Editorial

Introduction to the special issue on “biosignal processing for engineering and computing: The MEDICON conference case” selected papers from MEDICON 2010

This Special Issue includes selected papers presented in the 12th Mediterranean Conference on Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing – MEDICON 2010, held in May 2010 in Chalkidiki, Greece (www.medicon2010.org). The event was run under the auspices of International Federation of Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE), the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and the University of Patras, in Greece. It marked the successful continuation of the long lasting tradition of regional IFMBE events with provide an inspiring and stimulating atmosphere especially for young researchers.

The overall aim of MEDICON 2010 was to present recent advances in practically every main topic of Biomedical Engineering (BME). Therefore, the conference was supposed to provide a forum of communication and exchange of ideas on Biosignal Processing, Medical Imaging, Biomechanics, Bioinstrumentation, Medical Radiation Physics, Technology Assessment, Clinical Engineering, Rehabilitation Engineering, Medical Informatics, Biomaterials, as well as, Educational, Ethical and Professional Aspects. The main conference programme consisted of tracks, namely, Medical Devices & Instrumentation, e-Education, Biomedical Imaging, Clinical Engineering & Safety, e-health, and finally Biosignal Processing. In addition, there were specially organised Workshops, like one on Current trends in European Education on BME and Medical Physics, a workshop on Embedded Systems in Biomedicine, a Workshop on Web-based Applications in Health Care & Biomedicine, and a final one dedicated to Women In Engineering. In total, some 400 papers were submitted to the conference. Of these papers, there were 172 oral presentations, 158 poster presentations, while some 90 contestants submitted their papers for the IFMBE Young Investigator Award. Presentations were divided into 36 scientific sessions which were organised in three parallel tracks. The topics covered by the conference were truly diverse ranging over all aspects of medical and biological engineering.

Within MEDICON 2010, the Biosignal Processing Track composed one of the main tracks with numerous submissions, totaling some 65 papers. A rigorous reviewing procedure selected some 30 of them for oral presentation, while some 20 authors presented their work in poster form.

The aim of this Special Issue is to provide a snapshot of emerging techniques, methods and interesting results as these appear in the sphere of in biomedical signal processing and computing, based on selected papers from those presented in the Biosignal Processing Track of MEDICON 2010, as detailed above. A special invitation (Call for Papers) was therefore released to authors of these papers, which included a significant number of Young Investigator Award contestants. All the received papers went through the peer review process of the Biomedical Signal Processing and Control journal. From the submitted papers only 8 were finally accepted for publication; 6 of these cover issues of the central and peripheral neural system, as well as the heart, along with two papers covering sound analysis of sleep breathing or sound localisation. These papers are briefly presented in the following section.