#but seeing the anatomy lecture just show us parts of the lungs and heart but the face and lower extremities covered

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[zakiyastudies]

Biomedical Science: an info post

Hi!! I've had a bunch of people in my ask recently asking about Biomedical Science (BMS), the degree I'm currently studying. So I decided to make a post of all the info I have so that anyone who's interested can refer to it 😊

I've written a lot of info so I'm gonna put it under the cut. But if you're considering studying BMS, want to explore it as an option, or you're just simply interested in it (it is a cool subject), read on!

Disclaimer: I've studied two years of BMS at Keele uni, in the UK, and will be starting my third year soon. Other countries/unis may be different, please also do specific research for your situation!! This guide is all based on my personal experience of studying BMS and my own opinions on it, please don't take it as gospel without doing your own research too.

What is BMS?

According to the Institute of Biomedical Science (IBMS), "Biomedical scientists carry out investigations on tissue and body fluid samples and usually work in laboratories in the areas of diagnosis, screening, monitoring and research." 

BMS is the study of human tissue and other samples, mainly for diagnosing disease in people. A Biomedical Scientist will often work in a hospital, processing and studying samples taken from patients. Samples can be anything from blood and urine, to tumours removed from people during surgery.

Please note here that becoming a Biomedical Scientist is not the only job you can do with a BMS degree - there are many other options. However, the degree does focus a lot on preparing students for BMS work - see the next section for more detail on what you'll study!

Biomedical Science as a whole is split into several disciplines. Some of the key ones are:

Haematology - blood, the components of it, diseases of blood and also things carried in blood that could indicate other diseases

Histology - tissue samples like biopsies, removed tumours, etc. Often involved in detecting and monitoring cancer

Immunology - immune cells can be used to detect what illness someone is suffering from, or to detect/confirm proof of an allergic reaction. An immunologist finds immune cells in a sample and studies them to figure out what illness they're from.

Medical microbiology - this involves looking at bacteria in samples, and using it to detect infection. It often means growing bacteria from a human sample like urine or saliva, to find out what bug they've got and diagnose them so they can be treated.

As you can see, there’s a bunch of areas you can specialise in.

What does studying BMS entail?

Biomedical Science is a full-time degree with a lot of content. Examples of the areas you could cover are:

Anatomy and physiology

Genetics

Molecular structure of biological compounds

Metabolic processes

Pathology

Neurology

Health and disease

Immunology

Pharmacology

As I've said earlier, the key thing with BMS is being able to look at a human sample and try to understand what could be wrong with the person it came from. This starts with understanding how the human body functions normally - so we can then learn how it goes wrong. E.g. before you can understand a heart attack, you have to understand the heart. So we learn all about how the body functions, starting from our genetics. Once you know that, you can understand how it goes wrong. What diseases are, how they're caused, how they're fixed and most importantly, how we can identify them in a person. We cover a lot of diseases and disorders in this way - diabetes, heart problems, genetic disorders, lung problems, liver disease, allergies, and a lot of others. Ultimately, you're learning how these diseases happen and how they can be identified and cured.

Labs are also a big part of BMS - because if you take the job, you'll be working in one! Especially during the first two years of the course, you'll be in a lab 1-2 times a week learning all kinds of techniques and procedures. They'll always focus on the kind of techniques you'd use in a BMS job, like blood testing (using your own blood from your fingertip!), urine sampling, looking at cells under a microscope, growing bacterial colonies, identifying and measuring specific substances in a sample. The list goes on. More often than not the labs will consist of a several-week course of experiments, and then a scientific lab report to present what you found (that'll count toward your grade).

Basically, the learning side of BMS is a practical understanding of what you'll be doing in the job, plus lots of theory so you understand why you're doing what you do. (I hope that makes sense)

What can I do with a BMS degree?

As you might be able to tell, BMS is a job as well as a degree, so that's the most obvious route to follow with it. As I said earlier, it's split into a number of disciplines - if you take a job in it, you'll specialise in one of those areas (although you still learn about all of them at uni). If you know you want to study BMS in the future, a lot of unis offer the option to go into the workplace for a year partway through your degree and get experience in it.

Another common route is to go into a medical degree. A lot of people (like me!) study BMS because they didn't get into a medical school when they applied to uni. BMS is a great fall-back option as it teaches you a lot of similar things to medicine. If you plan on trying again for medical school after you graduate (again, like me!) it's a good course to study as it shows the medical schools that you apply to that you know your stuff, and can handle a pretty demanding course (more on that in the Pros/Cons section).

P.S.: I'm currently in the middle of applying to graduate entry medicine with my BMS degree, if anyone would like an info post on applying to medicine as a graduate, let me know and I'll gladly give the info I have!

As for other options, the great thing about BMS is that it covers so many areas, which gives you so many job possibilities. Some ideas are:

Pharmacy

Health Science

Toxicology

Research Science

Working for the Blood Transfusion Service

Working in a private lab

Health and Safety

Public Health Services (like working in office-based public health roles, or being a safety officer)

There are also the more academic jobs such as doing your Masters, PhD, etc, or going into teaching and lecturing.

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know a lot about some of the other options you can take with BMS, as my focus is 100% aimed at doing medicine. Please please please do your research on alternative jobs and make sure they’re possible with a BMS degree, before you set your heart on them.

Or, maybe you don’t know what kind of job you’d like - thats fine too! Most unis have great careers advisors to help with that sort of thing, BMS might be a good introduction to the different types of scientific jobs that are out there, and help you make the choice.

Pros/Cons?

All degrees are gonna have their pros and cons. The main thing is that BMS is a very rounded subject, in the sense that what you cover and what you do is very diverse. We look at aspects of chemistry, biochemistry, human biology, neuroscience, pharmacology, immunology, there's even a bit of physics thrown in there sometimes. That can be a pro or a con depending on what your personal strengths/preferences are!! Do you like studying lots of topics? Or would you prefer to have one set subject? If you're a one-track mind kind of person BMS might not be for you. That being said, even if it's outside your usual strengths, you can do it if you're dedicated!

Similarly, the way BMS is assessed, in my experience, is quite diverse. We have labs, exams, presentations, essays, scientific lab reports, computer-based assessments, comprehension assignments, the works. Most modules you study have two or three very different methods of assessment combined into a final grade - E.g. you might have to submit a report, a presentation and an exam for the same module. That, again is both a pro and a con: on the bright side, if one type of assessment is a weakness for you, it won’t be completely devastated since it’ll only be one fraction of your grade. However, definitely consider whether you're up for diverse assessment.

Also, you know those people who do like 2 or 3 days of uni a week? That won’t be you. BMS is very hands-on - lots of lectures, lots of workshops, lots of labs. It's likely to be every weekday, maybe a day off if you're lucky, and expect some long days. Again that's not necessarily a bad thing, I love my long days! But just be ready for them. Snacks are essential guys.

Is BMS hard?

This goes back to what I just said - it depends on your strengths and weaknesses. There's a lot of content in a lot of areas, and there's usually quite a few coursework deadlines and exams to revise for. But, that's pretty standard for most/all degrees!! If you enjoy science, and you're good at it, BMS will challenge you but it definitely wont be too difficult.

Is it fun?

Yes!!! Personally I love what I study, I love science and learning about so many different areas of it is perfect. It's intense at times and it keeps you busy all year, but with the right mindset (and the right friends!!!) even the long-haul library sessions can be fun. The lab experiments are ridiculously interesting, as are a lot of the coursework topics.

I hope this GIANT of a post is useful!! The IBMS website is a great resource for info on Biomedical Science, as are university info pages. Definitely try and visit some unis and get a feel for how they teach BMS, and have a read of their syllabus’. I think I’ve covered pretty much everything here but do let me know if you have any other questions or anything to add!!