Professional Documents
Culture Documents
"Swamy Laxminarayan, Joseph D. Bronzino, Jan E. W. Beneken, Shiro Usai, Richard D. Jones"
The Biomedical Engineering Handbook: Second Edition.
Ed. Joseph D. Bronzino
Boca Raton: CRC Press LLC, 2000
APPENDIX A
The Role of Professional
Societies in Biomedical
Engineering
Swamy Laxminarayan
New Jersey Institute of Technology
A.1 Biomedical Engineering Societies in the World
American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering
Joseph D. Bronzino (AIMBE) • IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology
Trinity College/Biomedical Society (EMBS) • Canadian Medical and Biological
Engineering Alliance for Engineering Society • European Society for Engineering in
Connecticut (BEACON) Medicine (ESEM) • French Groups for Medical and
Biological Engineering • International Federation for
Jan E. W. Beneken Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE) • International
Eindhoven University of Technology Union for Physics and Engineering Sciences in Medicine
(IUPESM) • International Council of Scientific Unions
Shiro Usai (ICSU) • Biomedical Engineering Societies in Japan • BME
Toyohashi University of Technology
Activities in Australia and New Zealand • Bioengineering in
Richard D. Jones Latin America
Christchurch Hospital A.2 Summary
Professionals have been defined as an aggregate of people finding identity in sharing values and skills
absorbed during a common course of intensive training. Parsons [1954] stated that one determines
whether or not individuals are professionals by examining whether or not they have internalized certain
given professional values. Friedson [1971] redefined Parson’s definition by noting that a professional is
someone who has internalized professional values and is to be recruited and licensed on the basis of his
or her technical competence. Furthermore, he pointed out that professionals generally accept scientific
standards in their work, restrict their work activities to areas in which they are technically competent,
avoid emotional involvement, cultivate objectivity in their work, and put their clients’ interests before
their own.
The concept of a profession that manages technology encompasses three occupational models: science,
business, and profession. Of particular interest in the contrast between science and profession. Science
is seen as the pursuit of knowledge, its value hinging on providing evidence and communicating with
colleagues. Profession, on the other hand, is viewed as providing a service to clients who have problems
they cannot handle themselves. Science and profession have in common the exercise of some knowledge,
skill, or expertise. However, while scientists practice their skills and report their results to knowledgeable
colleagues, professionals—such as lawyers, physicians, and engineers—serve lay clients. To protect both
the professional and the client from the consequences of the layperson’s lack of knowledge, the practice
of the profession is regulated through such formal institutions as state licensing. Both professionals and
scientists must persuade their clients to accept their findings. Professionals endorse and follow a specific
A.2 Summary
The field of biomedical engineering, which originated as a professional group on medical electronics in
the late fifties, has grown from a few scattered individuals to very well-established organization. There
are approximately 50 national societies throughout the world serving an increasingly growing community
of biomedical engineers. The scope of biomedical engineering today is enormously diverse. Over the
years, many new disciplines such as molecular biology, genetic engineering, computer-aided drug design,
nanotechnology, and so on, which were once considered alien to the field, are now new challenges a
biomedical engineer faces. Professional societies play a major role in bringing together members of this
diverse community in pursuit of technology applications for improving the health and quality of life of
human beings. Intersocietal cooperations and collaborations, both at national and international levels,
are more actively fostered today through professional organizations such as the IFMBE, AIMBE, CORAL,
and the IEEE. These developments are strategic to the advancement of the professional status of bio-
medical engineers. Some of the self-imposed mandates the professional societies should continue to
pursue include promoting public awareness, addressing public policy issues that impact research and
development of biologic and medical products, establishing close liaisons with developing countries,
encouraging educational programs for developing scientific and technical expertise in medical and
biologic engineering, providing a management paradigm that ensures efficiency and economy of health
care technology [Wald, 1993], and participating in the development of new job opportunities for bio-
medical engineers.
References
Fard TB. 1994. International Council of Scientific Unions Year Book, Paris, ICSU.
Friedson E. 1971. Profession of Medicine. New York, Dodd, Mead.
Galletti PM, Nerem RM. 1994. The Role of Bioengineering in Biotechnology. AIMBE Third Annual Event.
Goodman G. 1989. The profession of clinical engineering. J Clin Eng 14:27.
Parsons T. 1954. Essays in Sociological Theories. Glencoe, Ill, Free Press.
Robinson CR. 1991. Presidents column. IEEE Eng Med Bio Mag.
Wald A. 1993. Health care: Reform and technology (editors note). IEEE Eng Med Bio Mag 12:3.