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By Gordon Clapworthy - February 2002
International projects, such as the investigation of the Human Genome, have demonstrated what can be achieved when an international academic community organises itself in a concerted set of activities. Gordon Clapworthy introduces BioNet a project which has taken its inspiration from such far-sighted projects and seeks to emulate them within the relatively constrained area of biomechanics.
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The highly successful Decade of the Brain, 1990-2000, produced both significant scientific progress and a raised awareness of the impact of brain disorder. The achievements of this initiative led to the declaration of the Decade of the Bone and Joint, 2000-2010. This aims "to improve the health-related quality of life for people with musculo-skeletal disorders by working in partnership with all stakeholders to raise awareness, identify needs, empower patients, promote cost-effective prevention and treatment and advance understanding through research to improve prevention and treatment." It has been endorsed by figures of international stature, including Kofi Annan and Pope John Paul II, and is supported by organisations such as the United Nations, the World Health Organisation and the International Red Cross.
BioNet [1], IST-2000-28074, has taken its inspiration from such far-sighted projects and seeks to emulate them within the relatively constrained area of biomechanics. Biomechanics is a diverse and multidisciplinary field, which makes it difficult to create partnerships containing the range and blend of skills necessary to tackle the increasingly complex problems that are arising. It also makes it difficult to create a coherent strategy for future development, that is, to gain widespread agreement on what the fundamental problems of the moment are, and to ensure that they are addressed in a coherent and rigorous way.
Musculo-skeletal conditions are the most common cause of severe long-term pain and physical disability; they affect millions of people across the world. For example, joint diseases currently account for over half of all chronic conditions in persons over 65 years old.
Further, these conditions do not have to be chronic or disabling in order to have a sizeable impact on the lifestyle of the sufferer. Most people will have, at some time, pulled a back muscle or twisted a knee and will thus be able to testify to the discomfort and disruption to normal movement that even such minor complaints can cause. It then becomes easy to comprehend the substantial impact that a more severe, but not necessarily chronic, condition can have on an individual's life.
In addition to the individual cost, the demand for resources to treat and alleviate musculo-skeletal disorders continues to put an increasing strain on national health systems. This strain will be exacerbated by the general demographic trend towards an older population. Not only will a higher proportion of the population suffer from such conditions, but as the average lifespan continues to increase, treatment will be required for longer periods.
Although the medical aspects of biomechanics have the highest profile, it is important in many other areas - sports science is an obvious one - and there are many uses in industry, for example in car design, both in normal use and when involved in a crash. In fact, biomechanics is relevant to any activity in which the body is in motion or in which the body is subjected to physical stress and strain. And while the main focus is always on the human, biomechanics is equally relevant to studies involving animals.
BioNet is funded under the Working Groups Programme of IST. It began in September 2001 and will run until the end of November 2002. The main concept of the project is that biomechanics should confront its multidisciplinary nature and undertake to involve all of its participants in establishing a consensus regarding its major future directions. BioNet will provide a forum within which future priorities can be established, and the means by which responses can be harmonised, so that these priorities are addressed with greater directness and economy.
BioNet will create, within the European biomechanics community, one (or, more likely, several inter-related) Working Groups to allow the development of concerted approaches to issues of high contemporary relevance. Until now, collaboration, particularly across disciplines, has generally been the result of ad hoc meetings and chance acquaintanceships. BioNet will improve communication between the many disciplines involved in biomechanics and thus activate synergies that may, at present, be dormant.
The project also seeks to unite all aspects of the biomechanics community - industrial, educational, clinical, research, charity - into a coherent structure, and will provide an on-going resource to support and co-ordinate collaborative work in biomechanics. Once initiated, much of the future activity will be sustained by the international or European societies that are active in the area.
The central activity of the project is a one-off conference in April 2002, though as its nature is radically different from standard international conferences, we prefer to describe it as the Event. The Event will provide a forum for the discussion of contemporary issues, with a view to gaining widespread agreement on the areas in which concerted activity is likely to produce the greatest benefits.
The Event divides the project into three distinct phases. We are currently in the pre-Event phase, the programme for the Event is now complete, and we are launching a series of discussions to define the topics mostly suited for short and middle term activity. We are greatly assisted in this scene-setting by the existence of the BIOMCH-L mailing list, which is the major medium for communication within the biomechanics community worldwide.
The Event is described more fully below. Post-Event support will be provided to the emerging Working Groups. BIOMCH-L has promised to host mailing lists on specific topics so that the agendas of the different groups can be developed. The whole of this activity will be carefully monitored to ensure that all necessary decisions are taken before the end of the project in November 2002.
The project is very timely because another EC-funded project, VAKHUM, IST-1999-10954, will be completed by June 2002. This project is producing, for the first time, a comprehensive set of morphological and kinematic data, gathered according to published scientific protocols and will provide new opportunities for future work in research, education and industry.
The Event, "Biomechanics in the Decade of the Bone & Joint", will take place in Brussels on 27-29 April 2002. It has an inclusive policy, so registration fees are being kept to a minimum to encourage the widest participation. Fees for students are being kept particularly low to promote the involvement of the next generation of researchers, as are the fees for delegates from Central & Eastern Europe, in line with the initiatives of the European Society of Biomechanics to encourage the rapid development of biomechanics in these countries. The emphasis of the Event is on computational biomechanics.
The programme will start with keynote addresses on the historical development of biomechanics and a survey of some of the current "hot topics" by internationally renowned speakers, including some of the "founding fathers" of biomechanics. This will be followed by a poster session in which all current work in biomechanics will be displayed, arranged by subject, to provide a unique "snapshot" of European biomechanics.
The highlight of the first afternoon is a "Get It Off Your Chest" session in which participants will have the opportunity to make a controversial statement, with a maximum duration of 5 minutes, on a topic in biomechanics on which they feel strongly. There will be no discussion at this point (for reasons that are probably obvious) - an opportunity to reflect on these presentations is provided on the second day. There will also be a chance to hold discussions with like-minded professionals in Birds of a Feather meetings.
The second day begins with two pairs of parallel sessions presented by international speakers specifically selected for their expertise in the areas being considered. There will be an opportunity for a partner search before a panel session in which the previous presentations will be considered and the foundations laid for establishing the specific working groups. Concluding remarks will be made by distinguished speakers from both sides of the Atlantic.
We have been fortunate that so many highly respected figures in biomechanics have agreed to make presentations - it promises to be a landmark event, and one that will provide European biomechanics with a timely impetus in its future development.
Prof. G J Clapworthy
De Montfort University
Dr. Serge Van Sint Jan
Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Dr. Marco Viceconti
Istituti Ortopedici Rizzoli, Italy
Dr. Diane Dan
ESI Software, France
Prof. G J Clapworthy
Dept of Computer & Information Sciences,
De Montfort University,
Milton Keynes MK7 6HP,
UK
Gordon Clapworthy is Professor of Computer Graphics at De Montfort University. His main research interests are medical visualisation, biomechanics, computer graphics, figure animation, robot teleoperation, virtual reality and fundamental graphics algorithms.
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For citation purposes:
Clapworthy, G J. "Bionet: Strategic Development of European Networks in Biomechanics", Cultivate Interactive, issue
6, 11 February 2002
URL: <http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue6/bionet/>
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