Dr Alistair McEwan says the bioelectronics degree at the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technologies will train engineers to help drive down the sky-rocketing health costs associated with growing numbers of elderly patients.

Bioelectronics melds biology and electronics to design and build the likes of ECG machines and 3D CT scanning equipment. The Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (Bioelectronics) gives students the skills to build healthcare equipment, previously used only in hospitals, for the home.

The ratio of working aged people to those aged 65-plus in Australia will fall from the present 5:1 to 2.7:1 by 2050, according to the recent Smart Technology for Healthy Longevity report by the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE). The report found gerontechnology – linking gerontology with smart technologies – can make a substantial contribution to meeting the economic and social challenges posed by changing demographics.

“Wired and wireless technology can help diagnose, monitor and manage patients, with instruments connected via telephone, web-based services and databases,” Dr McEwan says.

“Bioelectronic engineering gives us the ability to develop comfortable, non-invasive physiological monitors, meaning medical conditions can be treated at a lower cost and in the home. The ATSE estimates home-based, self-management interventions can improve patient outcomes, halve hospital admissions and reduce doctor visits by 40%.”

“As a business proposition, demand for such medical equipment in the home is evidenced by the increasing number of consumer electronics companies entering the healthcare market.”

While of particular relevance to medical devices, bioelectronics can also be applied to forensics, agriculture, finance and the automotive industry.

Related postgraduate research at the school is looking at the link between nutrition in early life to the onset of cardiovascular disease in later years.

“We are looking to build low cost electronic devices to track nutrition both here and in the developing world,” Dr McEwan says.

The Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (Bioelectronics) addresses concerns raised in a recent Federal Government report on the medical device industry, identifying gaps in engineering graduates’ practical skills development. It will be taught at the University from 2011.