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From left to right: IBEC Director Josep Samitier; Àngel Font, Corporate Director of Research and Strategy at the “la Caixa” Foundation, and Marta Soler, head of Research and Scientific Debate at Biocat (Photo: Biocat).
 10.11.2017

Bioengineering for Healthy Ageing

Under the theme of “Bioengineering for Healthy Ageing. Adding Life to Years”, more than 75 international scientists, clinicians and other experts met yesterday at CosmoCaixa Barcelona in an event hosted by B·Debate, an initiative of Biocat and the “la Caixa” Foundation. In this edition, the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) –based at the Barcelona Science Park– led the event that brougth together world-renowned researchers to examine possible solutions bioengineering can provide to address the challenges an ageing population faces.

 

The B·Debate has continued today with a special press conference and demo session at CosmoCaixa featuring Àngel Font, Corporate Director of Research and Strategy at the “la Caixa” Foundation, Marta Soler, head of Research and Scientific Debate at Biocat, and Josep Samitier. 

Demographic change and well-being have been identified as major societal challenges. The rapid growth of the oldest age groups will have a major impact on health care costs. Engineering must play a substantial role managing the effects of this surge in demand for healthcare and providing care to be delivered in new ways. In concrete, biomedical engineering underpins many of the actions required to improve the quality of life of older people, including medical, social and infrastructure needs, so that the degree of independence and activity for ageing citizens can be improved.

There is a growing need for innovative medical technology solutions that contribute to our concept of healthy ageing. Technical innovation can provide solutions such as telemetry, distant-virtual consulting and checking, the automation of processes, and robot technology. Regenerative medicine can as well offer a solution to major clinical needs related to ageing such as heart strokes, central/peripheral nerves damage, osteoporosis or ulcers.
 

► For further information: Biocat website [+] and IBEC website [+]