Vietnam is a rapidly developing, socially dynamic country, where interest in biomedical engineering (BME) activities has grown considerably in recent years. The leadership of the Vietnamese government, and of research and educational institutions, are well aware of the importance of this field for the development of the country and have instituted policies to promote its development. The political, economic and social environment within the country offers unique opportunities for the international community and this conference was intended to provide a vehicle for the sharing of experiences; development of support and collaboration networks for research; and exchange of ideas on how to improve the educational and entrepreneurial environment to better address the urgent needs of Vietnam. In the following we would like to share with you the progress of our international conferences on the development of Biomedical Engineering organized in Vietnam.
In January 2004, under the sponsorship of the U.S. National Science Foundation, Professor Vo Van Toi of the BME Department of Tufts University, Medford Massachusetts USA, led a fact-finding U.S. delegation that consisted of BME professors from different universities in the United States, and visited several universities and research institutions in Vietnam from North to South to assess the state of development of this field. This delegation proposed a five-year plan that was enthusiastically embraced by the international scientific communities to actively develop collaborations with Vietnam http://www.cs.tufts.edu/~vanvo/VN/Development%20BMEVN.htm.
Within this framework, in July 2005, the First International Conference on the Development of Biomedical Engineering in Vietnam was held in Ho Chi Minh City. The keynote speaker was Professor Don Giddens, Dean, College of Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology Lawrence L. Gellerstedt, Jr., Chair in Bioengineering Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar, USA. From that conference a Consortium of Vietnam-International Universities was created to advise and assist the development of BME in Vietnamese universities.
http://www.cs.tufts.edu/~vanvo/VN/BME
Conference website: http://www4.hcmut.edu.vn/~bme/index.html
In July 2007, the Second International Conference on the Development of BME in Vietnam was held in Hanoi. During this event, the Vietnamese Association of Biomedical Science and Engineering was endorsed by the Asia-Pacific International Molecular Biology Network (AIMBN), BME Society Singapore (BESS), International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE), Société Française de Génie Biologique et Médical (SFGBM) and IFMBE Asia-Pacific Working Group. Conference website: http://www.a-imbn.org/board/board_view.php?board_idx=19&page=5&board_id=news&search_keyfield=&search_keyword.
In March 2009, International University (IU) established its BME Department and the first accredited Engineer in BME degree in Vietnam (code: 52.42.02.04). IU is a member of Vietnam National Universities – Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCM), one of the two elite university networks in Vietnam, and is the first public university in Vietnam that teaches all courses in English. It was created as a new model to modernize the higher education in Vietnam. The BME Department at IU has since coordinated with its national and international counterparts to promote the activities of this field in Vietnam http://csc.hcmiu.edu.vn/bme/web/.
In January 2010, the Third International Conference on the Development of BME in Vietnam was organized by IU in Ho Chi Minh City. It reflected the steady growth of the activities in this field in Vietnam, and featured the contributions of researchers of 21 countries, including: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, the United States and Vietnam. The Conference was endorsed by the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE). It also hosted the Clinical Engineering Workshop of the IFMBE Asia Pacific Working Group. The contributed papers were published in the IFMBE Proceedings Series by Springer (ISBN 978-3-642-12019-0). Conference website: http://csc.hcmiu.edu.vn/web/bmeconf/bme2010.
From left to right: Dr. Nguyễn Thị Kim Tiến, Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Health of the country, Prof. Võ Văn Tới and Prof. Hồ Thanh Phong, Rector of International University.
In January 2012, the Fourth International Conference on the Development of BME in Vietnam was organized at IU of VNU-HCM as a Mega-conference. It was kicked off by the Regenerative Medicine Conference (Jan 8-10, 2012) with the theme “BUILDING A FACE” Using a Regenerative Medicine Approach, endorsed mainly by the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS) and co-organized by Professor Stephen E. Feinberg, University of Michigan Health System, USA, Professor Anh Le, University of Southern California, USA and Professor Vo Van Toi, International University-VNU HCM, Vietnam. It was followed by the Computational Medicine Conference, endorsed mainly by the Computational Surgery International Network (COSINE) and the Computational Molecular Medicine of German National Funding Agency; and the General BME Conference, endorsed mainly by the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE) (Jan 10-12) and co-organized by Professor Paolo Carloni, German Research School for Simulation Sciences GmbH, Germany, Professor Marc Garbey, University of Houston, USA and Professor Vo Van Toi, International University-VNU HCM, Vietnam. It featured the contributions of 435 scientists from 30 countries, including: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Malaysia, Netherlands, Pakistan, Poland, Russian Federation, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay and Viet Nam. Contributed papers were published in the IFMBE Proceedings series, Vol. 40, Publisher: Springer, ISBN: 978-3-642-32183 in 2013 (http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-642-32183-2). Conference website: http://csc.hcmiu.edu.vn/web/bmeconf/bme2012
In June 2014, the Fifth International Conference on the Development of BME was organized by IU of VNU-HCM . Professor Vo Van Toi of this institution was the Conference General Chair. This Conference was a very special event. It officially opened the season for celebration of the 20th Anniversary of VNU-HCM. It also marked the 10th Anniversary of IU and the 5th Anniversary of the BME Department. This Conference featured 231 papers of 532 authors and co-authors from 26 countries including Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Norway, Singapore, Slovenia, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, United Kingdom, USA and Vietnam. Almost all Vietnamese institutions have their delegations. Besides Vietnam, the 2 countries that have the most contributors are the USA and Australia. The plenary session featured the lectures from keynote speakers: (1) Prof. Ratko Magjarevic, President of IFMBE; (2) Dr. Robert A. Lieberman, Vice-President of International Society for Optics and Photonics SPIE; (3) Prof. Vo-Dinh Tuan, Director of Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics, Duke University, USA; (4) Prof. Christian Griesinger, Director of Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Germany; (5) Prof. Anja Boisen, Director of VKR Centre Of Excellence ‘NAMEC’, Denmark; (6) Prof. Yin Xiao, Director of Australia-China Centre for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Queensland University of Technology, Australia; (7) Prof. Yukio Nagasaki, Department of Materials Science and Medical Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Japan; and (8) Prof. Fong-Chin Su, President of Taiwanese Society of BME, Director, Medical Device Innovation Center, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. The contributed papers were published in the IFMBE Proceedings Series by Springer, Vol. 46, ISBN 978-3-319-11775 in 2015 (http://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319117751). The social events were also organized to introduce to the international guests the Vietnamese culture. Our sponsors were Vietnam National Universities –HCMC and International University Office of Naval Research Global, Arizona State University, Alberta University, VikoMed, Trung Sơn (T.S.S.E.), Saigon Instrumentation Joint Stock Company (Saigon ISC), ITS Vietnam, Saigon Scientists, and National Instruments. SPIE (USA), Technical Co-sponsor, gave two awards to student papers in the field of Biophotonics. Conference website: http://csc.hcmiu.edu.vn/web/bmeconf/bme2014 .
For other pictures please click on the following link: http://csc.hcmiu.edu.vn/bmeconf/bme2014/index.php?module=viewcontent&id=21 .
In June 2016, the 6th International Conference on the Development of BME in Vietnam (BME 6) was organized by IU, VNU-HCM and Saigon HiTech Park (SHTP). Professor Vo Van Toi was the Conference General Chair. The conference theme was Healthcare Technology for Developing Countries. 417 authors and co-authors came from 23 countries including Australia, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States and Vietnam. Vietnam, Australia, USA and Korea had the most contributors. Nine distinguished Keynote Speakers gave their talks either in plenary sessions for the general public or in parallel sessions with specific topics: (1) Prof. Jeff Bulte, Professor of Radiology, Oncology, BME and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Director, Cellular Imaging Section, Institute for Cell Engineering, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, USA; (2) Prof. Paolo Carloni, German Research School for Simulation Sciences GmbH and Institute for Advanced Simulation (IAS), Germany; (3) Prof. John Huguenard, Director, Neuroscience Graduate Program, Stanford University, Professional Advisory Board, Epilepsy Foundation, USA; (4) Prof. Ryuji Kohno, Director, Medical Information and Communication Technology Center, Yokohama National University, Japan, Distinguished Professor, University of Oulu, Finland; (5) Dr. Sajeda Meghji, Emeritus Reader in Oral Biology, University College London (UCL), United Kingdom; (6) Prof. Beom-Jin Lee, Dean of College of Pharmacy, Ajou University, Head of the Pharmaceutical Research and Development Agency, Korean Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Associations, Korea; (7) Prof. Yu-Lung Lo, Distinguished Professor, Head of Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan;(8) Prof. Yasuhiko Tabata, Chairman, Department of Biomaterials, Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences, Kyoto University, Board of Governors, Tissue Engineering Society International, Japanese Society of Biomaterials, Japanese Tissue Engineering Society, Society for Hard Tissue Regenerative Medicine, Japanese Society of Inflammation and Regeneration, Japan Society of Drug Delivery System, Japanese Regenerative Medicine Society, Japan; and (9) Prof. Christopher Woods, Director of Master of Science in Global Health, Director of Graduate Studies, Duke Global Health Institute, Duke University, Chief, Infectious Diseases Division, Durham VA Medical Center, USA. Furthermore, 44 Invited Speakers gave their talks or tutorial lectures in the parallel sessions including: Materials for Biomedical Applications, Biomechanics, Lab-on-a-chip & Point of care Technologies, Mathematical Modeling in Medicine, Biophotonics, Public Health, Pharmaceutical Sciences & Biomedicine, Medical Instrumentations, Healthcare Information Technology & Bioinformatics, Biomedical Signal & Image Processing, Neuroscience & Neuroengineering, Advanced in Stem Cell & Cell Reprogramming, Molecular & Cellular Techniques in Medicine, Ultrasonic Characterization of Bone Tissues, and Advanced Molecular Simulation & Experimental Biophysical Approaches for Drug Design.
