An Enchantment of BioMedical Engineering - A Path to Ambidextrous Thinking for Life Sciences -

We are experiencing a major change due to rapid technological innovation in life science and healthcare. This trend is noticeable in medicine, telemedicine, medical devices, medication and wellness management which take advantage of new diagnostic methods, therapies, drug delivery methods, and computer algorithms. On the other hand, it has been noted that experts in various fields, such as medicine and engineering, should work together to further promote these technological innovations.
Innovation in life science and healthcare is expected to improve patient experience and health, and reduce medical expenses. However, rapid technological innovation is creating new challenges in areas such as data ownership, cyber security and privacy, compliance with laws, and other socio-economic and ethical issues. In the medical and pharmaceutical industry as well as in academia where professionals are supposed to come up with solutions, a highly specialized nature of business or research topics has long created “silos” of operations and activities in the organization. It is time for professionals to go beyond the silos and start changing the way they conduct research, develop expertise, and do business. Now a dialogue among experts with various backgrounds should help provide a practical and effective solution to these challenges.
At this half-day symposium, we will discuss issues and opportunities for medical-engineering collaborations based on examples of initiatives at UC San Diego in the US and several universities in Japan. The participants will share experiences and best practices of collaborative research projects in an effort to accelerate translation of research results to improved health. The participants will also pay attention to global entrepreneurship and exchange ideas interactively with start-up companies and venture capital firms. The event will be one of the first international symposiums specifically aimed at addressing various issues in medical-engineering collaborations in the US and Japan.

(Language: English)