It has been announced that E. Duco Jansen, PhD, and Warren Grundfest, MD, will represent the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery, Inc. (ASLMS) in the Council of Societies, a coordination mechanism of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).

‘In today’s climate of ever-increasing regulatory burdens (FDA), sequestration and seemingly random and shortsighted budget cuts for biomedical research, it is important that the scientific community reaches out and educates lawmakers about the impact of research funding,’ said Dr Grundfest, a professor of electrical engineering and professor of surgery at the UCLA Schools of Engineering and Medicine. He has published more than 125 papers in the fields of laser applications in medicine, biologic spectroscopy, image-guided minimally invasive surgery and photodynamic therapy.

AIMBE is a non-profit advocacy organisation headquartered in Washington, DC, representing almost 50,000 individuals made up of the top 2% of medical and biological engineers.

According to aimbe.org, the Council of Societies aims to:

  • Provide a collaborative forum for the establishment of society member positions on issues affecting the field of medical and biological engineering
  • Foster intersociety dialogue and cooperation, providing a cohesive public representation for medical and biological engineering
  • Provide a way in which to coordinate activities of member societies with the activities of academia, government, the healthcare sector, industry, and the public and private biomedical communities.

‘I believe this is an important thing for us to be part of and I believe that we can have more impact by joining forces with numerous other professional societies in the area of medical and biological engineering under the AIMBE umbrella than we could as ASLMS alone,’ said Dr Jansen, a professor of Biomedical Engineering and Neurosurgery at Vanderbilt University.

ASLMS joins 15 other organisations in the AIMBE Council of Societies, which include the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, the American College of Clinical Engineering, and the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers.

Visit www.aimbe.org to learn more or contact the ASLMS at [email protected]