Annual Report for 1998 of the International Union of Physical and Engineering Sciences in MedicineIntroduction The principal objectives of IUPESM are: (a) to contribute to the advancement of physical and engineering sciences in medicine for the benefit and well being of humanity, (b) to organise international cooperation and promote communication among those engaged in healthcare science and technology (c) to coordinate activities of mutual interest to engineering and physical scientists within the healthcare field, including international and regional scientific conferences, seminars, working groups, regional support programs and scientific and technical publications; (d) to represent the professional interests and views of engineers and physical scientists in the healthcare community. Membership The founding Constituent Organisations of the IUPESM are the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering and the International Organization for Medical Physics. National members are any countries having adherence with any of the Constituent Organisations. There are 69 National Members of the IOMP and 44 of the IFMBE. An overlap in membership between the Constituent Organisation results in a total National Membership of approximately 100. Vital statistics
Organisational matters Virtual meetings of the 11-member IUPESM Administrative Council are held on a quarterly basis using electronic communications to manage ongoing affairs. Minutes of these meetings are posted on the IUPESM website http://www. iupesm.org/. The General Assembly is informed of Administrative Council actions by email announcements to delegate mailing lists. The 200-member General Assembly meets presently on a triennial basis at each instance of the World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering. Dues and income from meetings are collected by the Secretaries General of the IUPESM, IOMP and IFMBE. At present, the collective financial assets of the IUPESM and its two member organisations is in excess of $150,000. The financial assets of several of the member societies exceed these levels by one or more orders of magnitude. Projects of common interest with these national members allow the IUPESM to leverage projects significantly beyond the budgetary limits of the Union. The Secretariat of the IUPESM, presently resides with the Secretariat of the IOMP in San Antonio, Texas while the Secretariat of the IFMBE is in Sweden. Activities undertaken during 1998 Six regional and special topic scientific meetings were held in 1998; (International Summit on Health Care Technology: Vision 2020 6-8 April 1998 Harare (Zimbabwe); 8th Mediterranean Conference on Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing: MEDICON’98, 14-17 June 1998 Lemesos (Cyprus); First International Forum on Medical Progress 15-17 October, 1998 Monaco; First Latin Conference on Biomedical Engineering 11-14 November 1998 Mazatlan, Sinaloa (Mexico); First Iberian Latin American and Caribbean Congress on Medical Physics, 22-25 November, 1998, Mexico City and 7-9 November 1998, International Conference on Medical Physics, New Delhi, India. A large number of educational programs were sponsored during the year and most were in developing nations. The most prominent of these were in Egypt, Mexico, India and Brazil with regional participation. A major new project for the year is the initiation of an Internet international listing of graduate education programs. Work was also begun on a Global On-line Medical Physics Textbook and anon line Encyclopedia of Biomedical Engineering. There is a special focus on building a global communications network for the Union in conjunction with preparations for the Chicago 2000 World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering. Conclusion and future plans The IUPESM will apply for ICSU Full Membership in 1999. Full Membership is viewed as crucial to achieving several long-term Union goals. These goals involve accelerated development and application of physical and engineering science in medicine. The IUPESM plans to hold consensus-building workshops on key issues in physical and engineering sciences in medicine at the Chicago 2000 World Congress. Consensus documents will be used to seek the assistance of ICSU with (1) improved international scientist access to major research facilities, (2) improved Internet access to bioengineering and medical physics libraries and databases, (3) improved international student access to unique graduate educational facilities, and (4) improved methods to assure science input on international policy concerning health care systems. Gary D. Fullerton, PhD Secretary General IUPESM Email: fullerton@uthscsa.edu IUPESM website http://www.iupesm.org/ | ||