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From Engineering to Healing: Dr. Chyu’s Journey

Dr. Ming-Chien Chyu is a pioneering figure in the field of Healthcare Engineering, having founded the Healthcare Engineering Alliance Society (HEALS), a global organization aimed at advancing healthcare through engineering approaches and methods. Widely recognized as the “Father of Healthcare Engineering,” Dr. Chyu has been honored with numerous awards and distinctions, including being named one of the “Top 100 Innovators & Entrepreneurs” and one of the “Most Influential Leaders in Healthcare in the US.” He has also been recognized for his transformative leadership, including being named one of the “Transformational Business Leaders of the Year.” Under Dr. Chyu’s guidance, HEALS has grown to over 15,000 members and followers worldwide, and has been recognized as one of the “Most Influential Companies & Organizations.”

Dr. Chyu has made significant contributions to healthcare through his work in Healthcare Engineering, and continues to drive innovation and advancement in this crucial field. Dr. Chyu’s groundbreaking work includes defining Healthcare Engineering in a milestone whitepaper, which has had a profound influence on the development of this unique and important sector. He is also a passionate advocate for the role of engineering in healthcare, highlighting how engineering solutions have brought about revolutionary advances in healthcare, and stressing the importance of collaboration and innovation between the two domains. 

In addition, Dr. Chyu has founded one of the world’s first graduate healthcare engineering degree programs at Texas Tech University. He has also pioneered the creation of two platforms that assist engineers and engineering students in finding employment and internships in the healthcare industry, as well as helping healthcare industry firms in recruiting skilled engineers and students. 

A Journey of Constant Learning and Innovation 

Dr. Chyu’s journey has been characterized by a passion for helping people and finding innovative ways to address unmet needs in the healthcare industry. He started with a desire to connect engineering and healthcare professionals and to help his students explore job opportunities in the healthcare industry. Through his interactions with healthcare industry employers and engineers, he realized that there was a deficiency in the current engineering curricula that needed to be addressed. This realization led him to explore the industry further and to introduce programs that would better train engineering students to work in healthcare.

Throughout his journey, Dr. Chyu has remained motivated by his desire to help people and to make a positive impact on patient outcomes. His journey has been one of constant learning, innovation, and collaboration with others who share his passion for improving healthcare through engineering.

Bridging the Gap between Healthcare and Engineering

Dr. Ming-Chien Chyu has been instrumental in helping engineers, engineering professors, researchers, and companies connect with clinicians to ensure that their inventions and products can truly benefit patient outcomes. Through one of the platforms he has built, he has facilitated collaboration between healthcare professionals, engineers, researchers, inventors, consultants, investors, entrepreneurs, and companies, leading to the commercialization of new medical devices and technologies.

The platform established by Dr. Chyu serves as a repository for technical projects that address unmet needs in patient care, mostly originating from clinicians, engineers, and medical device/technology companies seeking collaborations on various stages of development. This includes conceptualization, research, design, prototyping, testing, clinical trial, regulation compliance, FDA clearance/approval, manufacture, capital funding, and more.

Notably, the platform also offers opportunities for engineering students to work with clinicians, engineers, and companies on real-world healthcare projects, providing a valuable learning experience. Dr. Chyu has further supported these efforts by building a comprehensive and user-friendly medical device platform (Medical Device Net), which provides state-of-the-technology information for all medical devices, including the most recent devices cleared/approved by the FDA.

Helping Researchers and Students Publish Their Work

Dr. Chyu has helped the engineering and healthcare communities overcome the dilemma of publishing their research in interdisciplinary areas. He founded the Journal of Healthcare Engineering, which serves as a platform for publishing scientific articles that focus on the intersection of healthcare and engineering. With Dr. Chyu serving as the founding editor-in-chief, the journal encourages collaborative research in this field, prioritizing the direct impact on patient outcomes.

Moreover, Dr. Chyu has introduced the Healthcare Engineering Online Communities, which help healthcare and engineering communities come together and provides updated information about more than 500 topics ranging from artificial intelligence to 3D printing for surgery, engineering for cancer diagnosis, and nanomedicine. This platform serves as an excellent resource for researchers and students conducting healthcare research, providing them with a space to discuss and exchange ideas in this interdisciplinary field.

Establishing Platforms to Empower Skilled Engineers

Dr. Chyu has taken several initiatives to help the healthcare industry recruit qualified engineers. One of his key contributions is the establishment of a platform that assists engineering students and young engineers in succeeding in the healthcare industry, while also helping healthcare firms find skilled engineers. Recognizing that most existing engineering curricula provide little or no education on healthcare and biomedicine, except for biomedical engineering, Dr. Chyu started a program that invites medical doctors with expertise in healthcare engineering and medical technology innovation to deliver lectures to engineering students. This program also invites engineering leaders from the healthcare industry, particularly the medical device/technology sector, and medical school professors with degrees in engineering as guest speakers. By bringing experts with dual expertise to teach healthcare to engineering students, Dr. Chyu is bridging the gap between the healthcare industry’s need for qualified engineers and engineering students’ lack of awareness about the opportunities available in the healthcare industry. One of the notable platforms he created is the Healthcare Engineering Mentoring Program, which connects healthcare engineering professionals and leaders with engineering students to help them prepare for careers in the healthcare/medical technology industry and thrive in the field.

Addressing Deficiency of Engineering Curricula in Healthcare 

Dr. Chyu has developed several programs to address the deficiency of engineering curricula and prepare engineering students for jobs in healthcare. One of these programs is the Healthcare Engineering Certificate Program, which features the innovative Cutting-Edge Courses Customized (CeCoCu) approach. The program allows individuals to customize their learning experience based on their backgrounds, interests, and career strategies. This program is designed not only for engineering students but also for practicing engineers looking to transition to the healthcare sector and healthcare professionals seeking to apply engineering to their practice. 

Driving Force Behind HEALS’ Success

Several factors have contributed to the success of HEALS. One of the key factors is their commitment to continuous communication and engagement with their members and followers. By regularly communicating with healthcare professionals, engineers and engineering leaders, researchers, professors, and students in both healthcare and engineering, inventors, consultants, and entrepreneurs, HEALS is able to learn what their target audience needs and how they can help. This communication also helps HEALS generate new ideas and improve their services.

Another factor contributing to their success is their willingness to reach out to people they have never met who may help them generate new ideas. This initiative to connect with experts at the intersection of healthcare and engineering, as well as other individuals who need their help, enables HEALS to keep up with the latest technology and trends in the healthcare industry.

By constantly communicating and learning from experts and people who need help, while keeping up with the new technology and trends, HEALS is able to create synergy between healthcare and engineering. This approach has allowed them to identify the needs of healthcare professionals and engineers and develop services that effectively address those needs. HEALS’ commitment to communication, engagement, and collaboration has been instrumental in their success.

Envisioning the Future of HEALS

Dr. Chyu is committed to continuing his efforts to build a strong alliance between healthcare and engineering professionals. To achieve this goal, he will pursue partnerships and collaborations with various organizations and individuals, and seek to expand HEALS’ reach and impact through increased membership, enhanced services and resources, and the development of new initiatives. Dr. Chyu’s unwavering dedication to bridging the gap between healthcare and engineering will drive his vision for the future of HEALS, as he strives to create meaningful and lasting changes in the field.

Renowned Experts Praising Dr. Chyu’s Contributions

“Dr. Chyu has been a pioneer in the field of healthcare engineering and was one of the early advocates for applying engineering practices to efforts to enhance the delivery of healthcare.”  –James P. Bagian, MD, PE, US National Academy of Medicine, US National Academy of Engineering, former NASA Astronaut

“Dr. Chyu may have already secured a historical position in the development of healthcare engineering.”- Fazle Hussain, PhD, US National Academy of Engineering, The World Academy of Science