The Development of Biomedical Engineering

This article intends to tell the story of bioengineering in Argentina from its early inception back in the mid-1960s until the present. Chronologically, the University of Tucumán in the Northwest took the lead by planting the seed, and the University of Buenos Aires proceeded thereafter; a comeback to Tucumán gave a significant forward push to the discipline, followed by the University of Entre Ríos, in East Argentina, with the establishment of the first National Bioengineering School after democracy came back in 1983. From that point, other schools and laboratories showed up with increasing academic and research activities: Favaloro University, Universities of San Juan, Córdoba, Mendoza, and Mar del Plata. The Argentine Society of Bioengineering (SABI), founded at the end of 1979, had a strong integrating effect and continues its influence mainly through its biannual conferences and journal. Currently, the country has on the order of 1,000 graduates, and an approximate overall number of 1,500 undergraduate students, full papers published in recognized journals, and citations in the specialized literature is acceptable, and, as expected, there is always a generalized vivid wish to strive for improvement.