Biomedical Engineering and Women's Health
Special Interest Group (SIG)
About BME and Women's Health-SIG
There is growing interest within the biomedical engineering community on the application of engineering tools and techniques to the field of women’s health. This broad topic includes activities that are related to Women’s Health as broadly defined, affecting women from before birth through old age, including transgender and nonbinary persons, and including any aspects of health that are related to women’s hormones or women’s unique organs. The field is generally separated into categories by diseases and conditions that only affect women (pregnancy, menopause); diseases and conditions that affect women differently (cardiovascular disease); and diseases and conditions that affect women disproportionately (Alzheimer’s disease, autoimmune disease, osteoporotic hip fractures). These classifications have some overlap, since systemic hormonal effects can influence all three categories.
The engineering approaches used to consider women’s health include novel diagnostics, treatments, and preventatives. These include but are not limited to biomaterials development, novel drug delivery technologies, microphysiological systems, mechanistic modeling, medical imaging modalities, wearable monitoring devices, and emerging approaches using big data and artificial intelligence.
Building on recent successful and well-attended thematic events at recent BMES Annual Meetings and given the breadth of work in the women’s health field that overlap with identified topics within BMES, it is an ideal home to centralize researcher community within this field.
Purpose of BME and Women's Health-SIG
The specific objectives for the BME and Women’s Health SIG are to:
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Facilitate interaction and networking within the field and help consolidate the emerging researchers within the field.
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Consolidate planning for research tracks and future activities such as meetings and a potential future journal dedicated to the topic of BME and Women’s Health.
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Provide mentorship relationships for researchers at many different career stages within the field.
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As the group grows, plan sub-groups within specialization areas, such as gynecology-focused, obstetrics-focused, non-reproductive focus.
Proposed Activities for the SIG:
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Continue organization of the women’s health track at BMES annual meetings
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Host in-person networking events at BMES annual meetings
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Organize workshops and special sessions on women’s health engineering at BMES annual meetings
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Promote year-long networking within the field including virtual mechanisms
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Organize virtual seminars and workshops throughout the year
- Fostering student participation
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Design and execute mentoring activities for early-career researchers in this field
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Organize special journal issues on Women’s Health and Biomedical Engineering
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Organize a one- to two- day future meeting and/or workshop on Women’s Health and Biomedical Engineering separate from the BMES annual meeting
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Coordinate activities with the Society for Reproductive Investigation (SRI), a leading research home for women’s health
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Raise funds to support the SIG