The Japanese Society for Medical and Biological Engineering was established on November 10, 1962 as a place of collaboration for researchers involved in biomedical engineering, in order to promote the development of research into the application of medical and biological engineering. 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the Japanese Society for Medical and Biological Engineering. Advanced Biomedical Engineering will be launched in the same year. This is a long-awaited English journal, which is officially published by the Japanese Society for Medical and Biomedical Engineering. When the Japanese Society for Medical and Biological Engineering invited paper contributions for the Biomedical Engineering Symposium 2012, which was held on September 7~8, 2012, 33 papers were contributed. This shows the great demand for the English journal for researchers in this domain. I congratulate Prof. Yuichi Kimura, Prof. Masaru Sugimachi, and Prof. Osamu Oshiro on the successful publication of Advanced Biomedical Engineering.

Recent achievements in medical and biological engineering research have not respected national boundaries. Therefore, the language of our journal should be English. I was privileged to serve as president of the 49th Annual Conference of the Japanese Society for Medical and Biological Engineering held in Osaka in 2010. I established an English session for the first time for our annual conference then. Furthermore, I asked the presenters at that conference to provide English abstracts, and there were many English abstracts, comprising 40% of all presentations. I am delighted to extend my congratulations to the Japanese Society for Medical and Biological Engineering on the initiation of this new English journal Advanced Biomedical Engineering.

Looking back, the meaning of biomedical engineering has undergone an extraordinary expansion since the establishment of the Japanese Society for Medical and Biological Engineering. The rapid growth of new technologies related to medical and biological engineering has challenged both engineers and medical scientists with a wide array of subspecialties within the domain of medical and biological engineering. Studies related to various fields in biomedical engineering may include many subspecialties, including biomedical signal processing, biomedical imaging, biomedical image processing, bio-instrumentation and sensors applications, biomicro and bionano technologies, bioinformatics, computational biology, system biology, biomodeling, cardiovascular and respiratory system engineering, neural and rehabilitation engineering, cellular and tissue engineering, biomaterials, biomechanics, robotics, therapeutic and diagnostic systems and devices, therapeutic and diagnostic technology, clinical engineering, healthcare information systems, telemedicine, educational methods in biomedical engineering, regulatory science in biomedical engineering, and so on.

Therefore, it is my hope that this English journal will present not only original research but also review articles about recent issues in the various subspecialties of biomedical engineering. Review articles that discuss the questions which occur in the advancing research of each subspecialty of biomedical engineering, measures that have been advanced to address these questions, and concrete interpretations and explanations are also required for many researchers for the future of biomedical engineering.

The great success of the annual conferences of the Japanese Society for Medical and Biological Engineering have indicated the need for a new English journal in order to disseminate information related to biomedical engineering from Japan to the world. Editing a new journal is a difficult task, and we welcome contributions of researchers across the world to this new journal Advanced Biomedical Engineering. I have great hopes and for the success of this journal, and expect worldwide interest and contribution to the progress of medical and biological engineering, which is crucial for advances in healthcare and medical treatment. I am certain that this new journal will be useful for researchers in the various areas of biomedical engineering as an important tool for the introduction of new developments in this dynamic, ever-changing field.

Shoichi Senda, M.D., Ph.D.,
Executive Trustee of
Japanese Society for Medical and Biological Engineering
Director of Kagawa University Hospital,
Professor, Department of Integrated Medicine, Kagawa University Faculty of Medicine

20 October 2012