Launch of the second phase of the project Establishment of Biomedical Engineering university programme in Cambodia

The very establishment of the study field is the result of previous multi-year cooperation between Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU) with the support of the Czech Development Agency and Cambodian partners, which included the opening of a new special laboratory for teaching the subjects "Fluid Mechanics in Biomedicine" and "Plumbing in Healthcare". These subjects should be a kind of prerequisite for the teaching of follow-up subjects aimed at the actual work with medical devices. This is the focus of the second phase of the project. Other activities include a conference of international scope in Phnom Penh on biomedical engineering, which will contribute to a greater awareness of the profession among the professional community. In order to attract more students to the current study, a campaign for high school students will be developed.

During their visit, Prof. Roubik's team also conducted a visit to the laboratory to check its daily functionality and informal interviews with students to clarify their motivation in the study as well as the current challenges, given that the study is being extended due to the interruption of classes during COVID. Accompanied by the Embassy, there were then two meetings at the Ministry of Health, two meetings with representatives of other donors implementing relevant projects, and one meeting at the National Mother and Child Centre (national workshop for medical technicians).

The current second phase of the project is designed as a three-year project and, in addition to focusing on hands-on training with a large technician, its main objective is to raise awareness of the profession among students and professionals, as well as to explore the conditions for a sustainable status of the profession within the health system in Cambodia.

"It is not every day that we come across a topic in which the Czech Republic is the first in development cooperation. However, we are the only donor in Cambodia that is dedicated to building this important university programme," mentioned during the meeting with the University of Health Sciences His Excellency Mgr. Martin Vávra, Ambassador of the Czech Republic.

Many Cambodian hospitals have sufficient quality medical equipment, thanks to material support from countries around the world. However, the fundamental problem is that few knows how to "take care" of these devices. In general, biomedical engineers are responsible for the entire life cycle of a device in a hospital, from purchase, through initial installation, staff training and regular servicing and repair, to scrapping in the event of the device being beyond repair or posing a risk to patients or staff when used. However, this is not a common practice in Cambodia. "And we would like to change that," add Ing. Simon Walzel and Ing. Ladislav Bís from the team of the Department of Biomedical Engineering of the CTU.