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Report from the Immediate Past President
IFMBE 1994-1997
Over the past three years I have had the great honour and pleasure of
serving as your President. I have worked closely with our other officers and
with the members of the Administrative Council. Being president has brought me
into contact with members of our community from all over the world. One of the
roles of the president of IFMBE is to be an ambassador as Robert Nerem pointed
out. I am very happy to see the strengthening of biomedical engineering
worldwide. IFMBE has been trying to play a constructive role in these
developments by co-operating with other organisations and through both the
initiation and fostering of new activities.
Three years ago, we all had the great opportunity to observe the efforts of
our Brazilian and also our other Latin American friends for the organisation of
the successful Rio World Congress. The Nice World Congress held in September,
1997 was also undoubtedly well-organised and successful, the leading forum of
this type in the world. In the following, I would like to itemise some
achievements of IFMBE without individual names because of the editorial
limitation.
- New member societies: Colombia, Croatia, Portugal (1995),
Iceland (1996), Ukraine (1997). We also welcome the European Society for
Engineering and Medicine (ESEM) as the second trans national society, following
admittance of the IEEE-EMBS in 1992, which is certainly the epoch of our
Federation.
- Regional Conferences: The name of Nordic Conference was changed to "Nordic-Baltic
Conference" which implies the powerful contribution from Baltic countries
to IFMBE.
- The International Academy of Biomedical Engineering: The purpose of
the Academy is to conduct programs of a broad nature which will serve to
encourage young people. Membership of the Academy is made up of fellows, who
have contributed to BME by various means. The founding group was inducted in the
opening ceremony at the Nice World Congress.
- Journal of Cellular Engineering: We launched the journal in 1995
because of its increasing importance in BME. However, the number of
subscriptions is not enough to continue it as an independent journal mainly due
to technical reasons. Therefore, the papers relating to cellular engineering
will be included in our original journal MBE&C. However, I believe the
problems will be solved in the near future. Associated with the journal, IFMBE
News will be strengthened as an important means of our communication.
- Working groups, Divisions and Liaison: I want to express my
appreciation to the Clinical Engineering and Health Care Technology Assessment
Divisions and Cellular Engineering Working Group for their very high level of
activities. The Working Groups of European Activities and Asian-Pacific
activities have made efforts to create a clear network among the affiliated
societies in their respective geographic areas. The African and the CORAL
activities have been greatly integrated by their own efforts as well as the
collaboration with other regions and/or societies. I am also greatly thankful to
the activities of International Liaison Committee in establishing and
maintaining important contacts to international organisations. Thanks should
also be given to National Secretary Committee, which is fundamentally important
to maintain the international network of IFMBE activities.
- History Book: We have published our history book at the Nice
Congress, which includes various historical events, commemorative photographs,
short scientific reviews and comments for the future of IFMBE. I would like to
acknowledge the editors of the book.
Finally, I want to express our sincere thanks to Marijke Lensing and Jos
Spaan, who have formed the key resources of the federation as our Secretariat.
The Vice-President, Treasurer and Administrative Council members all worked hard
during the last three years. I thank these people on behalf of all members of
IFMBE. I hope and believe that the IFMBE President Jean-Pierre Morucci and those
officers and administrative council members who will serve for the three years,
will be much successful in their efforts to continue to expand IFMBE activities,
to promote biomedical engineering in every corner of the world, and to serve,
not only our national affiliate societies and their members, but the world wide
community.
Thank you!
Fumihiko Kajiya-Immediate Past-President Kawasaki Medical School
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