Skill Requirements for the Rehabilitation Engineer: Results of a Survey

A survey of skills requred for rehabilitation engineering was prepared by the Biomedical Engineering Divison of the American Society for Engineering Education. The purpose of the survey was to determine basic and specific skills needed for the practice of rehabilitation engineering as assessed by four groups: biomedical engineering educators, practicing engineers, medical doctors, and medical specialists. Results indicated an emphasis in basic skills such as transducers, medical devices, kdnesiology, and anatomy, and in specific skills such as rehabilitation devices and aids, equipment control programs, and legal correlates. The two engineering groups tended to agree with each other as did the two medical groups; however, the engineeringgroups did not always concur with the medical groups. Medical doctors and medical specialists generally desired a more broadly trained and more highly skilled rehabilitation engineer. Results suggest that the M.S. degree level appears most reasonable for educational training in rehabilitation engineering.