Robert E. Fischell, chairman and president of Fischell Biomedical, LLC, will give the second Whiting-Turner lecture of the spring semester on April 29 at 5 p.m. This lecture is part of 2010 Fischell Festival of Bioengineering. Date: April 29 Time: 5 p.m. Location: 1110 Kim Engineering Building Students Welcome! Whiting-Turner Lecture Series Home Missed the Lecture? This lecture was webcast live.

A Whiting-Turner Lecture — April 29, 2010

Abstract

At this time in history, there is a great deal of interest in improving U.S. health care while decreasing medical costs and creating jobs. Medical costs are rising much faster than inflation in part because new medical therapies have become available that can prolong life. These new drugs, devices and medical procedures have a significant associated cost. However, biomedical engineers can create new medical devices that can actually decrease the cost for patient care while improving the care that those patients receive. For example, a new medical device that is in clinical trials has the capability to essentially eliminate congestive heart failure—the single greatest medical expense category in the United States. There are new stents in clinical trials that can significantly decrease the cost of stenting. There is a new medical device that can cure migraine headaches without requiring expensive drugs. These three devices are just a very short list of what biomedical engineers have already created and there are many more to come. Each new medical device creates new jobs, which helps to offset the high unemployment rate that the United States is experiencing.

Biography

Robert E. Fischell received his B.S. in mechanical engineering from Duke University in 1951 and an M.S. in Physics from the University of Maryland in 1953. In 1996 he received the honorary Sc.D. degree from the University of Maryland and in 2008 he received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the Johns Hopkins University in recognition of his many contributions to the betterment of mankind. He serves on many non-profit boards including the University of Maryland, College Park Foundation, the Clark School of Engineering, the University of Maryland College of Computer, Mathematical and Physical Sciences and the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Fischell was employed at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory full-time for 25 years and part-time for an additional 13 years. He was the Chief Engineer of the Space Department where he developed more than 50 spacecraft. His interests at Johns Hopkins then turned to the invention of new medical devices such as pacemakers and implantable heart defibrillators. Starting in 1969, Dr. Fischell began the formation of 14 private companies that licensed his patents on medical devices. Dr. Fischell is a prolific inventor with more than 200 issued U.S. and foreign patents, many of which have started new medical device companies. Dr. Fischell is working on several new medical devices that will lead to better patient care at considerably reduced cost to the health care system.