Annual Report for the ICSU Year Book
International Union for Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine, IUPESM
The International Union for Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine was founded in 1980 by its constituent organizations, the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering and the International Organization for Medical Physics. Through its adhering national societies in almost 100 countries, the Union comprises a global network of physical scientists and engineers dedicated to improving health care and well-being worldwide, especially in developing countries.
The objectives of IUPESM are to contribute to the advancement of medical science and technology; to organize international co-operation and promote communication among those engaged in health care science and technology; to co-ordinate activities of mutual interest to the engineering and physical sciences within the health care field, such as international and regional scientific conferences, seminars, working groups, regional support programmes and scientific and technical publications; and to represent the professional interests and views of engineers and physical scientists in the health care community.
IUPESM has sponsored triennial world congresses for some 20 years. The Millennium Congress will be held in Chicago and the 2003 Congress in Sydney. The proceedings have been published as supplements of Physics in Medicine and Biology and/or Medical & Biological Engineering & Computing, two of the official journals of IUPESM. For the Millennium Congress, CD publication of some 2000 papers is planned. In addition to the world congresses, regional scientific meetings, educational courses (especially in developing countries) and sub-speciality scientific conferences are sponsored at the rate of 8 to12 per year in various parts of the world. Copies of journals, monographs and newsletters are provided free of charge to 82 libraries in 55 developing countries. Much work is done via the regional groups, the longest established being those in Latin America, Europe and the Asian Pacific.
The Union has established key programmes, which are complementary to and symbiotic with those of ICSU. They include Public and Governmental Understanding of Health Sciences; Education, Training and Continued Professional Development for the 21st Century and Global Biomedical Information Networking for Developing Countries, for which a Global On-line Medical Physics Textbook and a Biomedical Engineering Encyclopedia are being developed; Evidence Based Health Technology; and Medical Equipment Evaluation. IUPESM is establishing collaboration with other members of the ICSU family on these and related projects.
Keith Boddy President of IUPESM
Email: kboddy@rmpd-nngh.demon.co.uk