Biofluids Educational Issues: An Emerging Field Aims to Define Its Next Generation

Abstract

There are numerous processes in the body under healthy and pathologic conditions in which biofluid mechanics play a central role. The delivery of various substances to and from tissues is accomplished through a combination of complex active and passive mass transfer processes. Biofluid mechanics also play a central role in locomotion, from water-bound amoeba and fish to the soaring of birds. Educating undergraduate and graduate students in such wide-ranging fluid mechanical phenomena has proved challenging within the typical context of a biomedical engineering program. The diversity of biomedical engineering topics entails increased biological sciences curricular content, possibly limiting the opportunities to provide a fundamental knowledge base in fluid mechanics which may be expected in the more traditional engineering disciplines. The lack of textbooks in the area, while problematic in the past, is being alleviated with some recent texts and several new ones are due to appear soon. Today's biofluids educators are presented with the challenge of providing sufficient fundamental knowledge in biofluid mechanics within one- or two-semester courses. The richness of this topic has led to a variety of approaches to course development. This article outlines some of the current approaches and presents some strategies that we hope would help in constructing effective biofluids courses.