Excursion to Erbe Elektromedizin GmbH
On February 19, the students of Biomedical Engineering program at the University of Tübingen had the opportunity to visit Erbe Elektromedizin GmbH, a leading global developer of electrosurgery devices that remains firmly rooted and truly centered in Tübingen. The trip provided a wonderful opportunity to experience the full process from development to sales of a medical device in a single, state-of-the-art facility.
The afternoon started with welcome address by the Managing Director, who took the students through the extraordinary history of Erbe Elektromedizin from its founding in Tübingen all the way to a global company with locations on many continents. Dr. Scherer highlighted the principles the company upholds: Innovation in medical technology, Safety and reliability and Customer-oriented solutions.
This was followed by a presentation given by Human Resources Development/ Training Specialist. She discussed the organizational structure of Erbe through its two primary locations: Tübingen and Rangendingen. She gave an overview of the main departments at each location and the various career opportunities available, ranging from student interns, Bachelor and Master Thesis , working students positions to specialist position. This presented the students with concrete ways to potentially join Erbe in the future.
A tour through the production facility and the Erbe Museum provided the students with a perspective on the entire scope of production, covering areas such as electronics, mechanical production, software development, Testing and quality control, regulatory affairs, and logistics.
The excursion concluded with an interactive hands-on training where the students learned about high frequency electrosurgery technique where a high frequency alternating current (300 KHz-3MHz) can cut through tissue and coagulate, while not delivering an electrical current to the patient's body. The students used monopolar, bipolar and BiClamp devices on test samples(meat) to differentiate between the cutting and coagulation functions of electrosurgical instruments. A unique FiAPC probe with ERBECRYO® 2 was introduced to the students where controlled gas expansion creates extreme cold on the tip of the instrument to allow for cold tissue removal.
We express our sincere gratitude to the Erbe Elektromedizin GmbH team for the incredible hospitality and learning experience that they provided to the students of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Tübingen.
Ponni Sivanantham
Student of Biomedical Technologies M.Sc.