Applying Software Engineering Methodology for Designing Biomedical Software Devoted To Electronic Instrumentation

Problem statement: Significant effort goes into the development of bio medical software, which is integrated with computers/processors, sens ors and electronic instrumentation devoted to a specific application. However, the scientific work on electronic instrumentation controlled by biomedical software has not emphasized software development, instead focusing mainly on electronics engineering. The development team is rarely composed of Software Engineering (SE) experts. Usually, a commercial automated tools environment is not used due to its high cost and complexity for researchers from other areas to understand. Approach: This present study reports how the SE approach was applied to design and develop biomedical software, which is part of a Computerized Electronic Instrumentation (CEI). This CEI comprise s software and an electronic instrumentation based on a force sensor and electrogoniometer to mo nitor the hand exertion of computer user during typing task. The aim is to serve as a guideline for academic researchers who are not expert in softwar e engineering methodology but usually develop their o wn software to run with their CEI. The specification of the requirements, presented as use case, includes the context diagram, the data flow diagram, the entity relationship diagram and test p rocedure. The Unified Modelling Language from the Enterprise Architect tool was used. The developed s oftware and the electronic instrumentation were tested together. Results: A sample of the interface screen shows how the out comes could be plotted in an integrated manner. By comparing the values with other values obtained by manual calculations and with those provided by sensor manufacturer, the rep eatability of test procedure validated the results. Reliable electronic instrumentation when working with unreliable software can become unreliable. Conclusion: Applying software engineering methodology principles provided a simple and clear documentation that was helpful to establish the tes t procedures and the re-work.