Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies International Joint Conference, BIOSTEC 2008 Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, January 28-31, 2008, Revised Selected Papers

This book contains the best papers of the First International Joint Conference on B- medical Engineering Systems and Technologies (BIOSTEC 2008), organized by the Institute for Systems and Technologies of Information Control and Communication (INSTICC), technically co-sponsored by the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Bi- ogy Society (EMB), ACM SIGART and the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC), in cooperation with AAAI. The purpose of the International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering S- tems and Technologies is to bring together researchers and practitioners, including engineers, biologists, health professionals and informatics/computer scientists, int- ested 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. BIOSTEC is composed of three co-located conferences; each specializes in one of the aforementioned main knowledge areas, namely: • BIODEVICES (International Conference on Biomedical Electronics and - vices) focuses on aspects related to electronics and mechanical engineering, - pecially equipment and materials inspired from biological systems and/or - dressing biological requirements. Monitoring devices, instrumentation sensors and systems, biorobotics, micro-nanotechnologies and biomaterials are some of the technologies addressed at this conference.