The importance of certification/registration in expanding engineering career opportunities

Medicine, from the point of view of its use of technological innovation, is considered by the author to be the most underdeveloped activity world-wide. Present-day engineering expertise can plan, design and construct a great variety of devices and techniques which increase the effectiveness of medical diagnosis and of treatment, of rehabilitation of the disabled, together with a range of‘spin-offs’-for example assisting in producing improved sports performance.The difficulties in exploiting to the full the opportunities available to engineers in medicine are much the same as those which inhibit the exploitation of engineering in general to its full potential. These difficulties, according to Professor Kenedi, are not the result of the oft reputed ‘lack of liaison’ between technological education and industry (the latter incidentally being the health service for engineering in medicine) or of the apparent ‘lack of orientation’ of the UK's young people to engineering-these are only symptoms. The malaise is ...