First Latin American Congress on Biomedical Engineering Mazatlan, Mexico, 11-14 November, 1998

With CORAL (Latin American Regional Council on Biomedical Engineering) support the first Latin American Congress on Biomedical Engineering was held in Mazatlan, Mexico, last November. This event was organised and hosted by two of the Mexican CORAL members, the IEEE/EMBS Chapter and the Mexican Society of Biomedical Engineering.

It was a major event which put together around 400 recognised researchers of Latin American countries, contributing in many different topics, such as instrumentation, biosignal processing, clinical engineering, artificial intelligence, medical imaging, healthcare technology, medical physics, biomaterials, medical informatics, biomechanics and rehabilitation. The Conference also included several panel round-table discussions on health technology assessment, rehabilitation, world trends in clinical engineering and telemedicine among other topics. Plenary sessions were related to non-linear analysis of the ECG, health technology, susceptibility of medical devices to electromagnetic interference and strategies in ophthalmology.

Participants from Canada, Germany, Spain, South Africa, Switzerland and the United States also attended the scientific meeting and the commercial exhibition of biomedical instrument manufacturers and clinical engineering products.

The IFMBE and the Pan American Health Organization supported and contributed to the success of this Congress. The IEEE/EMBS also sustained the event.

During the Congress, CORAL which is co-sponsored by the IFMBE and the IEEE/EMBS held its Ninth Annual Administrative Committee Meeting. To improve efficiency and join efforts throughout Latin America, representatives from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica (observer), Cuba, El Salvador (observer), Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, EMBS Region 9 and the IFMBE discussed scientific and professional activities. The World Congress (Chicago 2000) will be supported by CORAL. New officers were elected for the term 1999-2001: Jorge E. Monzon (President, Argentina); Antonio Fernando Catelli Infantosi (Vice President, Brazil); Rodrigo Mijares (Secretary-Treasurer, Venezuela); Mexico and Peru (Members-at-Large). The Costa Rican Society of Hospital Engineering was elected as a member of CORAL. Since members of CORAL AdCom are the chairpersons of all active EMBS Chapters in Region 9 and the Presidents of national societies affiliated to the IFMBE, CORAL will encourage other national societies to become members of the IFMBE. By a majority vote Cuba will host the Second Latin American Congress on Biomedical Engineering in 2001 and Brazil, the Third Congress in 2004. This will be confirmed at the next CORAL AdCom Meeting which will take place in September 1999 in Lima, Peru, organised by the Peruvian Conference on Biomedical Engineering. Hence, CORAL is promoting Regional Conferences, Workshops, Short Courses and Specialist Meetings to accomplish its mission of fostering biomedical engineering in Latin America and the Caribbean.