A meshless model based on radial basis function and method of fundamental solution (RBF-MFS) is developed to investigate bioheat transfer problems. First. A time-stepping theta-method is used in handling the time variable in the Pennes bioheat equation. Then, the particular solution is approximated by a linear combination of radial basis functions, and the homogeneous solution is approximately determined by the method of fundamental solution. The multi-subdomain RBF-MFS technique is implemented for analysing problems containing different materials and/or multi-connected regions. The efficiency of the proposed method is assessed by several examples including normal tissue, tissue with tumor and burned tissue. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.