IFMBE Working Group on Asia-Pacific Activities

Report from the Meeting
December 6, 2002
Raffles City Convention Center, Singapore

Present: Walter CHANG (Chair), Taiwan; James GOH (Recording Secretary), Singapore; Dov JARON (President, IFMBE), USA; Robert NEREM (Past President, IFMBE), USA; Fumihiko KAJIYA (Past President, IFMBE), Japan; Myongho LEE, Korea; Makato KIKUCHI, Japan; Katsuhiko TSUJIOKA, Japan; Arthur MAK, Hong Kong; Richard KIRSNER, Australia; Hiroshi INADA, Japan; Yong Tian CHEW, Singapore; Banchong MAHAISAVARIYA, Thailand; Supan TUNGJITKUSOLMUN, Thailand; YT ZHANG (IEEE-EMBS), Hong Kong

Items

  1. Approval of the Agenda
    1. The meeting accepted the agenda.
  2. Welcome and Introduction
    Prof. Walter Chang welcomed and introduced the invited guests and members to the meeting.
  3. Welcome Remarks
    1. Prof. Dov Jaron, IFMBE President congratulated the successful organisation of the 5th Asia-Pacific Conference on Medical and Biological Engineering in Singapore. He noted that Asia Pacific is expanding in its activities and that APCMBE should represent the interest of the region. Prof. Jaron also urged members to put forward nominations to the Administrative Councils and other posts (President-Elect, Treasurer, Secretary-General) that will be vacant in the Sydney meeting.
    2. Prof. Robert Nerem, IFMBE Past President encouraged the group to build on the success of the Singapore meeting and move on to better cooperation among members in the Asia Pacific region.
    3. Prof. Fumihiko Kajiya, IFMBE Past President, advocated more frequent communication and meetings among the members of the Asia-Pacific members. He cited the successful combined meeting of the Korean and Japanese societies.
  4. Matters arising from last meeting
    Prof. Chang reviewed the three areas that the group had agreed to undertake in the last meeting in December last year at Chung Yuan Christian University, Taipei.
    1. Database of Membership
      1. Prof. Kikuchi had worked on such a database before. He will pass the database to Prof. Chang.
    2. Establish an IFMBE Working Group in Oriental Medical Engineering Research and Development.
      1. Members from Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China are encouraged to nominate potential candidates to form the Working Group. Prof. Chang will help to coordinate and facilitate the formation.
      2. There will a Session on Bioengineering and Physics in Oriental Medicine at WC 2003 in Sydney.
    3. Co-operation among members in planning of BME events in Asia-Pacific meetings
      1. Prof. Goh suggested the creation of a list of BME events in the Asia-Pacific region. He will contact the members via email to request for information on BME conferences and symposium in the region.
  5. Committee Member's Remarks
    1. Prof. YT Chew (Singapore)
      The BES (Singapore) started in 1993 and today it has more than 100 members. The Singapore Government is investing heavily in Biomedical Sciences and this is evident in the setting up of the Biopolis, which will house the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology. The National University of Singapore has also recently established the Division of Bioengineering, offering both Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses. The society is also involved the organisation of the series of BME conference. The next one will be in the first week of December 2005. This is held in conjunction with the centennial celebration of NUS.
    2. Prof. Walter Chang (Taiwan)
      Please ask for the typed written report given out during the meeting by the Biomedical Engineering Society of ROC (Taiwan).
    3. Prof. Richard L.G. Kirsner (Australia)
      The Australian society was formed in 1959 and joined the IFMBE in 1964. It currently has 600 members, of which 150 are also members of the Institute of Engineers.
    4. Prof. Myoungho Lee (Korea)
      The Korean society was formed in 1979, its membership currently stands at 2000. It organises two conferences (Spring and Annual) a year. It has a bi-monthly publication.
    5. Prof. Arthur T. Mak (Hong Kong, China)
      BME is a Division of the Institute of Engineers of Hong Kong; it was formed in the late 1980s. It organises a bi-annual conference primarily for local members and graduate students. There are undergraduate programs in Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Hong Kong University. Graduate programs exist in Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Hong Kong will be hosting the World Congress of the International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics from 1st to 6th April 2004.
    6. Prof. Katsuhiko Tsujioka (Japan)
      There is a change of name to the society in Japan. It is now known as the Japanese Society for Medical and Biological Engineering.
  6. Comments by invited guests
    1. Prof. Banchong Mahaisavariya (Thailand)
      Prof. Banchong gave an account of the Association for Medical Instrumentation, which is an affiliated national member of IFMBE. Following the retirement of the founder, Prof. Susa the association has been inactive. He reported that the Thai Government is now supportive of bioengineering activities and co-operation. There are now BME activities in the King Mongkut Institute of Technology and Songkra University has recently set up an Institute of Biomedical Engineering. Prof. Banchong introduced Mr Supan, who is a member of the newly formed BMES of Thailand.
      Mr Supan reported that the BMES of Thailand was formed in 2001 and currently it has 50 members. It has a website: www.thaibest.org
      The society had its first meeting in 2001 and in their 2nd meeting in 2002, they invited Prof. John Webster and Prof. Willis Tomkins. Prof. Jaron urged them to join the IFMBE.
  7. Report on 2003 World Congress in Sydney - Prof. Richard Kirsner
    1. Prof. Kirsner presented an update on the 2003 World Congress (24 - 29 August 2003). For detail information, visit website at: www.wc2003.org
    2. Prof. Kirsner also introduced the "Ambassador Program". For more information, email to: wc2003@tourhost.com.au
    3. There will be two satellite meetings:
      • 5th IFAC Symposium on Modeling and Control (21-23 August 2003)
      • 6th International Conference on Cellular Engineering (20-22 August 2003)
  8. Report on 2006 World Congress in Seoul - Prof. MH Lee (Korea)
    Prof. Lee reported that the organisation of the congress is underway. The following officials have been elected:
    • Chairman, Organizing Committee: Prof. Sun Il KIM
    • General Secretary: Prof. Kwang Seok PARK
  9. Proposal for the 6th Asia-Pacific Conference 2005 site
    Two probable proposals:
    1. Combined with IEEE/EMBS meeting in Shanghai, October 2005
    2. Combined with the Japanese Society's Spring Meeting
    The Chinese BME Society and the Japanese Society MBE are to submit their proposals to the Working Group by End of January 2003.
  10. Any other matters
    1. Society Reports/News Article
      Prof. Kikuchi encouraged members to submit articles to the IFBME News, which is now in electronic form. Contact the Editor, Prof. Ratko Magjarevic,
      E-mail: ratko.magjarevic@fer.hr
  11. Next meeting
    The next meeting is scheduled to coincide with the World Congress in Sydney 2003. Prof. Kirsner and Prof. Chang will arrange for a suitable date, time and venue.