Biographical Sketch

Prof. Marc Nyssen Studied Electrical Engineering at the Free University Brussels, graduating in Electronics in 1975.

In 1978, he obtained an Engineering degree in "Computer Science"

In 1983, he obtained a PhD. degree in Electrical Engineering, after defending a thesis: "New Architectures for Opto-electronic Signal Processing"

From 1976 to 1977 research assistant in the Electronics Dept. at the V.U.B. (Brussels).

From 1978 to 1983 he was appointed in the Medical Informatics Dept., responsible for the research network and server computing infrastructure of the new medical campus of the Brussels Free University, in Jette.  First as a research assistant, from 1983 then as Associate Professor, finally as Professor, head of the "public health department".

As National Secretary he represents Belgium in the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing (IFMBE), of which he is a board member and officer.

Co-founder and Secretary General of the Belgian National Committee on Biomedical Engineering within the Belgian Royal Academy of Sciences and Fine Arts.

His interests lie in different aspects of the computerized production lines, mainly for the scientist, with emphasis on network communication aspects. Image processing related hardware and software systems  were studied and realized under his guidance, as research projects or as thesis for students in Engineering or Biomedical Engineering and Medical Research.

Medical Internet applications are a second field of interest and expertise, this field is now known as «E-health».

Several projects were accomplished regarding the introduction of electronic medical records, physiotherapy registers and the exchange of medical data via the Internet, currently  his main project consists of the introduction of electronic medical prescriptions in Belgium: the Recip-e project, as project leader 2005-2019.

Member of several Phd commissions and promoter of Masters and Phd students.

In the field of teaching, he is the co-promoter of a series of "wireless laptop" projects to foster ICT in education.

Teaching assignments include courses in "computer science" at bachelor level in the medical faculty, e-health at master level in engineering (biomedical engineering VUB-UGent and several courses as guest professor in the master in e-health, KIST/KHI, Kigali, Rwanda and Havana, Cuba.

Chairman of the Flemish Interuniversity Council's Bureau for development cooperation: VLIR-UOS (2005-2008), co-chair 2009-2011, member of the Bureau 2011-August 2016.

Member of the Belgian "Telematics Commission" that initiated the eHealth developments in Belgium, mainly participating in the elaboration of the data structures for the medical health records and medical prescriptions until 2009.

Appointed as member of the Flemisch "Toezichtcommissie voor het elektronische bestuurlijke gegevensverkeer" the Flemish "Privacy Commission" by the Flemish Parliament, as of January 2010 -, renewed for a three year period as of March 2019, now in the Flemish Privacy Authority.

Co-coordinator of the VLIR-UOS and CUD project UNIVERSITIC in D.R.Congo.

Project leader of the Belgian e-health project Recip-e, introducing and deploying electronic medical prescriptions in the country, project leader (2002-2019), participating until full deployment (2019-2022).

Fellow of the International Academy for Medical and Biological Engineering (IAMBE).

Officer (Treasurer) if the International Federation for Biomedical Engineering) IFMBE (2012-2023).

Founder of the ICT4D group at the VUB, with as main goals, the support of electronic and network applications in medicine, in developing countries.

Member of the “World Data System” Steering Committee of the International Science Council (former ICSU), with main interests in making scientific data public and managed through open, high quality repositories an all scientific disciplines.

Representative of IUPESM at the CODATA General Assembly and CODATA executive committee member 2024 -

Member of the Belgian Academy of Overseas Sciences, presenting ICT projects in Africa January 15th 2023.

Visiting Professor on Medical Informatics and e-Health at the Fajardo Medical University in La Habana Cuba and visiting teacher at the CEBE Centre of Excellence in Biomedical Engineering and e-Health in Kigali, Rwanda, teaching courses on "eHealth Architecture", "Privacy", "eHealth Security".

Was appointed as “expert” in the fields of e-health and biomedical engineering for different successful missions in the context op the BTC-ENABEL framework contracts regarding biomedical engineering and medical informatics:

• Consultancy regarding hospital equipment management in Burundi, September  2016
• Consultancy and teaching GMAO in Burundi (hospital equipment management via ICT) in April 2017
• Consultancy regarding ICT for hospital equipment management in Rwanda (March 2018)
• Consultancy regarding a metropolitan hospital ICT network in Kigali, Rwanda (March 2018)
• Consultancies regarding e-health teaching in Guinée (2017, 2019, 2021 and 2022)
• Consultancy regarding a country-wide plan for de-centralisation of hospital equipment management in Rwanda (October 2018)
• Consultancy regarding the National Plan for Hospital Maintenance in Niger (2021)
• Consultancy regarding a central data center in health care and impact of ICT on health care (Burundi)