MedTech Skills Overview

BME254L - Spring 2026

Author
Affiliation

Dr. Mark Palmeri, M.D., Ph.D.

Duke University

Published

January 6, 2026

MedTech Skills Overview

What is MedTech?

BME in Industry

Why skills?

  • Do not want design ideas to be limited by what you “think” you can actually make!

  • As the engineer, you bring both solution creativity and execution to the table.

  • Most of the engineering curriculum has been ``book heavy’’ to date.

    • Functional Decomposition

    • CAD/EDA (simulation, PCB layout)

    • Fabrication & Integration (3D printing, soldering, fastening, mounting)

    • Verification & Validation: testing to specifications

    • MCU Firmware Development (C, git)

CAD (Computer Aided Design)

Why CAD?

  • Formally capture 2D projection sketches \(\rightarrow\) 3D parts.

  • Dimension consistency checks.

  • Assemble multiple parts to check fit, interfaces and simulate stress/strain/movement.

  • Translate to physical realization (e.g., 3D print, mil).

  • General technical drawings for manufacturing.

  • Capture design history, while facilitating iteration / change.

Onshape

Part Design

Mechanical Drawings

Design Example: mHealth Tympanometer

EDA: Electronics Design Automation

Why EDA?

  • Formalize circuit schematics.

  • Validate circuit behavior (design rules and SPICE simulations).

  • Convert circuit to printed circuit board (more space efficient and permanent than a breadboard).

  • Capture design history and facilitate rapid iteration.

  • Generate 3D “parts” to integrate with CAD.

KiCad

  • https://kicad.org

  • A completely open-source alternative to Eagle.

  • Just as capable as Altium Designer (to a point); similar workflow.

  • Integrated SPICE simulator.

Schematic Capture

PCB Layout

PCB 3D Model

Version Control Software

Why Version Control?

  • Preserve software (project) development history

  • Collaboration

  • Continuous Integration / Deployment

  • Testing

  • Maintaining multiple released versions

  • Required for IEC 62304 (Medical Software), FDA V&V (510k clearance)

Git

Firmware Development

Why Firmware?

  • While many things can be done in discrete electronics, microcontrollers and microprocessors (and SoCs) are becoming inexpensive and ubiquitous.

  • “Knowing Arduino” is not an eye-catching skill on a resume; but firmware development is!

Firmware isn’t “software”…

  • Firmware is a special kind of software that is designed to interact with hardware.

  • Firmware is often written in C, but can be written in other languages.

  • Firmware is highly resource constrained

  • Software is often written in Python, Java, C++, etc.

  • Software is often written to be run on a general-purpose computer (laptop, desktop, server, etc.), that typically is not resource constrained.

    • User Interface

    • Web Server

    • Database

    • Data Processing / Analytics

Medical Devices

Arduino-Framework / PlatformIO

  • We will use PlatformIO to develop firmware for our projects using Visual Studio Code as our IDE.

  • We will use the Arduino framework (in contrast to something like Zephyr RTOS) to develop firmware for our projects.

  • Learn robust, modular firmware development practices.