Background & History

The Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering was established on October 15, 1989 to undertake medical research on basic medicine and clinical medicine, domestic production of medical-related equipment, and the development and research of advanced medical devices, whose objectives are as follows.

First, the development of medical engineering is possible only by participation and cooperation of various fields (medicine, semiconductor engineering, computer engineering, instrumentation, mechanical engineering, chemistry, physics, physiology, biochemistry, materials engineering, etc.), which necessitates joint research between colleges in Seoul National University and industry-academia cooperation with related industries.

Second, a central institution is required to promote education and research of medical engineering in medical colleges at other universities, and to develop systematic education and training programs for medical device management at hospitals affiliated to medical colleges, and to support works related to the medical engineering in other universities.

Third, an official research institution is indispensable to promote inter-university research, joint research and support with other national universities, active induction of medical engineering from government-related departments, industry-academic cooperation with related industries, and utilization of researchers for formal research.

Competitiveness of a research institute is determined by the research achievements of the activities of researchers. Since its establishment, the history of the Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering can be divided into three stages.

Stage 1 (1989 - 2002, Director Byung Goo Min)
Many researchers who acquired their degree overseas participated as full-time researchers at the Institute and contributed to artificial heart research, which was the most active research subject at the time. Drs. Yoon Shin Lee, Chul-Sang Kim (France), Kang Gon, Shin In-sun, Lee Kye-han, Ko Jae-young (USA), and Suh Hwal (Japan) served as full-time researchers at the Institute.

Stage 2 (2003 - 2007, Director Kwang-Suk Park)
Researchers who completed their degree in medical bioengineering course, a collaborative course with Department of Biomedical Engineering, Seoul National University College of Medicine, joined the Institute as full-time researchers. They studied various topics, which went beyond the research on artificial heart.

Stage 3 (2007-2016, Director Hee-Chan Kim)
In recent years, due to remarkable developments in the field of medical engineering in Korea, many research institutes in Korea have conducted researches on their own. The government's expanded support for the development of the medical device industry have expanded the nation's medical engineering research infrastructure. This change made the revision of the objective of the Institute inevitable. In line with the government's vision to foster the medical device industry as a new growth engine of the economy, the Institute endeavored to establish a cooperative research system among industry, academia, and research institutions and suggest various successful models of medical device commercialization. The Institute also tried to fulfill his new mission given the changed circumstances by “employing researchers with doctoral degrees” and “promotion of industry-academia-institution cooperation.” .

Stage 4 (2017 - Present, Director Jin-Wook Choi)
In order to satisfy the necessity of the 4th Industrial Revolution, the Institute started a variety of researches to open the era of medical AI based on big data by using the characteristics of convergent disciplines. The Institute also hosted the Medical Big Data Research Center, which led to a foundation for the required infrastructure.