Role of IUPESM: co-ordinator and catalyser

I am back! Although I said goodbye about a year ago when my term as the President of the IFMBE ended, I am now writing as the President of the IUPESM. My guess is that most of you do not know much, if anything, of the IUPESM.

This first article discusses the role of the IUPESM. The ideas are not mine. They originate from the constitution and byelaws and the legacies and actions of previous and current councils. The way they are represented and interpreted is my doing, of course.

The past

The IUPESM is the International Union for Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine. After successful experiments in 1976, 1979 and 1982, the IOMP and the IFMBE decided to merge their World Congresses. The first Congress to be announced as the World Congress on Medical Physics and Medical Engineering was held in Helsinki in 1985. During the experimentation period, the idea of an umbrella joining the medical physics and biomedical engineering communities was created. The purposes of the IUPESM were defined as

• to cater for the overlapping interests of the IOMP and the IFMBE. These interests span scientific, training & education and professional issues.
• to become a full member of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU); the idea behind this was that gaining membership of the ICSU would mean recognition of our field as a self-standing scientific discipline.

The IUPESM established its secretariat at the National Research Council in Ottawa, Canada, with the kind financial support of the Canadian Government. Jack Hopps, one of the pioneers of the IUPESM, was its first Secretary-General. After his period in office, the secretariat stayed in Ottawa, with Robert Clarke and then Orest Roy as Secretary-Generals, until the Rio Congress last year when Jos Spaan took over and with this decision the sectetariat moved to Amsterdam.

From its initial establishment until the end of 1994 the affairs of the IUPESM were run by Ms. Sally Chapman. Sally was also a long time focal point for the IFMBE. Her enthusiasm, devotion and skills did not go unnoticed. To many of us Sally was the IFMBE and the IUPESM!

Over the years IUPESM activities have developed and currently comprise

• a Conference Co-ordinating Committee to assist in the selection of the World Congress sites, to negotiate the contracts and to monitor the planning of the congress.
• an Award of Merit Committee to honour the achievements of an individual at the World Congress; the recipients of the Award have so far been John Mallard, Jack Hopps and Rune Walstam. In Rio last year a decision was made that in the future two merit awards will be given at each World Congress.
• scientific activities in areas overlapping between medical physics and biomedical engineering. A Conference on Blood Flow is being planned. Medical imaging has been identified as another area.
• a Developing Countries Committee to co-ordinate corresponding activities in the IOMP and the IFMBE.

The ICSU granted associate membership status to the IUPESM in the late 1980s. For several years moving from associate to full membership of the ICSU was the main priority of the IUPESM. In 1992, after the visit of the IUPESM Council to the ICSU headquarters in Paris and other direct discussions, a somewhat different picture emerged, which can be seen as three challenges.

• In accepting new members, preference is currently for 'soft' sciences instead of 'hard' sciences. Furthermore, we need to make a convincing case that biomedical engineering and medical physics are sciences on their own and not fields applying sciences.
• So far in ICSU history, no society has moved from associate member status to full membership.
• A track record of working with the ICSU and contributing towards its goals must first be established.

The present

Full membership of the ICSU is possible, but will not happen quickly. Therefore, a new strategy for the IUPESM seems reasonable; 'Establish a track record and then apply for full membership'. In turning this into actions, the role of the IUPESM needs careful consideration. The IUPESM shall not take over activities that the IOMP and the IFMBE are already doing. Three roles are envisaged: co-ordination between the IOMP and the IFMBE, e.g. in the developing countries area. initiating new activities which are then carried out by the IOMP and the IFMBE or through the IUPESM. forming a link with the ICSU, both to present our agenda and to align it with the activities of the ICSU, thus creating the track record.

The future

The new IUPESM Council, which took over after the World Congress in Rio in August last year, met in Abcoude, The Netherlands, on 14 January 1995 to discuss and formulate a strategy towards the ICSU on the one hand, and the IOMP and the IFMBE on the other,. The above roles were accepted as the basis of this strategy. Three areas were identified for the IUPESM:

• scientific activities.
• training and education.
• professional activities.

Developing countries and Central and Eastern European countries were identified as a top priority. The other priority area is medical imaging, both from the viewpoint of training and scientific activities.

Both the IOMP and the IFMBE have a Developing Countries Committee. In the IFMBE, for example, this is a network joining the activities of

• Regional working groups in Europe (including the Central and Eastern European countries), Latin America, i.e. CORAL (in combination with the EMBS), Asia-Pacific and Sub-Saharan Africa (which is emerging through the initiatives of the South African member society).
• Clinical Engineering Division.
• Health Care Technology Assessment Division.

This is as far as we have got.

Oskar Chomicki and Helmut Hutten are now carrying out an inventory of what is ongoing and planned in both the IOMP and the IFMBE in terms of developing countries. Similarly, Michael Smith and Jean-Louis Coatrieux are looking into medical imaging.

We will also ask member societies about what contacts exist between medical physics and biomedical engineering at that level. An action plan will be set up which, as far as possible, will be based on actions taken by the IOMP and the IFMBE and their member societies. The IUPESM will only take action on issues where there are no natural actors.

Conclusions

I plan to write occasional articles to the IFMBE and IOMP newsletters to bring the IUPESM closer to the medical physics and biomedical engineering communities, to share its plans, and to receive suggestions for directions and actions for the IUPESM.

By the way, IUPESM now also exists on the World Wide Web (WWW). The location of our home page is http://www.vtt.fi. Have a look at it. The WWW address of the IFMBE is http://www.ifmbe.org/. Suggestions are welcome.

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