“I want to establish my own firm in medical informatics and contribute to the Armenian economy,” stated Ara Yeramian, 39, when applying to the AVC Professional Corps program. Biomedical engineering is an important but newly developing field in Armenia and Ara is doing his best to extensively contribute to the field. Let’s dive into his story and see where he is now! 

Born in Aleppo from Armenian parents, Ara used to visit Armenia from an early age, which had instilled early on the Armenian passion he carries within him. He moved to Germany where he continued to develop his life and career for 15 years. In 2021, he finally returned to the homeland. “It was the most difficult but best decision I could ever make,” he says.   

When repatriating, Ara had a mission — to contribute his skills of medical engineering to this field in Armenia. For the first six months, AVC connected him with National Instruments to work in the respective field. Later, the organization helped him join ArmBionics, which develops and manufactures upper-limb prostheses. Volunteering with the young startup as a QA engineering manager, he came across other companies in the field of biomedical engineering. That’s when he decided to create the Biomedical Engineering Association of Armenia (BEAA).

Now, a year later, Ara is BEAA’s founder, director, and CEO. It aims to create an environment of constructive collaboration and healthy competition among the organizations with the same mission, rather than prevail in opposing competition. Also of importance is connecting these organizations with relevant ministries to find solutions that exist in regulatory processes and enforce laws to ease importing necessary equipment to Armenia. Additionally, he is working on another collaborative project between Armenia and Germany, details of which he promised to share soon. 

When coming to Armenia, Ara was aware of the challenges he would face but he was at peace with many of them. For him any result is a positive one. Even if something has gone the wrong way or failed, at least you know that out of many methods that specific one didn’t work. “Basically, our approaches on an individual level might differ but the goal is the same — to build something sustainable in this country,” says Ara.

By Lusine Minasyan, Armenian Volunteer Corps