Tiago Guerreiro, LASIGE integrated member, was one of the keynote speakers at the virtual “14th International Joint Conference on BioMedical Engineering Systems and Technologies” (BIOSTEC2021), last February 2021.

In his talk, the researcher presented the research done embedded in a clinical environment, co-designing usable technologies for immediate benefit, and informed about the next research’s team steps. Having in mind the advances in computing and sensing technologies, along with the capabilities to process and infer information from them, have not been accompanied by similar-paced developments on end-user tools and that those scientific databases are filled with new possibilities for monitoring and predicting diseases, but clinicians (and patients) see slow and poor advances in what is provided for their practice and daily lives.

He also argued that this user-centered multidisciplinary effort makes both parts (technology and clinical) more equipped to discuss new designs and move research forward in a way that is grounded on experience and presented what was learned from empowering clinicians with the tools to author their own data collection procedures, towards the democratization of digital healthcare.

BIOSTEC was composed of five co-located conferences, each specialized in a different knowledge area. Its purpose is to bring together researchers and practitioners, including engineers, biologists, health professionals and informatics/computer scientists, interested in both theoretical advances and applications of information systems, artificial intelligence, signal processing, electronics and other engineering tools in knowledge areas related to biology and medicine.