Medical devices are often very complex, and while there are differences in design from one manufacturer to another, the principles of operation and, more important, the physiological and anatomical characteristics on which they operate are universal. In this course, more attention will be paid to the commonalities of equipment than to differences. With many details specific to a given manufacturer, it would be impossible to cover all such material in a text of this nature; it is meant to serve as an overview.
As such, the course is not intended as a substitute for service or operator manuals; the specifics of operation of any device are too complex and idiosyncratic for this to be practical. Factory and self-guided training courses, including the study of manuals, are required for individual devices.
Details of electronic circuits are not covered because these not only vary greatly from one manufacturer to another but also from one generation of equipment to another. Moving from vacuum tubes to transistors to integrated circuits to microprocessor-based systems, the details of electronic design and function have become less and less relevant to technical support staff, whereas the overall function and integration of equipment into the medical system have become more and more important.
With the goal of giving students a clear idea of the function and application of the various medical devices, extensive descriptions of theory have been avoided because these can obscure the overview. Where theory is directly relevant to function and application, an appropriate description has been provided.
The main focus of the course is on clinical equipment, devices that are used directly with patients in the course of their care for diagnostic or treatment purposes.
Most topics are used to describe medical devices: clinical diagnostic equipment, diagnostic imaging systems, treatment devices. There is some overlap between diagnostic and treatment devices; for example, a bronchoscope can be used to diagnose respiratory diseases and, in conjunction with an electro surgery machine, can be used to remove lesions from bronchial passages. In such cases, both functions are described together.
Only an overview of the imaging technology is given, because of its high degree of complexity; these devices are covered in much more detail in other texts.