SEM was created on the idea that in today's highly technological multi-disciplinary health care such a bridge between medicine and engineering is important.  Without this, medical doctors cannot keep up with rapidly developing health care technology and cannot provide their patients with state-of-the-art medical diagnosis and treatment. Equally, without close contact with medical doctors, engineers cannot focus their efforts upon the most pressing medical problems.

SEM's mission brings benefits to medicine, to engineering and hence to the community, by supporting and identifying to medical doctors current and developing engineering contributions and technical developments in medicine; and by identifying for engineers specific medical problems which need to be solved by appropriate technological means.