(Frankfurt a.M., September 12, 2023) At the time of his election as chair of VDE DGBMT in early February 2022, it was clear that Prof. Jens Haueisen would hold the office for one and a half years before subsequently handing the position over to Prof. Karsten Seidl. This time has now come. Since October 2018, Prof. Seidl has been head of the Business Unit Health at the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems (IMS) and Professor of Micro- and Nanosystems for Medical Technology at the University of Duisburg-Essen. He has been a DGBMT representative within the VDE delegates’ assembly since 2019 and a spokesman of the DGBMT expert committee on micro- and nanosystems since 2021.
According to Prof. Karsten Seidl, the issue of health has taken a backseat since the pandemic as people want to return to normality, yet medicine and medicine technology are more important than ever and a key area of innovation for Germany. “The regulatory requirements for the approval of medical products are among the obstacles that must be overcome. I see a great opportunity in directly integrating artificial intelligence into medical products and in consistent digitalization and networking throughout the entire supply chain, from hospitals to home applications”, he states.
Establishing a knowledge platform for biomedical engineering
The new chair wants to continue the strategy process that was already initiated in recent years. Together with the DGBMT expert committee, Seidl intends to work on future-oriented, technical aspects of biomedical engineering and implement new and appealing formats for events and collaborations. He would also like to attract more young people to DGBMT through training and further education, stating: “Our aim is to establish a knowledge platform for biomedical engineering. Learning is currently undergoing fundamental changes through the recent development of chatbots such as ChatGPT. So we must now combine the skills in using these new tools with the established specialist knowledge of the experts of the specialist society”.
Seidl explains his ambition to take on the role of chair of DGBMT as follows: “I was a student myself when I joined DGBMT in 2002 during the BMT conference in Karlsruhe. I launched the Young Forum BMT, a format especially for young talents, in 2010. Now, I would like to significantly develop the specialist society together with my colleagues on the management board, the advisory board and the members. By working with experienced “old hands” and the next generation, I’d like to try out new media, including digital ones, such as our new podcast, the webinar series and our presence on LinkedIn”.
First official appearance at the BMT 2023
Seidl will make his first official appearance as the new chair at this year’s BMT, the DGBMT’s annual biomedical engineering conference, which will take place in Duisburg from September 26 to 28. In addition to current trends in precision medicine, digital health and artificial intelligence, the BMT will also focus on established topics such as imaging, implants and robotics. This year, Prof. Karsten Seidl will share the role of congress chair with Prof. Gudrun Stockmanns from the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences.
You can find all the information on this year’s BMT here.
