International workshop devoted to education in the field of Biomedical Engineering was held in the Orbeli Institute of Physiology on Saturday, June 25.

The workshop was organized in the framework of European TEMPUS IV project titled "Curricula Reformation and Harmonisation in the field of Biomedical Engineering". Orbeli Institute of Physiology is one of 23 universities and research organizations from 23 European and Partner countries participating in the project. The main objective of this project is to update existing curricula in the field of Biomedical Engineering (BME) in order to meet recent and future developments in the area, address new emerging interdisciplinary domains that appear as a result of the research and development progress and respond to the BME job market demands. Another important objective is promotion of the development of new study programs in partner countries, including Armenia.

Besides the members of the project consortium, professors and students from those Armenian Universities that offer courses in BME and to whom the workshop was actually addressed were also invited and participated. There were also representatives from Armenian National Institute of Health, “West-East” Scientific Medical Foundation and Armenian Association of Telemedicine. Unfortunately, nobody from Ministry of Education and Science, Science Committee, and National Center for Professional Education Quality Assurance of Armenia attended the workshop, though these organizations are directly related to the questions discussed.

The workshop started with the welcome addresses by Mrs. Lana Karlova, Coordinator of the National Tempus office in Armenia, and was followed by Prof. Nicolas Pallikarakis, the project coordinator from the University of Patras, Greece, who described the aims and objectives of the project. The new study program, designed by the project consortium, was also presented.

Professors and students from Europe and Armenia presented the study programs and methods of their universities. Students of Armenian universities briefly described and discussed their diploma projects with European guests. 

During the “round table” discussion that followed the problems existing in Armenia in the field of BME were highlighted and discussed. Among them the lack of demand for biomedical engineers was mentioned, as a surprising fact in the era of modern medicine that uses complicated technical devices.