es una enfermedad que se encuentra en un estado de constante crecimiento. La discapacidad que genera esta enfermedad debe considerar efectos físicos y sociales, dada la falta de atención y a las condiciones socioeconómicas que la generan. Por lo tanto, el acceso a los servicios para tratar la insuficiencia renal crónica está condicionado a factores de tipo social y de tipo biológico. OBJETIVO: Analizar el efecto de los componentes sociales en la insuficiencia renal crónica en un sector de la población de México que padece la enfermedad, en particular para el caso de la mujer. MÉTODOS: Se aplicó el modelo lineal generalizado de Poisson, seleccionando las variables relacionadas con la equidad en la aplicación de los servicios de salud. Se tomaron datos estadísticos reportados en mujeres por el Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía de México en el periodo 2009-2015. Las variables consideradas fueron grado de escolaridad, ocupación, acceso a la salud, región geográfica y zona habitable, así como le etapa de vida. RESULTADOS: La mayor tasa de incidencia para la insuficiencia renal crónica corresponde a la mujer adulta intermedia, que trabaja en servicios informales excluidos legalmente de la cobertura institucional de salud, tiene baja escolaridad y vive en un área rural de la zona centro; mientras que la mujer adulta joven que vive en una metrópoli urbana de la zona norte presenta el perfil de menor incidencia. CONCLUSIONES: Los determinantes económicos derivados de la actividad de las personas, así como la edad, el nivel educativo y el entorno en el que habitan, influyen tanto en el padecimiento de la enfermedad como en las posibilidades de enfrentarla con éxito.

Critical assessment and outlook for the 50 biomedical engineering undergraduate programs in Mexico.

Biomedical Engineering (BME) has been taught in Mexico at the undergraduate level for over forty years. The rationale for the introduction of this profession was to help manage and maintain the growing technological infrastructure in the health care system during the seventies. Owing to this, it is not surprising that early versions of the BME curricula were oriented towards clinical engineering and medical instrumentation. In the last decade the number of programs has grown from three in the seventies and eighties to fifty at present. This work is the result of the analysis of the BME programs in all the institutions that offer this degree in Mexico. Three main issues were studied: the curricula, the sub-disciplines that were emphasized in the programs and the job market. Results have shown a striking resemblance in most of the programs, which are mostly dedicated to teaching aspects of medical instrumentation and clinical engineering. These results reflect an agreement with the requirements of the job market, but since most job offerings are for low-paying positions in sales, service and hospital maintenance, we question the wisdom of stressing these sub-specialties at research universities, where faculties and research labs offer a wide variety of options. An analysis of work at these centers shows that most of the results are publications, so the need to emphasize translational research and partnerships with industry are suggested.

Biomedical Engineering curriculum at UAM-I: a critical review.

The Biomedical Engineering (BME) curriculum at Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM) has undergone at least four major transformations since the founding of the BME undergraduate program in 1974. This work is a critical assessment of the curriculum from the point of view of its results as derived from an analysis of, among other resources, institutional databases on students, graduates and their academic performance. The results of the evaluation can help us define admission policies as well as reasonable limits on the maximum duration of undergraduate studies. Other results linked to the faculty composition and the social environment can be used to define a methodology for the evaluation of teaching and the implementation of mentoring and tutoring programs. Changes resulting from this evaluation may be the only way to assure and maintain leadership and recognition from the BME community.

Managing new directions for a 38 year old undergraduate BME program.

The Biomedical Engineering curricula in general must reflect the state of the art in the technology related to medicine and health care, as students who graduate from these programs are directly related to the well-being of the patients, either through new devices and technologies being invented or through the application of their technical knowledge in the service industry. At present, there are more than 25 BME undergraduate programs in Mexico. Most of them are oriented towards the instrumentation and clinical engineering branches of the field, while a few others have strong components in signal analysis. The program at Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM) is one of the oldest and has been used as a reference by most other programs. Since UAM is one of the top three research universities in the country, it is well poised to incorporate its research directions into a more modern curriculum. This paper deals with the efforts that have been carried out in order to minimize the excessive influence of the electrical engineering subjects in the BME undergraduate curriculum and the approaches to reach consensus-based decisions to explore new directions related to emerging disciplines in medical technology and health care. After analysis of the current state, a discussion on future directions is presented.

Analysis of the impact of medical technology assessment subjects on BME curricula.

This paper presents and analyzes the factors that have arisen on the implementation of the medical technology assessment and management courses, and the academic methodologies used to deal with them. Five courses that cover topics as Technology Management, Health Economics, Quality Assessment, Innovation and Entrepreneurship were designed as electives for BME curriculum and have been taught for the last two years. The activities carried out within the courses are described and their impact on the comprehension of the course contents are presented. Also, several elements and factors pertaining to the teaching-learning process are discussed. Future perspectives for the students that follow this sub-specialty branch of the BME curriculum are presented.

Updating the biomedical engineering curriculum: Inclusion of Health Technology Assessment subjects.

This paper describes the work being carried out at Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM) in Mexico City with regard to the continuous evaluation and updating of the Biomedical Engineering (BME) curriculum. In particular the courses regarded as part of the BME basic branch are reduced and new sets of elective subjects are proposed in order to bring closer the research work at UAM with the subjects in the BME curriculum. Special emphasis is placed on subjects dealing with Health Technology Assessment (HTA) and Health economics, as this branch of the BME discipline is quite promising in Mexico, but there are very few professionals in the field with adequate qualifications.