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Post Congress Impressions from Salzburg
Gemeinsame Drei-Länder-Tagung der Deutschen,
Österreichischen und Schweizerischen Gesellschaften für Biomedizinische Technik,
September 25-27, 2003
Salzburg, Austria
This year the German speaking tri-annual congress on biomedical engineering - the so called
Gemeinsame Drei-Länder-Tagung der Deutschen, Österreichischen und Schweizerischen
Gesellschaften für Biomedizinische Technik - was organised by the Austrian Society for
Biomedical Engineering and held in Salzburg during a period of generally excellent weather,
from Thursday through Saturday, Sept 25-27.
Most probably, this conference on biomedical engineering was the largest one in Continental
Europe this year. After much planning over the last 18 months, we were happy to see so many
colleagues and friends in Salzburg: A total of ca 540 attendees (pre-congress seminar participants
included) made their way to Salzburg. 60% came from Germany, 35% from Austria, 5% from
Switzerland, a few more from Croatia, Iceland, the UK and the USA to what we considered a highly
successful congress. IFMBE was represented by its new President J. Nagel and the Secretary
General, R. Magjarevic.
The invited keynote and plenary speakers were excellent, bringing us the state-of-the-art
developments in their fields and also pointing us towards the future. The topics were on "Nature
as a Guide to Technical Sensor Development" by H. Bleckmann, Bonn, "The Artificial Hand" by
G. Bretthauer, Karlsruhe, "Biopsy by Means of High Resolution Optical Coherence Tomography" by
W. Drexler, Vienna, "Identifying Molecular Mechanisms from Biomolecular Sequences" by
F. Eisenhaber, Vienna and finally "Molecular Imaging" by S.S Gambhir, San Francisco.
Besides the pre-congress workshops on biosensoric, bioinformatics and health care management
(organised by B. Tilg, Inns-bruck and his colleagues, L. Schaupp, Z. Trajanoski and
R. Gfrerer, Graz) and the TSB-Seminar (organised by P. Kerschhofer, Salzburg), during the entire
congress approximately 200 lectures were presented in up to five parallel tracks. Special Seminars
on "Imaging" (organised by D. Maier and P. Bösiger, Zurich), "Mobile Communication"
(organised by O. Petrowicz, Munich), "Functional Electro-stimulation" (organised by W. Mayr,
Vienna), "Telemedicine and Economy" (organised by W. Niederlag, Leipzig), the "K. Perktold
Honorary Symposium on Biomedical Fluid Dynamics" (organised by H.Schima, Vienna), "Microsystems
in Biomedical Engineering" and "Personal Health Monitoring" (both organised by Christine
Weiß, Berlin) highlighted the present state of the art and presented an excellent outlook.
The presentation of the posters was organised in such a way that all 99 accepted posters could be
shown simultaneously during the whole congress. We think that in particular this kind of continual
presentation fostered the exchange of ideas and helped stimulate discussions.
As part of the official opening of the congress, outstanding research in our discipline was
acknowledged by the Stiftung-Familie-Klee Award (German Society for Biomedical Engineering) to
T. Krings, MD, Aachen, and the Stefan Schuy Award (Austrian Society for Biomedical Engineering)
to A. Leuprecht, BSc, Graz.
The organisers made every effort to facilitate the participation of students by offering them an
attractive low congress fee. Altogether 60 students took part, 42 students applied for the
student competition. Prizes were awarded for oral presentations (7 out of 31 contributions,
each prize with a value of EUR 250.-) and poster presentations (2 out of 11 posters, each prize
EUR 200.-). In addition three posters out of 87 were selected for prizes (each prize EUR 200.-).
The winners and the title of their contributions as well as the full scientific program are
available from the Website.
http://www.univie.ac.at/oegbmt/BMT-3Laender-Tagung-2003/home.html
The Proceedings include 275 papers and have been published as Supplement 1 to "Biomedizinische
Technik/Biomedical Engineering", Vol 48 (ISSN 0939-4990). The volume (edited by H. Gilly,
E. Hofer, H. Pessenhofer and P. Rehak) comprises 564 pages and is available through Fachverlag
Schiele & Schön, Berlin or from the organisers (Price: EUR 40.- plus postage).
The Social Program included a Get-Together evening in the Congress Centre of St. Virgil with
live music, a guided tour through the famous trick fountains in Hellbrunn followed by a dinner
reception in the Orangerie of Hellbrunn Castle and an unforgettable Organ Concert in the famous
Cathedrale of Salzburg, sponsored by the City of Salzburg.
The Congress facilities in St Virgil, a newly restored congress and seminar centre, provided
excellent services and a refreshing atmosphere, due both to the friendly personnel and its quiet,
attractive location in a large park.
With respect to finances, due to the large number of participants, the industrial exhibition
(though rather small), and the additional support by several companies, as well as the Austrian
Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology, only a small loss resulted for the organisers.
The Salzburg Congress is now over. Thanks to all who made it a great success!
In the light of feedback from participants I am confident that it was a memorable congress.
Hermann Gilly
Congress President
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