Centers for Excellence

AIMBE's Role In Accelerating Innovation

Innovation is a key driver in the advancement of our society and the improvement in the quality of life for people everywhere. As a leading advocate for accelerating innovation in medical and biological engineering, AIMBE has the opportunity to play a vital role in spurring innovation in one of the most important and rapidly growing fields in the world.

Through the work of its Advocacy Committee and the Industry Council, AIMBE endeavors to make a real difference in advancing innovation. Here are some of the current and planned programs to achieve this goal.

• The AIMBE Hall of Fame was established in 2005 to celebrate the most important engineering achievements that improve quality of life. The Hall of Fame provides tangible evidence of the contributions of medical and biological engineering and serves as a platform for increased public understanding and formulation of sound public policies in medical and biological engineering.

• In the future, AIMBE intends to expand its recognition program to include emerging innovations that have the potential to improve quality of life for large numbers of people but are not yet in general use. These emerging innovations provide key perspectives on the very real barriers to timely application of new breakthroughs.

• A typical barrier to innovation transfer is the complexity, cost and time required for the approval of new products by the FDA. To aid in this process, AIMBE is working with FDA and HHS to provide independent, expert assistance in evaluating new technologies.

• Another barrier to innovation is the interface between the academia and business that often unintentionally stymies the flow of new ideas from the research bench to the patient bedside. To enhance the interface between academia and business, AIMBE is undertaking a dialogue between its Academic Council and its Industry Council to identify and communicate best practices for innovation transfer among its members, and to work with industry stakeholders to form a bridge between academia and business.

• AIMBE works on behalf of industry to maintain the pace of innovation and assure that progress in medical and biological engineering are integral to the national agenda.   For lawmakers, regulators, the media and the public, AIMBE is an authoritative and respected source of information, perspectives and leadership on sometimes-mystifying technical and public policy issues.