International Federation For Medical And Biological Engineering Research Articles

Health Technology Assessment and Biomedical Engineering: Global trends, gaps and opportunities

The diffusion of medical devices is expanding at an astonishing rate. The increasing number of novel patents per year suggests this growth will continue. In contrast to drugs, medical devices are intrinsically dependent on the environment in which they are used and how they are maintained. This created an unprecedented global need for well-trained biomedical engineers who can help healthcare systems to assess them. The International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE) is the global scientific society of biomedical engineers in official relations with the United Nations World Health Organisation (WHO) and has been very active in promoting the role of the biomedical engineer in Health Technology Assessment (HTA). The IFMBE Health Technology Assessment Division (HTAD) is the IFMBE operative branch in this field, promoting studies, projects and activities to foster the growth of this specific and very important science sector, including summer schools, training material, an HTA eLearning platform, HTA guidelines, awards and more. This article describes the vision, the mission and the strategy of the HTAD, with a focus on the results achieved and the impact this is having on global policymaking.

Systems medicine for the delivery of better healthcare services – International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE) perspective

Systems medicine for the delivery of better healthcare services – International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE) perspective

Introducing the Institute of Physics in Engineering and Medicine (IPEM)

Introducing the Institute of Physics in Engineering and Medicine (IPEM)

Introducing the Institute of Physics in Engineering and Medicine (IPEM)

Introducing the Institute of Physics in Engineering and Medicine (IPEM)

Supporting Clinical Engineering in Italy: Results of a Survey Conducted by the AIIC

This article presents the outcomes of a survey developed and conducted by the Italian Association of Clinical Engineers (AIIC) in 2010 [1]. The AIIC, affiliated with the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE) since 2003, conducted this in-depth survey to investigate the educational profile of clinical engineers (CEs) as well as the activities and organization of clinical engineering departments (CEDs) in Italy. The survey consisted of a six-section questionnaire designed by the AIIC Board, which was based on other previous international surveys of CEDs. The questionnaire was sent to the AIIC members and to the most important Italian health-care organizations.

Biomedical Engineering—Past, Present, Future

Medicine and health care have changed dramatically in the past few decades and they depend on high technology for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases, and for patient rehabilitation. Modern biomedical research and health care are provided by multidisciplinary teams in which biomedical engineers contribute to the advancement of knowledge equally as medical professions. Biomedical engineering represents one (out of two) the most rapidly growing branches of industry in the developed world [1] (the other are sustainable and renewable energy sources). The new knowledge gained by basic biomedical engineering research (at gene, molecular, cellular, organ and system level) has high impact on the growth of new medical products and boosts industries, including small and medium size enterprises (SMEs). SMEs are expected to bring to the market new products and services for health care delivery [2]. Health is the major theme of the specific Programme on Cooperation under the European Seventh Framework Programme, with a total budget of €6.1 billion over the duration of FP7. The objective of health research under FP7 is to improve the health of European citizens and stir up the competitiveness of health-related industries and businesses, while addressing global health issues, life improving and develop life saving technologies. Hospitals and other medical institutions have a commitment to take care of all kinds of high technology devices including the hospital information systems, networks and their safety and security. Growing technological participation in health services enforces the support of technologically specialized personnel, trained clinical engineers. Worldwide, the educational system has adopted the curricula of biomedical engineering and of clinical engineering. Professional organizations are building certification system for biomedical and clinical engineers and the continuous education (life long learning) structures. The development of biomedical engineering and its affirmation has mainly appeared in the last 50 years, first as a result of development in electronic industry while later it started developing at its own pace. In the first part of this paper, we address the development of biomedical engineering in that period and present our views on the development of biomedical engineering in the future. The second part is devoted to the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE), the largest organization of biomedical engineers in the world which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2009. In the third part, we recall our memories to the founder of biomedical engineering in Croatia, prof. Ante Šantić and his achievements in biomedical engineering, and present the state of art of biomedical engineering research and education in Croatia.

International Biofluid Mechanics Symposium: Position Papers and Key Challenges

On December 12–14, 2003, an International Biofluid Mechanics Symposium was held in Pasadena, California, under the auspices of the US National Committee on Biomechanics (USNCB), the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), and the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE). One of the main objectives of the Symposium was to review major milestones that were achieved in the past decade and to define the so-called “show-stoppers” in reaching a comprehensive understanding of bio-fluid mechanics and cardiovascular hemodynamics from cell to organs. In this respect, we face major challenges in defining critical questions and identifying tools that are required to answer these questions. We see the next decade dominated by SYNTHESIS. We now have gone to the “ground zero” of the biology, and are being able to understand individual proteins docking to create new structures, new reactions, and new biological states. The current successes are small, but the future is clear. This involves an enormous amount of first-principles physics as well as integrative fluid mechanics. Coming at these problems from the perspective of continuum mechanics, we have the advantage of knowing how to synthesize these problems and move from angstroms to nanometers to micrometers and cell dimensions, and finally to organs. The relationships between blood flow, mechanotransduction, and the localization of arterial lesions can now be advanced by the incorporation of new technologies and the refinement of existing methods in imaging modalities, computational modeling, and high throughput genomics and proteomics.

4th International Workshop on Biosignal Interpretation (BSI 2002)

This issue constitutes a selected collection of papers presented at the Fourth International Workshop on Biosignal Interpretation (BSI2002), after a careful reviewing made by the Editorial Committee. The Workshop was a joint initiative of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA), the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE), the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (IEEE-EMBS) and the Japan Society of Medical Electronics and Biomedical Engineering (JSMEBE), co-sponsored by the Associazione Elettrotecnica ed Elettronica Italiana (AEI), the Associazione Italiana di Ingegneria Medica e Biologica (AIIMB) and the Polytechnic University in Milano. ..