BACKGROUND

Vietnam is a rapidly developing, socially dynamic country, where interest in biomedical engineering 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.

HISTORY

In January 2004, under the sponsorship of the U.S. National Science Foundation, Professor Vo Van Toi of the Biomedical Engineering Department of Tufts University, Medford Massachusetts USA, led a U.S. delegation that consisted of Biomedical Engineering professors from different universities in the United States, and visited several universities and research institutions in Vietnam 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. For more information:

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. From that conference a Consortium of Vietnam- International Universities was created to advise and assist the development of Biomedical Engineering in Vietnamese universities. For more information:

http://www.cs.tufts.edu/~vanvo/VN/BME

http://www4.hcmut.edu.vn/~bme/index.html  

http://www.tchdkh.org.vn/tchitiet.asp?code=1873

In July 2007, the Second International Conference on the Development of Biomedical Engineering 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), Biomedical Engineering 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.

In March 2009, International University (IU) established its Biomedical Engineering (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. For more information:

http://www.hcmiu.edu.vn/bme

In January 2010, the Third International Conference on the Development of Biomedical Engineering 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). For more information: http://www.hcmiu.edu.vn/bme2010

In January 2012, the Fourth International Conference on the Development of Biomedical Engineering in Vietnam was organized in Ho Chi Minh City 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 Biomedical Engineering 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. For more information: http://www.hcmiu.edu.vn/bme2012