Biomedical Engineering or Biomedical Optics: Will the Real Discipline Please Stand Up?

This editorial reflects on the shape of biomedical engineering as a discipline, and its relation to biomedical optics.

Biomedical Optics Scientific Community.

The new Editor-in-Chief, Brian Pogue, gives an overview of the biomedical optics community.

Biophotonics: the big picture.

The 5th International Conference on Biophotonics (ICOB) held April 30 to May 1, 2017, in Fremantle, Western Australia, brought together opinion leaders to discuss future directions for the field and opportunities to consider. The first session of the conference, "How to Set a Big Picture Biophotonics Agenda," was focused on setting the stage for developing a vision and strategies for translation and impact on society of biophotonic technologies. The invited speakers, panelists, and attendees engaged in discussions that focused on opportunities and promising applications for biophotonic techniques, challenges when working at the confluence of the physical and biological sciences, driving factors for advances of biophotonic technologies, and educational opportunities. We share a summary of the presentations and discussions. Three main themes from the conference are presented in this position paper that capture the current status, opportunities, challenges, and future directions of biophotonics research and key areas of applications: (1) biophotonics at the nano- to microscale level; (2) biophotonics at meso- to macroscale level; and (3) biophotonics and the clinical translation conundrum.

In Vivo Measurement of Longitudinal Chromatic Aberration in Patients Implanted With Trifocal Diffractive Intraocular Lenses.

PURPOSE: To measure the longitudinal chromatic aberration (LCA) by both psychophysical methods and in vivo double-pass retinal imaging in patients bilaterally implanted with trifocal diffractive intraocular lenses (IOLs). METHODS: Measurements were performed with a polychromatic adaptive optics system provided with a supercontinuum laser, a Hartmann-Shack wavefront sensor, a deformable mirror, a motorized Badal system, a pupil monitoring system, a double-pass retinal imaging channel, and a psychophysical channel with monochromatically illuminated stimuli. Ten patients (20 eyes) bilaterally implanted with hydrophilic trifocal diffractive IOLs (POD F [FINeVision]; PhysIOL, Liege, Belgium) participated in the study. Measurements were performed in both eyes at three different viewing distances (0.00, +1.75, and +3.50 diopters [D]). Subjective best focus of monochromatic stimuli at five wavelengths (480 to 700 nm) was obtained using the Badal system. Best focused images of through-focus double-pass image series were obtained at three wavelengths (480 to 700 nm). LCA was computed from chromatic difference of focus curves (objective and subjective) as the difference between 480 and 700 nm at near, intermediate, and far. RESULTS: The average subjective LCA was 0.82 ± 0.05 D for far, 0.27 ± 0.15 D for intermediate, and 0.15 ± 0.15 D for near. The average objective LCA was 0.72 ± 0.10 D for far, 0.19 ± 0.15 D for intermediate, and 0.07 ± 0.17 D for near. CONCLUSIONS: Objective LCA was lower than subjective LCA, which was in agreement with previous studies on patients with phakic and monofocal IOLs. In vivo measurements of LCA enable understanding of the relative contribution of refractive and diffractive LCA and will eventually optimize IOL designs to improve polychromatic image quality. [J Refract Surg. 2017;33(11):736-742.].

Biomedical optics centers: forty years of multidisciplinary clinical translation for improving human health.

Despite widespread government and public interest, there are significant barriers to translating basic science discoveries into clinical practice. Biophotonics and biomedical optics technologies can be used to overcome many of these hurdles, due, in part, to offering new portable, bedside, and accessible devices. The current JBO special issue highlights promising activities and examples of translational biophotonics from leading laboratories around the world. We identify common essential features of successful clinical translation by examining the origins and activities of three major international academic affiliated centers with beginnings traceable to the mid-late 1970s: The Wellman Center for Photomedicine (Mass General Hospital, USA), the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic (University of California, Irvine, USA), and the Medical Laser Center Lübeck at the University of Lübeck, Germany. Major factors driving the success of these programs include visionary founders and leadership, multidisciplinary research and training activities in light-based therapies and diagnostics, diverse funding portfolios, and a thriving entrepreneurial culture that tolerates risk. We provide a brief review of how these three programs emerged and highlight critical phases and lessons learned. Based on these observations, we identify pathways for encouraging the growth and formation of similar programs in order to more rapidly and effectively expand the impact of biophotonics and biomedical optics on human health.