Medical equipment is designed to aid in the diagnosis

Diagnosis

Diagnosis is the identification of the nature and cause of anything. Diagnosis is used in many different disciplines with variations in the use of logics, analytics, and experience to determine the cause and effect relationships...

, monitoring or treatment of medical conditions.

Types

There are several basic types:

• Diagnostic
  Medical diagnosis
  Medical diagnosis refers both to the process of attempting to determine or identify a possible disease or disorder , and to the opinion reached by this process...
  
   equipment includes medical imaging
  Medical imaging
  Medical imaging is the technique and process used to create images of the human body for clinical purposes or medical science...
  
   machines, used to aid in diagnosis. Examples are ultrasound
  Medical ultrasonography
  Diagnostic sonography is an ultrasound-based diagnostic imaging technique used for visualizing subcutaneous body structures including tendons, muscles, joints, vessels and internal organs for possible pathology or lesions...
  
   and MRI machines, PET
  Positron emission tomography
  Positron emission tomography is nuclear medicine imaging technique that produces a three-dimensional image or picture of functional processes in the body. The system detects pairs of gamma rays emitted indirectly by a positron-emitting radionuclide , which is introduced into the body on a...
  
   and CT
  Computed tomography
  X-ray computed tomography or Computer tomography , is a medical imaging method employing tomography created by computer processing...
  
   scanners, and x-ray machine
  X-ray machine
  An X-ray generator is a device used to generate X-rays. These devices are commonly used by radiographers to acquire an x-ray image of the inside of an object but they are also used in sterilization or fluorescence....
  
  s.
• Therapeutic equipment includes infusion pump
  Infusion pump
  An infusion pump infuses fluids, medication or nutrients into a patient's circulatory system. It is generally used intravenously, although subcutaneous, arterial and epidural infusions are occasionally used....
  
  s, medical laser
  Laser
  A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...
  
  s and LASIK
  LASIK
  LASIK or Lasik , commonly referred to simply as laser eye surgery, is a type of refractive surgery for correcting myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism...
  
   surgical machines.
• Life support
  Life support
  Life support, in medicine is a broad term that applies to any therapy used to sustain a patient's life while they are critically ill or injured. There are many therapies and techniques that may be used by clinicians to achieve the goal of sustaining life...
  
   equipment is used to maintain a patient's bodily function. This includes medical ventilator
  Medical ventilator
  A medical ventilator can be defined as any machine designed to mechanically move breatheable air into and out of the lungs, to provide the mechanism of breathing for a patient who is physically unable to breathe, or breathing insufficiently....
  
  s, anaesthetic machine
  Anaesthetic machine
  The anaesthetic machine is used by anaesthesiologists and nurse anaesthetists to support the administration of anaesthesia...
  
  s, heart-lung machines, ECMO, and dialysis machines.
• Medical monitors allow medical staff to measure a patient's medical state. Monitors may measure patient vital signs and other parameters including ECG, EEG
  Electroencephalography
  Electroencephalography is the recording of electrical activity along the scalp. EEG measures voltage fluctuations resulting from ionic current flows within the neurons of the brain...
  
  , blood pressure
  Blood pressure
  Blood pressure is the pressure exerted by circulating blood upon the walls of blood vessels, and is one of the principal vital signs. When used without further specification, "blood pressure" usually refers to the arterial pressure of the systemic circulation. During each heartbeat, BP varies...
  
  , and dissolved gases in the blood.
• Medical laboratory equipment automates or helps analyze blood
  Blood
  Blood is a specialized bodily fluid in animals that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells....
  
  , urine
  Urine
  Urine is a typically sterile liquid by-product of the body that is secreted by the kidneys through a process called urination and excreted through the urethra. Cellular metabolism generates numerous by-products, many rich in nitrogen, that require elimination from the bloodstream...
  
   and gene
  Gene
  A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...
  
  s.
• Diagnostic Medical Equipment may also be used in the home for certain purposes, e.g. for the control of diabetes mellitus

A biomedical equipment technician

Biomedical Equipment Technician

A Bio-Medical Equipment Technician, also referred to as a Biomed, Biomedical Engineering Technologist , Biomed Equipment Technician, a Biomedical Equipment Specialist or Electronics and Biomedical Engineer is a highly skilled electromechanical technologist that ensures that medical equipment is...

 (BMET) is a vital component of the healthcare delivery system. Employed primarily by hospitals, BMETs are the people responsible for maintaining a facility's medical equipment.

Inventions

• 1895, X-ray
  X-ray
  X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
  
  , by Wilhelm Röntgen
• 1903, electrocardiograph, by Willem Einthoven
  Willem Einthoven
  Willem Einthoven was a Dutch doctor and physiologist. He invented the first practical electrocardiogram in 1903 and received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1924 for it....
  
  
• 1956, endoscope, by Basil Hirschowitz
  Basil Hirschowitz
  Basil Isaac Hirschowitz is an academic gastroenterologist from the University of Alabama at Birmingham best known in the field for having invented an improved optical Fiber which allowed the creation of a useful flexible endoscope...
  
  
• 1958, ultrasound scan, by Ian Donald
  Ian Donald
  Ian Donald was a Scottish physician who pioneered the use of diagnostic ultrasound in medicine. His article Investigation of Abdominal Masses by Pulsed Ultrasound, published June 7, 1958 in the medical journal The Lancet, was one of the defining publications in the field...
  
  
• 1958, Pacemaker
  Pacemaker
  An artificial pacemaker is a medical device that uses electrical impulses to regulate the beating of the heart.Pacemaker may also refer to:-Medicine:...
  
  , by Rune Elmqvist
  Rune Elmqvist
  Rune Elmqvist developed the first implantable pacemaker in 1958, working under the direction of Åke Senning, senior physician and cardiac surgeon at the Karolinska University Hospital in Solna, Sweden....
  
  
• 1973, CT (CAT) scan
  Computed tomography
  X-ray computed tomography or Computer tomography , is a medical imaging method employing tomography created by computer processing...
  
  , by Godfrey Hounsfield
  Godfrey Hounsfield
  Sir Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield CBE, FRS, was an English electrical engineer who shared the 1979 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Allan McLeod Cormack for his part in developing the diagnostic technique of X-ray computed tomography .His name is immortalised in the Hounsfield scale, a...
  
   and Allan Cormack
• 1982, artificial heart
  Artificial heart
  An artificial heart is a mechanical device that replaces the heart. Artificial hearts are typically used in order to bridge the time to heart transplantation, or to permanently replace the heart in case transplantation is impossible...
  
  , by Robert Jarvik

Notable medical equipment companies

• Abbott Laboratories
  Abbott Laboratories
  Abbott Laboratories is an American-based global, diversified pharmaceuticals and health care products company. It has 90,000 employees and operates in over 130 countries. The company headquarters are in Abbott Park, North Chicago, Illinois. The company was founded by Chicago physician, Dr....
  
  
• Cameron Health
  Cameron Health
  Cameron Health is a medical device developer based in San Clemente, California, USA. Cameron Health has its European office, Cameron Health BV, in Arnhem, The Netherlands. The privately-held company's focus is on a new generation of minimally invasive implantable cardioverter-defibrillator which...
  
  
• Cardinal Health
  Cardinal Health
  Cardinal Health, Inc., is a Fortune 500 health care services company based in Dublin, Ohio. Cardinal Health specializes in health care supply chain services, providing pharmaceuticals and medical products to more than 40,000 locations each day. The company is also a manufacturer of medical and...
  
  , Columbus, Ohio
  Columbus, Ohio
  Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
  
  
• Boston Scientific
  Boston Scientific
  The Boston Scientific Corporation , is a worldwide developer, manufacturer and marketer of medical devices whose products are used in a range of interventional medical specialties, including interventional cardiology, peripheral interventions, neuromodulation, neurovascular intervention,...
  
  
• Beckman Coulter
  Beckman Coulter
  Beckman Coulter Inc., is a company that makes biomedical laboratory instruments. Founded by Caltech professor Arnold O. Beckman in 1935 as National Technical Laboratories to commercialize a pH meter that he had invented, the company eventually grew to employ over 10,000 people, with $2.4 billion in...
  
  
• Dräger
  Dräger
  The Drägerwerk AG is a German company based in Lübeck which makes breathing and protection equipment, gas detection and analysis systems, and noninvasive patient monitoring technologies. Customers include hospitals, fire departments and diving companies....
  
  
• GE Healthcare
  GE Healthcare
  GE Healthcare is a division of GE Technology Infrastructure, which is itself a division of General Electric . It employs more than 46,000 people worldwide and is headquartered in Little Chalfont, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom. GE Healthcare is the first GE business segment to be headquartered...
  
  
• Getinge Group
  Getinge Group
  Getinge AB is a global medical technology company, founded in Sweden in 1904. The firm provides equipment and systems within healthcare and life sciences. The group is organised in three business areas: Infection Control , Extended Care and Medical Systems . In 2008 the group employed 11604 people...
  
  
• Heine Optotechnik
  Heine optotechnik
  - Company Profile :HEINE Optotechnik is a manufacturer of medical diagnostic instruments and is based in Herrsching, near Munich, Germany. The company was founded in 1946 by the German physicist Helmut A. Heine and has been a family run company ever since...
  
  
• Johnson & Johnson
  Johnson & Johnson
  Johnson & Johnson is an American multinational pharmaceutical, medical devices and consumer packaged goods manufacturer founded in 1886. Its common stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the company is listed among the Fortune 500....
  
  
• MAQUET
  Maquet
  MAQUET is a multinational German company based in Rastatt with focus on equipment for surgical workplaces, anesthesia systems, workstations for intensive care and Cardiovascular devices. Maquet is divided in the three divisions of Surgical Workplaces, Critical care and Cardiovascular...
  
  
• Medtronic
  Medtronic
  Medtronic, Inc. , based in suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota, is the world's largest medical technology company and is a Fortune 500 company.- History :...
  
  
• Mindray
  Mindray
  Mindray Medical International Limited is China's largest medical equipment manufacturer, developing, manufacturing, and marketing a variety of medical devices, equipment and accessories for both human and veterinary use...
  
  
• Philips
  Philips
  Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....
  
  
• REXMED
• St. Jude Medical
  St. Jude Medical
  St. Jude Medical, Inc. is a $16 billion global medical device company, with headquarters in Little Canada, Minnesota, United States, a suburb of St. Paul. The company sells products in more than 100 countries and has over 20 operations and manufacturing facilities worldwide. Its principal...
  
  
• Siemens AG
  Siemens AG
  Siemens AG is a German multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Munich, Germany. It is the largest Europe-based electronics and electrical engineering company....
  
  

See Also

• Medical technology
  Medical technology
  Medical Technology encompasses a wide range of healthcare products and is used to diagnose, monitor or treat diseases or medical conditions affecting humans. Such technologies are intended to improve the quality of healthcare delivered through earlier diagnosis, less invasive treatment options and...
  
  
• Medical device
  Medical device
  A medical device is a product which is used for medical purposes in patients, in diagnosis, therapy or surgery . Whereas medicinal products achieve their principal action by pharmacological, metabolic or immunological means. Medical devices act by other means like physical, mechanical, thermal,...
  
  
• Durable medical equipment
  Durable medical equipment
  Durable medical equipment is a term of art used to describe any medical equipment used in the home to aid in a better quality of living. It is a benefit included in most insurances. In some cases certain Medicare benefits, that is, whether Medicare may pay for the item...
  
  
• Home medical equipment
  Home medical equipment
  This article discusses the definitions and types of home medical equipment , also known as durable medical equipment , prosthetics and orthotics .- HME / DMEPOS :...
  
  
• Surgical instruments
• Medical test
  Medical test
  A diagnostic test is any kind of medical test performed to aid in the diagnosis or detection of disease. For example:* to diagnose diseases, and preferably sub-classify it regarding, for example, severity and treatability...
  
  
• Medical grade silicone
  Medical grade silicone
  Medical grade silicones are silicones tested for biocompatibility and are appropriate to be used for medical applications. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration regulates materials implanted into the body. Medical grade silicones are generally grouped into three categories: non...