biomedical engineering (bme) is an interdisciplinary field that integrates engineering and life sciences to enable engineering innovations for biomedical applications. biomedical engineering seeks to apply engineering principles and techniques in understanding life phenomena and in solving technical problems in the biomedical context. bme is underpinned by different disciplines of engineering, covering biomaterials, biomechanics, biotransport, biosensors, bioelectronics & instrumentation, biomedical signals & imaging, biocomputation & informatics, etc. for the purposes of health promotion & protection, health assessment & medical diagnosis, acute medical & surgical interventions, and rehabilitation.

the current bme of the hong kong polytechnic university team has been developed based on the jockey club rehabilitation engineering center (rec) which was established in 1987 with a jockey club endowment and was the 1st ever bme-related academic unit in hong kong. because of our long history and international contribution to rehabilitation engineering, we are recognized both locally and internationally as a leader in rehabilitation engineering. in 2005, rec was merged with the medical laboratory science and radiography disciplines to form the department of health technology & informatics under the faculty of health and social sciences. in line with the international practice that bme programmes are usually classified under engineering discipline and the university strategic development in bme, the interdisciplinary division of biomedical engineering was formally established on 1 april 2012 in the faculty of engineering. it is the first interdisciplinary division of the university for enhancing collaborative culture and promoting interdisciplinary research and teaching of the university.

bme division offers following programmes:
•research postgraduate study: phd and mphil in bme
•taught postgraduate study: msc in bme
•bsc(hons) in bme for hkale (3-year)
•bsc(hons) in bme for hkdse (4-year)

bme division has four thematic research areas:
•medical imaging, bioinstrumentation and biosensing
•neuromusculoskeletal science and engineering
•prosthetics and orthotics
•rehabilitation engineering

bme colleagues have been doing active research in the above areas, and playing regional leading roles in the areas of biomechanics, biomedical ultrasound, and rehabilitation engineering / prosthetics and orthotics. bme team has established substantial collaborations in research and education with many local, chinese mainland, and oversea institutes. bme team is very successful in securing external grants and many of our innovative developments have been awarded with patents. some of our technologies have been successfully licensed to industry for commercialization, such as robotic hand for stroke rehabilitation, 3d ultrasound for scoliosis assessment, ultrasound elasticity imaging for breast cancer diagnosis, etc.

we believe that bme with inherent interdisciplinary nature will continue to play the role to bridge the innovation and development in engineering/technology and the needs and applications in medical/healthcare fields. the mission of the bme division is to train students to cater such growing needs and to conduct innovative and application-oriented research and development in this dynamic field.