The Mexican Biomedical

Engineering Society (SOMIB)

Biomedical Engineering in Mexico

(A Survey)

Solorzano J, Cadena M, Infante O, Prieto F, Suaste E and Martinez A

Present and former presidents of SOMIB, www.somib.org.mx

BACKGROUND

The practice of medicine and surgery by pre-Columbian civilizations in Mexico has

been extensively documented.1
An interesting pictorial history of cardiology, that is also a beautiful reference
to the history of biomedical engineering, can be admired in a mural at the National
Institute of Cardiology, painted by Diego Rivera in 1947. Many of the historical mi-
lestones there depicted took place in Mexico or in Latin America.2

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

No one can tell exactly when modern Biomedical Engineering began to be practiced
in Mexico. Our mention of the National Institute of Cardiology is not coincidental.
Thanks to the vision of its founder Dr. Ignacio Chavez, the Institute has hosted many
renowned scholars whose contribution to science and technology cannot be overesti-
mated. One was Arturo Rosenblueth (1900-1970), whose name is associated with the
development by Norbert Wiener’s concept of cybernetics, and, who obtained from
Albert Grass, the instruments he needed for research in neurophysiology often giving
ideas for their design and improvement.3 Research and development related to
technological applications in cardiology today is the task of the Instrumentation
Department at the National Institute of Cardiology.
Rosenblueth would be a co-founder, in 1961, of the Center for Research and Ad-
vanced Studies (CINVESTAV) of the National Polytechnical Institute (IPN).4 A few
years later, 1971, Joaquin Remolina founded CINVESTAV, the rather unlikely
Bio-Electronics Section, within the Department of Pharmacology. A physician turned
designer and builder of electronic devices, Joaquin was the father of a prolific bio-
medical engineering tradition that has disseminated and thrived in multiple institu-
tions and enterprises.5
The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) has also been the cradle
of achievements in biomedical engineering. It would take too long to make a list of
the well known and dearly remembered scientists and technologists who have labored
and taught in the laboratories, workshops, and classrooms of UNAM.6,7
 The Mexican Biomedical Engineering Society (SOMIB) 199

PRESENT PANORAMA

Dozens of professional institutions offer programs in Biomedical Engineering in

Mexico. The earliest programs for undergraduate studies in biomedical engineering
started almost simultaneously in the Autonomous Metropolitan University (UAM)
and Universidad Iberoamericana (UIA), between 1974 and 1976.6 Since that time,
undergraduate and postgraduate programs followed in several universities and tech-
nological institutions across the country. Hundreds of biomedical engineers have
completed their baccalaureate, master’s, or doctoral degree in Mexican institutions.
The Mexican Biomedical Engineering Society (SOMIB)8 was founded in 1978.
The Society now comprises the majority of professionals and academics engaged in
biomedical engineering in the country. It organizes a yearly congress and publishes an
internationally registered journal. SOMIB is a member of IFMBE and CORAL (the
regional biomedical engineering committee for Latin America). There is a Mexican
Chapter of IEEE-EMBS. Research papers on Biomedical Engineering subjects are
published by Mexican authors in influential periodicals al home and abroad.
Most Mexican hospitals have a biomedical engineering department. Much remains
to be done to make the transition from departments that are dedicated solely to servic-
ing equipment to full-fledged clinical engineering departments practicing all aspects
of medical device management. There is also much to be done in integrating hospital
practice with academic research and development. The Mexican Institute for Social
Security (IMSS)9, which is the main provider of medical services in the country, has
technical departments in its hospitals and medical centers, although under names dif-
ferent to Biomedical Engineering and with only indirect relation with SOMIB.
The Ministry of Health has fostered, for over a decade, a law office called the Na-
tional Center for Technological Excellence (CENETEC).10 This center is destined to
play an important role in the development of national standards for medical devices
and technology.
The medical device industry and market have been slow to develop in Mexico.
Nevertheless, this branch of business has grown steadily and there is considerable ac-
tivity in importing, marketing, and technical services both by Mexican firms and rep-
resentatives of foreign companies.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We would like to acknowledge the contributions that dozens of people, both alive and
dead, have made to the biomedical engineering profession in Mexico. From class-
rooms, research and instrumentation laboratories, hospital engineering departments,
and private industry, all are certainly key figures in the past, present, and future of
biomedical engineering.