Medical cybernetics is a branch of
cybernetics which has been heavily affected by the development of the
computer, which applies the concepts of cybernetics to
medical research and practice. At the intersection of
systems biology,
systems medicine and clinical applications it covers an emerging working program for the application of
systems- and
communication theory,
connectionism
Connectionism refers to both an approach in the field of cognitive science that hopes to explain mental phenomena using artificial neural networks (ANN) and to a wide range of techniques and algorithms using ANNs in the context of artificial in ...
and
decision theory
Decision theory (or the theory of choice; not to be confused with choice theory) is a branch of applied probability theory concerned with the theory of making decisions based on assigning probabilities to various factors and assigning numerical ...
on biomedical research and health related questions.
Overview
Medical cybernetics searches for quantitative descriptions of biological dynamics.
[J.W. Dietrich (2004)]
''Medical Cybernetics – A Definition''
Medizinische Kybernetik, 2004. Released under creative commons 2.0 attribution licence. It investigates intercausal networks in
human biology
Human biology is an interdisciplinary area of academic study that examines humans through the influences and interplay of many diverse fields such as genetics, evolution, physiology, anatomy, epidemiology, anthropology, ecology, nutrition, populat ...
,
medical decision making and
information processing structures in the
living organism
In biology, an organism () is any living system that functions as an individual entity. All organisms are composed of cells (cell theory). Organisms are classified by taxonomy into groups such as multicellular animals, plants, and fungi ...
.
Approaches of medical cybernetics include:
*
Systems theory
Systems theory is the interdisciplinary study of systems, i.e. cohesive groups of interrelated, interdependent components that can be natural or human-made. Every system has causal boundaries, is influenced by its context, defined by its structu ...
in medical sciences: The scope of systems theory in the medical sciences is searching for and modelling of physiological dynamics in the intact and diseased organism to gain deeper insights into the organizational principles of life and its perturbations.
With focus on medical application this field is also referred to as
systems medicine.
* Medical information and
communication theory: Motivated by the awareness of information being an essential principle of life, the application of communication theory to biomedicine aims at an mathematical description of signalling processes and information storage in different physiological layers.
This attempt also includes theories on the information theory of the genetic code.
*
Connectionism
Connectionism refers to both an approach in the field of cognitive science that hopes to explain mental phenomena using artificial neural networks (ANN) and to a wide range of techniques and algorithms using ANNs in the context of artificial in ...
: Connectionistic models describe information processing in neural networks – thus forming a bridge between biological and technological research.
*
Medical decision theory (MDT): The Goal of MDT is to gather evidence based foundations for decision making in the clinical setting.
See also
;Related fields
*
Biocybernetics
*
Complex systems
*
Cybernetics
*
Systems theory
Systems theory is the interdisciplinary study of systems, i.e. cohesive groups of interrelated, interdependent components that can be natural or human-made. Every system has causal boundaries, is influenced by its context, defined by its structu ...
*
Prosthetics
In medicine, a prosthesis (plural: prostheses; from grc, πρόσθεσις, prósthesis, addition, application, attachment), or a prosthetic implant, is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, which may be lost through trau ...
*
Systems biology
*
Systems medicine
;Related scientists
*
Uri Alon
*
William Ross Ashby
W. Ross Ashby (6 September 1903 – 15 November 1972) was an English psychiatrist and a pioneer in cybernetics, the study of the science of communications and automatic control systems in both machines and living things. His first name was not ...
*
Claude Bernard
Claude Bernard (; 12 July 1813 – 10 February 1878) was a French physiologist. Historian I. Bernard Cohen of Harvard University called Bernard "one of the greatest of all men of science". He originated the term '' milieu intérieur'', and the ...
*
Valentin Braitenberg
*
Walter Cannon
Walter Bradford Cannon (October 19, 1871 – October 1, 1945) was an American physiologist, professor and chairman of the Department of Physiology at Harvard Medical School. He coined the term "fight or flight response", and developed the theory ...
*
Stephen Grossberg
*
Humberto Maturana
Humberto Maturana Romesín (September 14, 1928 – May 6, 2021) was a Chilean biologist and philosopher. Many consider him a member of a group of second-order cybernetics theoreticians such as Heinz von Foerster, Gordon Pask, Herbert Brün ...
*
Warren McCulloch
Warren Sturgis McCulloch (November 16, 1898 – September 24, 1969) was an American neurophysiologist and cybernetician, known for his work on the foundation for certain brain theories and his contribution to the cybernetics movement.Ken Aizawa ( ...
;Related scientists
*
Walter Pitts
Walter Harry Pitts, Jr. (23 April 1923 – 14 May 1969) was a logician who worked in the field of computational neuroscience.Smalheiser, Neil R"Walter Pitts", ''Perspectives in Biology and Medicine'', Volume 43, Number 2, Winter 2000, pp. 21 ...
*
Arturo Rosenblueth
Arturo Rosenblueth Stearns (October 2, 1900 – September 20, 1970) was a Mexican researcher, physician and physiologist, who is known as one of the pioneers of cybernetics.
Biography
Rosenblueth was born in 1900 in Ciudad Guerrero, Chihuahua. ...
*
Robert Trappl
*
Felix Tretter
*
Francisco Varela
Francisco Javier Varela García (September 7, 1946 – May 28, 2001) was a Chilean biologist, philosopher, cybernetician, and neuroscientist who, together with his mentor Humberto Maturana, is best known for introducing the concept of autopoiesi ...
*
Frederic Vester
Frederic Vester (November 23, 1925 – November 2, 2003) was a German biochemist, and an expert in the field of ecology.
Biography
Vester was born in Saarbrücken, and studied chemistry at the universities of Mainz, Paris and Hamburg. From 1955 ...
*
Kevin Warwick
Kevin Warwick (born 9 February 1954) is an English engineer and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at Coventry University. He is known for his studies on direct interfaces between computer systems and the human nervous system, and has also done ...
*
Paul Watzlawick
Paul Watzlawick (July 25, 1921 – March 31, 2007) was an Austrian-American family therapist, psychologist, communication theorist, and philosopher. A theoretician in communication theory and radical constructivism, he commented in the fields ...
*
List of biomedical cybernetics software
*
List of medical cybernetics schools, Colleges and UniversitiesMedical Cybernetics College Bradford, UK with Support office in Lenasia, Johannesburg, RSA. Principal Mohammed Dockrat, Medical Cyberneticist
References
Further reading
* V.V. Parin (1959), "Introduction to medical Cybernetics" in ''NASA Technical Translation'' no.F-459-F-462, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1959.
* C.A. Muses (1965). "Aspects of some crucial problems in biological and medical cybernetics". In: ''Progress in biocybernetics'', 1965.
External links
Institute for Medical Cybernetics and Artificial Intelligence, Medical University Vienna, AustriaMedical Cybernetics in the Open Encyclopedia ProjectPortal Server Medizinische Kybernetik , Medical CyberneticsUCLA Biocybernetics Laboratory, Los Angeles, Ca, USA
{{DEFAULTSORT:Medical Cybernetics
Biomedical cybernetics