Biomedical Engineering for Global Health

Rebecca Richards-Kortum is the Malcolm Gillis University Professor at Rice University, Houston and the Director of the Rice 360° Institute for Global Health. Her research has been instrumental in improving early detection of cancers and other diseases, especially in low-resources settings. She is currently working with colleagues and undergraduate students to develop and deploy a suite of technologies necessary to reduce neonatal death in Sub-Saharan Africa. Dr Richards-Kortum has 40 patents, and her teaching programs, research and collaborations are supported by grants from NCI, NIH and NSF, the Gates Foundation, and HHMI. She is a member of the NAS, NEA and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Preface; 1. Emerging medical technologies: high stakes science and the need for technology assessment; 2. Bioengineering and technology assessment; 3. Health and economic data: a global comparison; 4. World health and global health challenges; 5. Healthcare systems: a global comparison; 6. Healthcare costs vs time: trends and drivers; 7. The evolution of technology: scientific method, engineering design, and translational research; 8. Prevention of infectious disease; 9. Ethics of clinical research; 10. Technologies for early detection and prevention of cancer; 11. Cost-effectiveness of screening for disease; 12. Technologies for treatment of heart disease; 13. Clinical trial design and sample size calculation; 14. Technology diffusion; 15. Regulation of health care technologies; 16. Future of bioengineering and world health; Index.