Choice Review

A knowledgeable and clearly written book, suitable for an introductory survey course in biomedical engineering. It also could serve as a basic reference source for practitioners in clinical engineering. Both the scope and the organization of the contents are appropriate to the field. The book's chief drawback is that it does not present state-of-the-art technology, at least in the area of this reviewer's interest (pulmonary medicine). For example, the respirators discussed in the text have by now been largely superceded-or at least augmented-by a variety of high-frequency, positive-pressure devices. A discussion should be included about the problems associated with implementing an automated clinical-care monitoring system, a current topic of active study and development. Also, the role of the engineer in clinical rounding might have been mentioned. The book might have been much livelier if Feinberg had drawn on his extensive personal experience to present case studies illustrating some of his themes. College health sciences and engineering collections.-B.M. Snyder, University of Nevada, Reno