Promoting Electrotechnology Careers and Public Policy

August 10, 1999

The Honorable Richard M. Burr
1513 Longworth House Office Building
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Representative Burr:

We would like to congratulate you on the introduction of HR 1795, The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Engineering Establishment Act of 1999. IEEE-USA supports the establishment of a permanent organization at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to act as a focus for biomedical engineering at the NIH (see attached position paper). Based on that position, we applaud your efforts in HR 1795. We believe that computing, imaging, and information technologies will revolutionize the practice of medicine in the 21st century and a clear focus at NIH should be established on these engineering technologies.

On reviewing HR 1795, we would also like to suggest that the word "computing" be added to the name of the proposed institute, which would then be called the National Institute of Biomedical Computing, Imaging, and Engineering. We offer the following reasons for this suggestion to modify the name:

1. There are various precedents for other institutes at NIH with tripartite names such as the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

2. Historically, the term "biomedical engineering" for many people has been associated primarily with biomechanical engineering (e.g., prosthetic joints) and biomaterials engineering (e.g., synthetic tissues).

3. The term "biomedical imaging" does not encompass many other important new areas of biomedical engineering also known as "large-scale scientific computing" with medical applications (e.g., numerical computing models and simulations for blood flow through heart valves, or numerical computing for neural network models of brain function).

4. The phrase "biomedical computing, imaging, and engineering" would be a much more appropriate, balanced and complete description of most of the listed topics intended to be the focus of the institute proposed in HR1795.

IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional association with approximately 334,000 members worldwide. IEEE-USA promotes the career and technology-policy interests of the nearly 225,000 electrical, electronics and computer engineers who are U.S. members
of the IEEE.

We hope you will consider our suggestion for this modification of the name for the institute.

If you have any questions about these issues, please contact Deborah Rudolph at IEEE-USA, (202) 785-0017.

Sincerely,

Paul J. Kostek
President
IEEE-USA