Dr. Jamal Deen, Professor and Senior Canada Research Chair in Information Technology at McMaster University, Canada, highlighted the wisdom in bringing engineers and clinicians together to come up with biomedical devices and innovations.

In a meeting with members of the Philippine Biomedical Devices Innovation Consortium (PBDIC) conducted during the 34th anniversary celebration of the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (PCHRD-DOST), Dr. Deen advised engineers to get clear and deep understanding of the problems that they want to solve. “You can do this from the perspective of the user or clinicians,” he added.

Dr. Deen explained that a detailed discussion with clinicians and medical personnel is needed to get information on the medical perspective of the project. If done right, the result is a system designed with detailed specifications that address the very need of the people in the medical field.

Taking in his advice, the members of PBDIC drew a rough plan of steps in order to create a venue were both engineers and clinicians can have a dialogue. Among them is monthly webinar that can be conducted to facilitate the conferences for exchange of ideas. The group also looked into the possibility of a more active role of the consortium in the development of engineering curricula in universities with focus on biomedical engineering. (Richmond Q. Acosta)