IFMBE News: January 2003

2nd European Medical and Biological Conference
EMBEC'02

Vienna, December 4 - 8, 2002

The EMBEC'02 has been very successful and attracted in excess of 1000 participants from more than 50 countries. There were more than 500 oral presentations and about 350 poster presentations. The Conference provided an excellent program with highlights on plenary lectures and tutorials. In the framework of the EMBEC, several Special Sessions, Seminars and Workshops were also organised. Prominent experts in Biomedical Engineering shared their view on the state-of-the-art Biomedical Engineering and its development in the near future. Among the scientific meetings in Vienna, there was one that was certainly pertinent to biomedical engineering and sciences in Europe: the 1st European MBES Forum "The Role of MBES in Europe", one of the milestones in forming of the European Alliance for MBES.

Opening Ceremony

The Opening Ceremony, held in the large hall of the Austria Congress Centre in Vienna, got underway with the sound of Mozart's Divertimento Nr. 8 in F-Major. The Ceremony was moderated by Prof. Peter Rappelsberger, who introduced the distinguished speakers: Prof. Hermann Gilly, President of the Austrian BME Society, Prof. Dov Jaron, President of the IFMBE, Mr. Mladen Poluta who spoke on behalf of the WHO, Ing.. Mathias Reichhold, Austrian Minister of Transport, Innovation and Technology and Prof. Helmut Hutten, the EMBEC'02 President and person who deserved much of the credit for the success of the conference.
In his welcome address, H. Gilly expressed high expectations for this Conference: "Our commitment is to develop appropriate systems in order to improve medical technology for those who are desperately in need of such support. Thus, I think we deserve more public awareness. We are the ones to prepare the way. Such an important conference should be an excellent opportunity to take a big step forward."

The second speaker, Dov Jaron, first addressed the audience on behalf of J. P. Morucci, the President of the IUPESM, and read Jean Pierre's message. Jean Pierre stated, that since 1999, (when IUPESM was recognised as a full member of the ICSU) Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics are also recognised. He said: "I certainly hope that EMBEC 02 will provide attendees an opportunity to meet and work together, to interact with colleagues from around the world, to meet new friends, to enjoy, to learn, and to grow together as specialists of bioengineering . I am sure that you will find this conference especially rewarding, in this atmosphere of friendship among people of varied nations and societies but with the same common goal; to improve health and quality of life all over the world thanks to Bioengineering."
Later, Dov Jaron spoke to the audience on behalf of the IFMBE. Comparing the 1st and the 2nd EMBEC, he found that: "The first meeting was one of the best regional conferences that IFMBE has sponsored. I have reviewed the program of the current conference and it is evident that this conference will be as good or even surpass the success of the first EMBEC. I am pleased to see that the meeting has attracted a great number of established IFMBE members, as well as new colleagues who are carrying out research and development in this new and exciting area." Dov also found that: " Membership in ICSU implies the highest possible recognition of our profession in the world scientific community. This recognition will be important in our dealings with the European Commission, the European Union and for biomedical engineers in their own countries. All of us should be extremely proud of this achievement."

Mladen Poluta, representing the World Health Organization, pointed out the need for closer cooperation between IFMBE and WHO, with particular reference to building the infrastructure for health services all over the world. Both international organisations have already collaborated on healthcare technology assessment projects.

Minister Reichhold spoke on the support of the Austrian Government in promoting biomedical engineering research programs at local and federal level. "Austria has been among the leading countries to promote medical and biological engineering in research and in academic education. During the last decade the Austrian Federal Government has initiated two studies in order to analyse the state of the art of biomedical technologies, to identify fields for R+D activities, and to provide funding programs for universities, research institutes and industry. The Austrian Federal Government has supported not only national funding programs, but also taken part in international and EU based programs."

The Conference President, H. Hutten, expressed his gratitude to all participants, committee members and organisers. Among them, Prof. Peter Rappelsberger who has been his collaborator for both EMBECs. On the behalf of the organisers, Prof. Hutten presented Peter Rappelsberger with a gift: a reprint of a page of the bible with 42 lines that Gutenberg had printed exactly 450 years ago, after he had invented the printing art with movable letters. Prof. Hutten was always supportive of the Federation and was one of the founders of the idea of a strong European regional BME organisation, affiliated to the Federation. In his words: "It is a dream to see how many excellent scientists and researchers come together here in Vienna to present the results of their work, to exchange ideas and knowledge, and to contribute to the "Advancement of Medicine and Health Care through Technology". That is the mission of this conference and as such the greatest challenge to our discipline in Europe. The European Medical and Biological Engineering Conferences are now( and hopefully in the future) the platform for the European MBE community to meet and to collaborate for the adequate response to that challenge. An important part of this response might be the establishment of the European Alliance for Medical and Biological Engineering and Science - EAMBES in the near future."

Additional photographs from the Opening Ceremony and the Reception in the City Hall of Vienna can be found under "Gallery EMBEC'02" at the EMBEC'02 homepage: (http://www.embec.org).

Scientific Program

The Opening Lecture of the Conference was presented by Prof. Peter Schuster, one of the worlds top scientists in bioinformatics, structural biology and molecular evolution of RNA molecules. Prof. Schuster who was born in Vienna, is the winner of several international awards and is the Vice-President of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The topic of his speech was: "Evolutionary Biotechnology - From Experiment to Theory and Back".

The Conference Proceedings were edited by H. Hutten and P. Kroesl and they are published as Vol. 3 / 2002 in the IFMBE Proceedings Series (ISSN 1680-0737, ISBN 3-901351-62-0). They contain more than 800 full-length manuscripts, equipped with 3 registers (content, authors, keywords). These proceedings provide an informative survey on the most challenging topics and advances in Medical and Biological Engineering. The Proceedings can be purchased from the Conference organisers at the price of 85 Euro. As a special offer to universities, institutes, academies including individual staff members, the price of 85 Euro is a retail price that includes postage by regular mail and packaging material.

Hermann Scharfetter had organised a stimulating program with 9 tutorials that were presented by outstanding experts. Tutorials are of interest not only for the young colleagues, they are one of the components of life-long learning and therefore of importance to all participants. Speakers of plenary lectures who shared their expertise and knowledge with the participants are listed below:

Boddy, K. (UK): The Future of Physical and Engineering Sciences in Health Care: a Scientific Wonderland or a Mad Hatter's Tea Party?
Caro, C.G. (UK): Swirling Circulatory and Respiratory Flows: Biological Implications
Neumann, E. (Germany): Gene and Tumor Therapy by Eletroporative Transfer of DNA and Drugs
Ruggiero, C. (Italy): Cellular Engineering: Present State and Future Developments
Sleytr, U. B. (Austria): Biomimetics and Nanotechnology with 2D Protein Crystals (S-layers)
Ando, T. (Japan): A High-speed Atomic Force Microscope for Studying Biological Macromolecules in Action
Jenkins. J. (USA): The Evolution of Electrical Bioengineering Technology during the Past Fifty Years
Lueth, T. (Germany): Navigation and Robotics for Surgery
Müller, G. (Germany): Laser Optical Diagnosis and Monitoring Techniques in Medical Engineering
Radovancevic, B. (USA): Mechanical Circulatory Support: Present Experience and Near Future Developments
Boesiger, P. (Switzerland): Recent Advances in Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Ter Haar Romeny (The Netherlands): Biophysical Models of Visual Perception Inspire Modern Medical Image Analysis
Rechenberg, I. (Germany): Evolution Strategy - Nature's way of Optimization
Robb, R. (USA): Virtual Reality in Medicine: Real Applications
Akay, M. (USA): Biocomplexity Measures of Body Motion in Poststroke Hemiplegic Subjects
Reichenspurner, H. (Germany): The Use of Robotics in Cardiac Surgery

While plenary speakers at conferences are usually "eye-openers" to the future of a particular profession, the number of papers presented in different sessions shows the most significant areas of interest within research. The statistics of 859 scientific papers accepted for presentation at EMBEC'02 shows that Biosignal Processing (140 papers in this topic) still represents the field creating the most interest, followed by Image Processing (59 papers) and Modelling and Simulation (56 papers). For the record, among participants from more than 50 countries in the world, most of the participants came from Germany (88), Italy (75) and Austria (54), followed by Brazil (48) and Japan (43).

All scientific sessions and the conference program can be studied in detail at the conference website.

Forged Poster Competition

Wolfgang Zagler has taken the responsibility for the poster sessions, i.e. on round 350 posters presented in three days. As in the EMBEC'01 there was one forged poster in each session. The participants were invited to take part in the competition, trying to identify those forged posters. The competition did a good job of attracting visitors to the poster area. There was however, a serious background of the competition; this being to provoke the critical attention of the participants, especially that of the younger colleagues. The winners of the competition were announced at the Closing Ceremony.

Closing Ceremony

The forged poster competition was not the only fun the participants had in Vienna. There was also a reception in the City Hall of Vienna, hosted by the Major, Dr. M. Haeupl, and a dinner in one of the famous wine taverns "Heuriger" (an ideal place for participants to meet and discuss scientific matters in a relaxed atmosphere). As a result, five days of associating with colleagues from all over the world, came to an end all too soon. During the afternoon of the conference's final day, the majority of participants gathered together in one of the large halls, in order to meet the winners of the Young Investigator Competition and to thank the organisers for the great job they had done for the BME community. The President of the Conference, Prof. Hutten, proudly summarised achievements of EMBEC'02 and invited the audience to prepare for the next European Conference in 2005.

As H. Hutten said at the Opening Ceremony: "We all know how important it is to increase the visibility of our discipline and our activities, to make them understandable to the society and to its most important representatives "