Speaker: With 30 years of experience in Biomedical Engineering, Adriana Velazquez is the senior adviser and focal point on medical devices at the World Health Organization (WHO), where she has been working since 2008, and leading the work to improve access to safe, affordable, quality and appropriate medical devices. She coordinates the development of the Medical Devices Technical Series publications and all projects related with priority medical devices for clinical applications in maternal, new born, and non communicable diseases, as well as policies for medical devices, global data on medical devices, innovative technologies, health technology assessment and health technology management, among others. She is Mexican Biomedical Engineer with postgraduate degree in Clinical Engineering in USA. Previous to join WHO she was the founding and Director General of the National Centre for Health Technology Excellence (CENETEC) in the Ministry of Health in Mexico, where she had more than 15 years experience as clinical engineer in Private and public hospitals in Mexico. She has had honorary positions in national and international professional organizations.

Aim: after introducing the WHO leadership priorities, this talk will demonstrate illustrate challenges and opportunities for biomedical engineering, which are willing to design and develop medical devices for low and middle income countries (LMIC).

Project: This talk is part of a meeting organized by the ABSPIE lab, in collaboration with the IFMBE HTAD, in the framework of the project titled “HTA of Medical Devices, with a specific focus on LMIC” (PI, Dr Leandro Pecchia), funded by EPSRC IAA Award and the Warwick GRP on Science and Technology for Health.

Room/time: room F105, School of Engineering, University of Warwick, 12:00.