Boston, MA, USA. The world's largest meeting of bioengineers will focus on the rapid convergence of medicine and technology, providing a glimpse into the future of medicine.

In many hospitals, advancements ranging from point-of-care health technologies like telemedicine to surgical robots are fast becoming commonplace. So, what's next?


Atam Dhawan is an electrical engineer and associate dean of the Albert Dorman Honors College at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). He chairs the IEEE emerging technology committee, and serves as the workshop chair for the upcoming Annual International Conference of the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) [cf. Sidebar]



Integrating Technology and Medicine for a Healthier Tomorrow. 33rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC ’11). Boston Marriott Copley Place (August 30, 2011- September 3, 2011).Five hot new bioengineering areas will explore where medicine and electronics come together to have the greatest impact on lives.

• For many people, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine is the wave of the future. The advent of stem cell-based therapies has brought regenerative medicine into an increased focus as part of the modern medicine practice. Gene therapy will also play a greater role in this new world.
  
  
• Fast-emerging technological advances in bioelectronics, bio-nano-sensor technology and neural engineering have created exciting advancements in several areas of neuroscience. Advanced technological developments are critical for addressing the challenges of improving basic knowledge of the nervous system, neurophysiology and neurological disorders and to develop devices to interface with neural tissues.
  
  
• Point of care health care technologies can deliver medicine in individual situations ranging from health monitoring to telemedicine. They depend on patients connecting with healthcare professionals via computers. Treating people this way can provide cost savings and quality benefits. Within this mindset, nursing engineering is fast becoming a career of the future. So too are health monitoring, e-health, health care information management for disaster situations and more. All of these solutions will also depend on computer hardware and software improvements. Dhawan says that "In this world of point of care technologies, the US will need to find a way to link to better efforts in Europe and the Far East."
  
  
• Optical imaging technologies will be in greater use for diagnosing and staging of cancer, cardiovascular diseases and other fibrotic diseases. Current molecular imaging/therapy agent research focuses on the discovery and exploration of naturally existing molecular targets of diseases. It also focuses on novel approaches to the best way to exploit differences associated with the molecular targets between normal and diseased states, diagnosis and treatment.
  
  
• Lastly, patients will see more medical or bio-robots becoming an important part of their care. "These robots will develop novel nano micro and macro devices to assist in diagnosis, surgery, prosthetics, rehabilitation and personal assistance," said Dhawan. "Clinical, therapeutic and surgical applications of medical robots with advanced instrumentation, sensors, actuators and real-time systems could make a revolutionary impact in medicine and health care."

"Our goal is to investigate which biological and biomedical engineering technologies are likely to become important within the next decade," Dhawan said. "For many people, a healthier tomorrow lies in advancements ranging from biomarkers for early diagnosis and monitoring to neural system engineering."

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