5th European Symposium
on Biomedical Engineering
7th - 9th July 2006
University of Patras
Conference and Cultural Center
ELLAS
PREFACE
Over the past three decades, the exploding number of new technologies and
applications introduced in medical practice, created amazing possibilities
for diagnosis and therapy, but also raised major questions of
appropriateness and safety. The accelerated development in this field is
often on the basis of an uncontrolled diffusion and use of medical
technology. Medical devices are multiplying rapidly, and today, there are
more than 1 million different products available on the world market. Even
if the most urgent problem for many governments today is the rising cost
of health care, partly resulting from the new technological applications,
another important concern is that patient safety and user protection
should not be compromised.
In medical practice there are often circumstances
where
a medical intervention did lead or could have lead to unintended or
unexpected harm, loss or injury of a patient, i.e. to an adverse incident.
It has been estimated that today between 50 000 and 100 000 deaths per
year in the USA are due to medical errors. Of course “to Err is Human”,
but we have to take all necessary precautions to prevent human errors when
they can lead to adverse incidents. Biomedical Engineering plays a major
role towards a Safer Health Care Environment and more appropriate and
effective Health Care Technology.
The WHO launched 2 years ago an important initiative in Patient Safety and
this was one of the main themes of the 5th European
Symposium on Biomedical Engineering held from 7th to 9th
of July 2006, at the University of Patras, Ellas. This biennial
event, which this year finds
the city of Patras being the Cultural Capital of Europe,
is strongly linked to the
European Postgraduate Program on Biomedical Engineering,
which is organized by the University of Patras since 1990 in collaboration
with 25 other European Universities and as such it is
becoming a tradition. Apart from its main aim, which is to provide an
appropriate environment for
exchange of ideas, best practices and experience between life scientists
as well as to
present the latest R&D results,
it also focuses on strengthening the
links
of the Biomedical Engineering community in Europe and especially these of
the 450 alumni of our program.
The 5th European Symposium on Biomedical Engineering –
ESBME2006,
was not financially supported by external sponsors and therefore it
wouldn’t have been possible for it to be organized and prove successful,
without the valuable contribution of the participants and volunteers
involved. Particularly I would like to express my deep thanks to the
invited speakers namely: Andrei Issakov, Peter Heimann, Dov Jaron, Zoi
Kolitsi and
Tomasz Tkaczyk,
for accepting to come to Patras on their own expenses and deliver their
excellent presentations. It is also a great pleasure for me to acknowledge
the dedicated and hard work done by all the members of the Biomedical
Technology Unit – BITU, that performed as a real team, creating an
enthusiastic atmosphere. However, special mention has to be made to
Zhivko Bliznakov for the preparation of both the program and this CD
ROM and to Eleni Panoutsopoulou for taking care of every aspect of
this event so efficiently.
The present
CD Rom includes the Proceedings of the Symposium with
the research work as presented during the sessions of the Symposium. There
are more than 160 papers included, which we hope that you will find
interesting and useful.
We hope to see you again at the 6th European Symposium on BME
in 2008.
Patras,
7 July 2006
Nicolas Pallikarakis
Chairman of the
Symposium
These proceedings have been prepared with the support
of the
Institute of Biomedical Technology
