Biomedical and healthcare engineering stands out as an innovative paradigm holding immense promise for shaping and leading a prosperous future. The objective of our existence has evolved from mere efficiency to prioritizing the well-being and happiness of individuals within a society. This transition is signified by the word “warabal,” a newly coined Korean term that means work-life balance.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the emergence and development of new digital health technologies, enabling tele-diagnosis and telemedicine aided by the tremendous growth in Information technology, despite facing various regulations.

The scope of digital healthcare extends beyond curing or assisting existing patients, now encompassing the capacity to predict future diseases among healthy individuals based on the accumulated daily bio-information and personal characteristics, and this in turn provides personalized medical service.

Healthcare engineering represents an interdisciplinary research field that integrates diverse engineering disciplines to achieve successful development. SNU College of Engineering has selected Healthcare Engineering as one of the core future strategic research fields among various engineering domains.

The current issue of SNU Innovations highlights the exciting developments in healthcare engineering at SNU College of Engineering. These developments include (i) Minimally invasive medical care with biodegradable electronic implants, (ii) Artificial intelligence enabled E-skin sensors, (ii) Next-generation Immunotherapy technologies, (iv) Medical imaging with next-generation fast MRI, (v) Enzyme for xenogenic islet transplantation, (vi) Liquid biomolecular droplets in Cells and more topics. These research results have been introduced and highlighted in several world-class top journals.

In the foreseeable future, healthcare technologies developed by the College of Engineering at Seoul National University will seamlessly integrate into our daily lives, revolutionizing our quality of life.

• 
  

• Prof. Seung Hwan Ko

  
  
  Associate Dean of Research Affairs, College of Engineering,
  Professor of Department of Mechanical Engineering,
  Head of SNU Consulting Center,
  Seoul National University