A few ways...

Whenever anyone brings up engineering, they always talk about the engineer's ability to solve problems using a different way of thinking. Although I personally have learned no problem solving techniques and still do not understand this "engineering way of thought" that everyone keeps talking about, I recognize that engineering has great potential for things in the health and medical fields and can play an important role in improving healthcare.

1. Assistive Technology/Devices:

By improving or creating technology that can help the disabled or otherwise impaired, engineers can help reduce healthcare costs for millions of disabled people around the world. Think about the wheelchair or the elevator. These inventions have helped the mobility of disabled people for decades and I'm sure have greatly reduced healthcare costs involved with personal injury that occurred more frequently without them.

(http://www.ablenetinc.com/) <--shows some assistive technologies

2. Pharmaceuticals:

Engineers, especially bioengineers and chemical engineers, can help reduce the cost of medicine, allowing people with low budgets to better afford their treatment. New medicines are constantly made for better and safer treatment, and this can help reduce costs and make treatment methods much safer for patients.

3. Design of Facilities:

Usually when people think of engineering, they think of building bridges and buildings. By designing new medical and health facilities, however, bioengineers may be able to help with patient treatment and healthcare even more than with designing of products/medicine. Think about it--If hospitals or other facilities were better designed for faster and more efficient treatment, patients could have more one-on-one contact with physicians and physicians could even see more patients on a day-to-day basis. No more waiting months for an appointment and letting your condition get out of control. I've heard that there are a lot of problems in places like Canada that have universal healthcare with getting appointments and seeing doctors--a close family friend had a family member who, because of lack of available appointments with his cancer specialist, died months, even a few years, too early because he could not get in to see his doctor. It is important that this does not happen to us in the U.S., and if we could somehow develop better facilities to better utilize our doctors' time, we may be able to prevent some of the problems associated with universal healthcare.