Engineering: The Clinician Engineer

In February 2019, we launched The Clinician Engineer hub. This is the first international collaboration that aims to educate a new generation of clinicians with engineering expertise. Clinicians utilise engineering solutions for every patient as opposed to the former days of a simple history and physical examination. We use CT scans for imaging, cardiac stents for heart attacks, dialysis machines for kidney failure, ventilators for respiratory compromise, endoscopy for digestive bleeding. The list is endless. However, clinicians have limited knowledge of how these engineering solutions work. As front line workers, a thorough understanding of engineering can help to recognise limitations in current engineering platforms and develop new solutions accordingly. Clinical medicine is on the verge of undergoing a significant revolutionary change through transformative engineering technologies. Clinicians that understand these engineering concepts therefore and the pathway from prototyping to the patient will be at the forefront of medicine in the future. The vision that drives this Topical Collection is a major gap in the current journal landscape for bringing engineering technology to the patient. Several important topics are poorly understood by the majority of clinicians and engineers with the consequence that fewer engineering technologies reach the patient: How to foster a clear pathway for new medical engineering technology to reach the market and ensure impact for patients? What is the state of regulatory frameworks? Journals with regulatory frameworks do not exist although it is an inherent part of any clinical translation. How do commercialisation strategies impact the pathway to final product? This includes entrepreneurship activities undertaken by clinicians. We introduce here The Clinician Engineer, a multidisciplinary Topical Collection, to provide answers to all these questions. The aim of this Topical Collection is to offer a precise high impact publication channel for medical engineering technologies that are rigorously researched, reach the market and more importantly benefit the patient. The synergy that The Clinician Engineer will offer between engineering, regulatory frameworks and commercialization will break new ground for articles aiming to specifically impact our patients. The scope of this Topical Collection includes the following: Research articles: clinician-led multidisciplinary research articles with a clearly defined clinical pathway. Topics may include point-of-care or implantable medical devices, biosensors, imaging, robotics, tissue engineering, AI and drug development. Perspectives: perspective articles on research topics, regulatory frameworks and commercialisation, entrepreneurship. Reviews: reviews on research topics, regulatory frameworks, entrepreneurship and commercialisation.