Summary BIOMEDEA I (Eindhoven) and Whitaker Summit (BEESII)

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Summary BIOMEDEA I (Eindhoven) and Whitaker
Summit (BEESII)

• Dick W Slaaf
• Department of Biomedical Engineering
• Eindhoven University of Technology
• Department of Biophysics
• University of Maastricht

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Summary BIOMEDEA I (Eindhoven) and Whitaker
Summit (BEESII)

• Combination of
• Presentation given at BEES II
• Biomedical Engineering Education in Europe,
  containing information of BIOMEDEA I
• Essential contents of BEES II program, indicating
  the various issues touched upon.

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Biomedical Engineering Education in Europe

• Most BME educational programs in Europe started
  from a single parent discipline, which delivered
  methods, theories, instrumentation, structure,
  and organization.
• Life sciences were added at a later stage of the
  education program.

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Biomedical Engineering Education in Europe

• In Europe, BME education is still typically a
  specialization at the end of the education in the
  parent engineering discipline,
• mostly
• Electrical Engineering,
• Mechanical Engineering,
• Physical Engineering,
• or a graduate education.

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How diverse is BME within Europe?

• More than 150
• Universities,
• Universities of Applied Science,
• Polytechnic Schools,
• Academies,
• offer programs at all levels with almost no
  coordination of contents and required outcome
  qualifications.
• After JH Nagel

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Bologna Declaration, 1999

• Adoption of a system of easily readable and
  comparable degrees in order to promote European
  citizens employability and the international
  competitiveness of the European higher education
  system.

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Bologna Declaration, 1999

• System of two main cycles undergraduate and
  graduate.
• First cycle minimum of three years.
• Degree relevant to the European labor market.
• Second cycle requires completed first cycle.
• Master and/or doctorate degree.
• Masters degree usually 2 years.
• Credit system to allow student mobility.

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Bologna Declaration and European Higher Education
Area (EHEA) require

• International recognition of certain professional
  qualifications of BME graduates.
• Student mobility.

To stimulate Faculty participation in this
process, IFMBE has stimulated the foundation of
EAMBES.
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EAMBES (founded in 2004)

• EAMBES aims to serve and promote MBES education,
  training, and accreditation of programs, and to
  establish and maintain liaison with national and
  European governments and agencies.
• EAMBES has initiated meetings on education,
  harmonization, and accreditation to further BME
  harmonization in Europe and to facilitate student
  mobility (e.g. BIOMEDEA).

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BIOMEDEAJoachim Nagel, Jan Wojcicki, Dick Slaaf

• Project with 3 meetings.
• Objective
• to support harmonization of educational programs
  through cooperation and organization of seminars
  for all partners involved in MBES education,
  training and continuing education (life-long
  learning).
• to develop and establish consensus on European
  guidelines for harmonization of high quality MBES
  programs, their accreditation and for
  certification of professionals working in health
  care systems.

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BIOMEDEA

• Harmonization, NOT standardization.
• Define
• Core competences,
• Exit levels.
• No prescribed courses.
• Harmonization allows for heterogeneity of
  programs and stimulates diversity,
• Given good harmonization, mutual recognition of
  credits will be facilitated and student mobility
  will be stimulated.
• However, this may result in lack of recognition
  in some fields, e.g., Clinical Engineer.

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Warning

• Harmonization should lead to international
  recognition of
• educational degrees and
• professional qualifications.
• However, this process should NOT lead to a
  reduction in the heterogeneity of the programs
  and hamper student mobility.
• Again, heterogeneity has its negative sides.

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BIOMEDEA I

• General Information
• 49 registered participants
• 20 countries
• Supported by
• Department BME of TU/e
• IFMBE
• Under auspices of EAMBES

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BIOMEDEA I

• Reports
• BIOMEDEA I Website
• http//www.bmt.tue.nl/biomedea
• IFMBE News
• Intense discussions demonstrating considerable
  differences between various countries and
  programs.
• Diversity seems guaranteed unification, however,
  will be very difficult.

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BIOMEDEA I

• General
• Definition of required BME education will depend
  on specific requirements of a job.
• Knowledge basis
• Mathematics,
• Physics,
• Engineering,
• Life sciences,
• (Bio) chemistry.
• BME graduates cannot acquire knowledge in each of
  these disciplines at level of engineers fully
  trained in the specified field
• Choices have to be made.
• BME has become a discipline, way of thinking, in
  itself.

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BIOMEDEA I

• For jobs in research, a specific combination of
  courses may be excellent in one situation and
  insufficient in another.
• Health care systems must be able to fully rely on
  the qualifications suggested by the degree to
  guarantee patient safety.
• Fixing one problem seems to create another one.

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BIOMEDEA IHow diverse is BME within Europe?

• Parent discipline sometimes dominates type of
  courses,
• Narrow education.
• Large variability in amount of life sciences.
• Local program dominates the expressed minimum
  requirements for a good bachelor in BME.

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BIOMEDEA I

• BME Bachelor in Europe
• Average contents of program 180 ECTS (3 years)
• Life sciences 17 ECTS,
• Mathematical foundations 25 ECTS,
• Science and Engineering foundations 57 ECTS,
• BME 46 ECTS,
• Languages 5 ECTS,
• General competencies 14 ECTS,
• Computer programming 8 ECTS,
• Lab practical 8 ECTS.
• Engineering is the key word.
• Context of the living material.
• Flexibility in proportions desirable content
  depends on exit track.
• Emphasis on underlying concepts.

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BIOMEDEA I

• Research in BME Bachelor education
• Involve research in education process
• To be taught by researchers is stimulating,
• Research compartment is growing.
• Learn to do research by doing research.
• Working in a research lab with advanced equipment
  is stimulating.

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BIOMEDEA I

• Do Bachelors continue to Masters program?
• Varies from 15-25 (UK) to almost 100 (Italy,
  Netherlands, Poland),
• Sometimes limited admission (Germany in some
  states only 30 admitted).
• Admission to Master
• Applicants with
• backgrounds in areas related to BME courses
  can usually be admitted directly,
• Other backgrounds or students from abroad will
  usually need further preparation before
  admission.
• Further preparation may be via electives within
  BME course, or from classes/modules in other
  courses.

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BIOMEDEA I

• Does Masters degree qualify for a specific
  profession?
• National variations (e.g. clinical
  engineer/medical physicist).
• Should be academic specific training afterwards
  on the job.
• Academic research important
• Learn through doing,
• Does not exclude job in development and design,
• Ability to work autonomously and within a team.
• Master in BME aims at providing knowledge and
  skills to solve BME problems in research,
  clinical and professional environments.

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BIOMEDEA I

• BME Master in Europe
• Average content 120 ECTS (2 years).
• Lectures
• Mandatory 39 ECTS,
• Elective 37 ECTS varies from none to all.
• Research projects 15 ECTS.
• Thesis 29 ECTS,
• Usually 30-40 extremes 3 and 60.

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BIOMEDEA I

• BME Master in Europe
• Lectures
• Reflect the heterogeneity of the various Master
  programs,
• If Masters degree is required for specific job,
  many BME degrees will not cover the right
  courses.
• Need for specific profession requirements.
• Students chose the right program!

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BIOMEDEA I

• BME Master in Europe
• Parent discipline sometimes dominates the type of
  courses.
• Entrance requirements typical of parent
  discipline.
• Seems reasonable if profession at which is aimed
  requires this.

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Exchange of students Europe ? USA

• Many pitfalls, even if credits recognized.
• What fits the best for exchange?
• Bachelor/Master phase?
• Projects, research and specific course work.
• What to do with tuition fees?
• Pay at home institution?!
• Synchronization
• semester and trimester systems.
• Language
• Master phase often in English.

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Future Challenges for BME Education

• Expectation of Governmental agencies
• A variety of new disciplines is about to emerge
  and will fill the gaps between highly specialized
  medicine and engineering.
• Diversify BME to accommodate such newly
  developing disciplines.
• Differentiation of BME after the long integrative
  process.

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Whitaker summit BEES II

• Lansdowne, VA., March 4-6, 2005
• Invitation only
• Most US programs, many European programs
• Broad program with
• Plenary sessions,
• Break-out sessions,
• Reports from these sessions
• The titles of the sessions provide insight in new
  developments and challenges in the field.

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Whitaker summit BEES IIPlenary talks

• John Bransford (University of Washington)Efficien
  cy, Innovation and Transfer Enhancing the
  development of adaptive expertise
• John Linehan (The Whitaker Foundation)The
  Biomedical Engineer for 2020Peter Katona (The
  Whitaker Foundation)BME Education Trends and
  Challenges
• John Abele (Boston Scientific Corporation)Survivi
  ng in Technological NirvanaCato Laurencin
  (University of Virginia)Critical Issues for the
  Future of Biomedical Engineering Education and
  Tissue Engineering Research

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Whitaker summit BEES IIPlenary talks

• Rebecca Richards-Kortum (Rice University)WARNING
  Insufficient Bioengineering Education Can be
  Hazardous to Your Health James Collins (Boston
  University)Synthetic Biology and Systems
  Biology Biomedical Engineers Wanted
• Eugene Schnell (Johns Hopkins University)The
  Emotionally Intelligent BioEngineerWendy
  Newstetter (Georgia Institute of Technology)The
  Nature of Learning on the Frontiers of
  SciencePaul Yock (Stanford University)Teaching
  BME Students to Fail (And Other Key Steps to
  Innovation)

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Whitaker summit BEES IIPlenary talks

• William New (The Novent Group)Intertwined
  Degrees MD PhD MBADick Slaaf (Technical
  University of Eindhoven) (representing EAMBES)
  Biomedical Engineering Education in Europe
• Douglas Lauffenburger (MIT)The Molecular Basis
  for Modern Bioengineering Sequence, Structure,
  and Systems Jennifer West (Rice
  University)Diagnostic and Therapeutic
  Applications of Nanotechnology
• Katherine Ferrara (University of California,
  Davis)Biomedical Imaging Molecular, Structural,
  and Functional Approaches

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Whitaker summit BEES IIPlenary talks

• Tom Skalak (University of Virginia)Multi-Scale
  Systems Integration from Cells to Tissues
• A Critical Link in the Full Circle from Knowing
  to Seeing to Preventing Disease
• Dawn Applegate (RegeneMed, Inc)Translating
  Biomedical Engineering Education through
  Imagination and Invention to Improve Life
• Peter Davies (University of Pennsylvania)Clinical
  Preceptorships for BME Students Breadth and
  DepthKristina Ropella (Marquette University)
  Cooperative Education University-Industry
  Partnerships

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Whitaker summit BEES IIPlenary talks

• Matthew Glucksberg (Northwestern University)BME
  Projects for the Developing World Engineering
  Global Health
• Don Giddens (Georgia Institute of Technology)
  The Biomedical Engineering Department of
  2020Kenneth Lutchen (Boston University)Synthesiz
  ing Philosophy and People to Achieve
  Institutionally Driven Multi-Scale BME Education
  and Science

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Whitaker summit BEES IIWorkshops

• Workshops were attended by 20-50 people.
• Opinions could be quite different.
• Common opinion was hard to find.
• ltgt
• Solutions will vary between programs.

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Whitaker summit BEES IIWorkshops

• Biomechanics Robert Sah (University of
  California, San Diego), Clark Hung (Columbia
  University)
• Molecular Cellular EngineeringDaniel Hammer
  (University of Pennsylvania) , Richard Waugh
  (University of Rochester)
• Devices and Instruments
• Yongmin Kim (University of Washington), Michael
  Neuman (Michigan Technological University)
• Biomedical Imaging Cynthia Paschal (Vanderbilt
  University), Kristina Ropella (Marquette
  University)Kathy Nightingale (Duke University)
• Biosystems and Signals
• Kenneth Lutchen (Boston University), Edward
  Berbari (Indiana U./Purdue U. at Indianapolis)

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Whitaker summit BEES IIWorkshops

• Teaching Methods
• Wendy Newstetter (Georgia Institute of
  Technology) , Sean Brophy (Vanderbilt University)
• Interestingly, the discussion about Problem-Based
  Learning (PBL) and Design-Centered Learning (DCL)
  was similarly critical of the method as in
  Eindhoven. A definite difference in opinion
  between those exposed to the methods and those
  without experience.

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Whitaker summit BEES IIWorkshops

• Design and Innovation
• Paul Yock (Stanford University), Arthur Rosenthal
  (Boston Scientific Corporation Boston
  University), Bruce KenKnight (Guidant Corporation
  University of Minnesota), Amy Lerner
  (University of Rochester)
• Laboratories
• Mitchell Litt (University of Pennsylvania), Eric
  Perreault (Northwestern University), Ann Saterbak
  (Rice University)
• Societal Issues EthicsThomas and Miriam
  Budinger (University of California, Berkeley)

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Whitaker summit BEES IIWorkshops

• ABET
• Eric Guilbeau (Arizona State University), Paul
  Hale (Louisiana Tech University), John Enderle
  (University of Connecticut)
• Bio-Nano/Micro Jennifer West (Rice University),
  Rebekah Drezek (Rice University), Christopher
  Chen (University of Pennsylvania)
• Tissue engineeringLinda Griffith (MIT), Sean
  Brophy (Vanderbilt University)
• Systems Biology - Cell to Organ
• Trey Ideker (University of California, San
  Diego), Douglas Lauffenburger (MIT), Raimond
  Winslow (Johns Hopkins University)

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Whitaker summit BEES IIWorkshops

• Imaging
• Katherine Ferrara (University of California,
  Davis), Angie Louie (University of California,
  Davis), Joseph Izatt (Duke University), Norbert
  Pelc (Stanford University) Drug Delivery Tejal
  Desai (Boston University), Mark Saltzman (Yale
  University)
• NeuroengineeringDaryl Kipke (University of
  Michigan), Ravi Bellamkonda (Georgia Institute of
  Technology)

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Whitaker summit BEES II

• The program of BEES II provides a nice overview
  of challenges in future BME education and
  research.
• Details of the presentations and summaries of the
  discussions in the break-out sessions can be
  found on the Whitaker website
• http//www.whitaker.org