Cheng-Kung Cheng

Title:

Current Status and Future Direction of the BME Translational Research in Asia

Affiliation:

Chair Professor, School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Professor Cheng-Kung Cheng is the Chair Professor at the School of Biomedical Engineering, Director of the Imaging, Computational, and Systems Biomedicine Division, and Director of the Engineering Research Center for Digital Medicine of the Ministry of Education at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Professor Cheng got his Ph.D. degree from the University of Iowa in 1988. He then joined the National Taiwan University as an Associate Professor from 1988-1995. He joined the National Yang Ming University from 1995-2017 and was honored as the Distinguished Chair Professor from 2009-2017. He then moved to Beihang University as the Chief Scientist and Distinguished Professor from 2018-2020. He was appointed the Chair Professor of Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2020.

Professor Cheng's leadership roles in various organizations testify to his extensive experience and influence in the field. He has served as the President of the World Association for Chinese Biomedical Engineers（WACBE，2022-2024）, President of the Chinese-speaking Orthopaedic Society (CSOS 2009-2012), President of the Taiwan Biomechanics Society (1999-2001), President of the Taiwan Orthopaedic Society (2001-2003), President of Taiwan Orthopaedic Device Development Association (2005-2017), Vice President Taiwan Biomedical Engineering Society (2005-2017), and a Council Member of the World Congress Biomechanics (WCB 2002-2014), among others.

Professor Cheng's editorial roles in prestigious journals, including Medicine in Novel Technology and Devices, Med-X, Medical Engineering & Physics, Journal of Medical Biomechanics, SPINE, Clinical Biomechanics, Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, and Journal of Orthopaedic Translation, reflect his academic influence and contribution to the field. He is also an elected fellow of AIMBE and IAMBE. He has received numerous awards for his research, including the Distinguished Engineering Alumni Academy of the University of Iowa College of Engineering of USA, the Excellence in Clinical Science Award from the Orthopaedic Research Society of the USA, the Overseas Chinese Contribution Award of the Chinese Orthopaedic Association, the Outstanding Research Award from National Science Council of Taiwan, the Distinguished Research Award from ICBME of the National University of Singapore, the Distinguished Sci-Tech Contribution Award, Executive Yuan, Taiwan, and the Distinguished Engineering Professor Award, Chinese Institute of Engineers, Taiwan. Professor Cheng has published more than 300 papers with an H-index of 47, and his primary research focuses on musculoskeletal biomechanics, orthopaedic implants and devices, and innovative surgical technology.

In high-tech and innovative medical industries, there is still a large gap between Asian countries and developed economies like European countries and the United States. Asia's high-tech medical export output value is approximately $18 billion, close to Germany's $17.7 billion and only half of the United States' $33.65 billion. This does not match the size of Asia's substantial medical device market, especially in China.
Although the discipline of BME has been established in Asia for decades, there is still a significant gap in commercial translational research between Asia and the United States, considering what the latter has achieved. The main reasons for this difference are as follows:
First, the Pre-Med system in the United States has attracted many outstanding undergraduate students to the BME discipline. In addition to becoming doctors after graduation, these students are also willing to devote themselves to biomedical engineering research. Secondly, BME research in Asia is relatively scattered. Many teachers and researchers are not from BME schools and have a limited understanding of the industry's current status, manufacturing specifications, market patterns, and other professional fields. Even if there are scientific research results, they still face the problem of being "incapable of translation to the application." In addition, Asia lacks medical manufacturers with major influence, which results in insufficient R&D capabilities and makes it more difficult for the medical field to attract investors than other consumer manufacturing fields. Various reasons have led Asia, especially China's medical equipment industry, to linger in the low-value-added OEM field for a long time.
To solve this problem, the current focus is not on digging into cutting-edge problems in the medical field from scratch but on integrating local medical device manufacturing companies with existing advantages to build an industrial alliance with clear functions. At the same time, a project manager system is required. Through professional training, project managers are proficient in all aspects, from clinical to manufacturing, helping scientific researchers and clinicians put good ideas into practice via industrial alliances. In addition, encouraging more clinical students and doctors to engage in full-time research in BME is also necessary to strengthen the BME discipline and improve translational research so that all needs can come from the clinic and ultimately serve the clinic.
In this way, the current situation of manufacturers seeking innovation alone will be shifted into a positive process: finding manufacturing abilities for existing, high-quality research results, thereby accelerating research, testing, and manufacturing processes, promoting industrial development, pushing the continuous transformation of BME research, and finally, opening a win-win future for both the BME discipline and medical device manufacturing.

Cheng-Kung Cheng

2024 NYCU BioMedical East-Asia International Symposium

2024 NYCU BioMedical East-Asia
International Symposium