The Biomedical Division of HKIE and HKPC have jointly organized the BME2012 Biomedical Engineering International Conference on 5-8 December 2012 with an official opening held on 6 December 2012 at Hospital Authority Headquarters by Guest-of-Honor, Mr Anthony WU, Chairman of Hospital Authority, together with 6 officiating guests.

This biennial BME conference series was incepted in Hong Kong in 1992. BME2012 was organized with the funding support of the Professional Services Development Assistance Scheme (PSDAS) under the theme of “Improving Healthcare through Innovative Technology and Regulatory Affairs”. The Conference highlighted the importance of health technology and regulations for biomedical engineers. It has been our honor to have world-renowned experts from Singapore, Canada, UK, USA, the mainland and local prestigious speakers to share with us wide spectrum of topics on biomedical engineering at BME2012. The Conference kicked off with a talk on career path of biomedical engineer, followed by scientific presentations on Biomechanics, Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering, Medical Imaging, Nano/Bio Sensor on Day 1. Scholars and biomedical engineers continued to share under the themes of Neuroscience and Rehabilitation Engineering on Day 2, with highlight of the day being the presentation by the Founder of ECRI, Dr Joel NOBEL, in the session of Health Technology Assessment & Patient Safety. Discussions continued on Day 3 under the themes of Medical Device Regulatory Affairs & Risk Assessment, Government Funding for Medical Device R&D and Medical Device Design & Development, where the audiences were briefed with the latest advancement of biomedical technologies, medical device regulatory affairs and source of biomedical R&D funding resources.

The Conference has received more than 60 paper submissions.  A Young Engineers' Paper Competition was also held during BME2012, with prizes being awarded to winners by the HKIE President.

The event ended with a Technical Visit to The University of Hong Kong – Shenzhen Hospital and the Shenzhen Testing Center of Medical Devices on 8 December 2012, which further enabled future collaborations in clinical trials and medical devices testing by leveraging the supports from Shenzhen.

With more than 300 participants from local and overseas, BME2012 has served as a timely platform for information exchange and the exploration of new collaborations in the biomedical engineering arena. We would like to express our deepest gratitude to the speakers, sponsors, funding agent, key supporting organizations, supporting organizations, partners in Shenzhen, participants and the organizing committees of BME2012, who have enabled the Conference be concluded with great success.

Guest-of-Honor and Officiating Guests at the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony of BME2012 Opening

Starting from the left:

Dr CHEUNG Wai Lun, Director (Cluster Services) of Hospital Authority

Ir CHAN Fan, JP, Director of Electrical and Mechanical Services Department, The Government of HKSAR

Ir Prof CHOY Kin Kuen, President of The Hong Kong Institution of Engineers

Mr Anthony WU Ting-yuk, GBS, JP, Chairman of Hospital Authority

Mr Clement CHEN Cheng-jen, BBS, JP, Chairman of Hong Kong Productivity Council

Mr Albert LEE, Chairman of The Hong Kong Medical and Healthcare Device Industries Association

Ir Dr CHAN Kwok Kwan, Chairman of BME2012 Conference

BME2012 Opening held on 6 December 2012 at Hospital Authority Headquarters