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BLOG: The Engineer-Doctor
The post title does not refer to an engineer with a PhD in engineering but it refers to the example of an engineer who then switched jobs and became a doctor.
I have always had a great passion for engineering and technology. As I entered into the medical world, I grew fascinated by the blending of engineering and medicine. Technology has become an integral part of medicine, not the least of which is the IT electronic health records.
When I was in grade school, I was always amazed by how things work: watches, bells, radios, engines, etc. I would go to the public library in downtown Amman, and borrow books on physics and motors.
I would collect wires, batteries, wood and build electric devices including telegraphs and bells. I was so fascinated by the idea of creating a magnetic field in a metal bar (eg, a big nail) by creating a coil of long copper wire around it, and then connecting the ends of the wire to a battery.
It turned out — which was fascinating to me — that the idea of the electric magnetic field is the basis of the function of electric and mechanical devices. When coil on a metal bar is placed between two or more actual magnets so that it is free to rotate, you get two reverse devices: either a motor or a dynamo. The device is a motor if the coil is connected to batteries, and reversely, an electric generator if the coil is made to rotate automatically in which case the circular rotation will create electricity in the coil. The physical basis for this phenomenon is the alternating magnetic repelling effect between the rotating electric magnet and the fixed actual magnets surrounding the electric magnet.
The engineer-doctor was a brilliant senior pediatric resident at my alma mater medical school teaching hospital, Jordan University Hospital, during my pediatric internship in the mid-80s. One night, we were on-call in the neonatal intensive care unit. After we finished all the work and ensured all new born children were stable, he asked if I would like to see an experiment and I replied, yes.
We went to the on-call room. He opened his bag, and pulled out a number of tools, wires, batteries, small transistors, microphones, etc. We then went back to the unit and we stopped at one crib with a child who was connected to multiple intravenous lines. In the old days, there were no automated IV monitors or devices: The nurses would use micro dropper small IV plastic cylinders and would count manually the micro drops to deliver the fluids as ordered by doctors.
When the resident synthesized a device with the tools and wires he had, he asked me to return to the on-call room: He then turned on the radio and dialed a wave-length that he had known, we then began hearing the drops of fluid on the radio.
I congratulated him on that great experiment. At the time, I never anticipated that years later, this simple concept would be, I assume, the basis for the automated devices where the nurses just push buttons and the device will deliver the desired fluid amount/rate as ordered by the doctor.
That senior pediatric doctor was an electric engineer before he decided to study medicine. I am not sure where he is now, but I hope if he reads this blog one day he will remember that experiment.
That is the story of the Engineer-Doctor!