Report of Finnish Society for Medical Physics and Medical Engineering

Last year was fairly quiet for the Finnish Society for Medical Physics and Medical Engineering. In co-operation with Ragnar Granit Institute we arranged a Symposium on "Cardiovascular Hemodynamics: from Modeling to Clinical Applications" (www.ee.tut.fi/rgi/symposia/). The new Web pages were constructed for the Finnish Society during 2001 (www.ee.tut.fi/~lfty). We had 208 participants on our membership list, however only 100 members paid the membership fee.

This year however, we have started vigorously. The Finnish Society arranged the first Medical Physics and Medical Engineering Day in Tampere University of Technology in January.

The main event of the day was a poster presentation of Master's graduate theses in the field of medical physics and engineering, completed during 2001. The works were evaluated based on poster presentation and the top three each received awards of 2001 (donated by Datex-Ohmeda). During the day professors from Ragnar Granit Institute, Digital Media Institute and Institute of Biomaterials gave lectures concerning education and research within the biomedical engineering field in Tampere University of Technology.

Education and research institutes from Helsinki University of Technology, and from Kuopio, Oulu and Turku Universities presented their activities by posters. In addition, representatives from Arctic Diagnostics, Datex-Ohmeda, Instrumentarium Imaging and Planmeca ja VTT Automation/Medical Device Technology presented their products and operations. Support from these companies was essential to the success of the day. After the official program, Instrumentarium Imaging arranged an evening gathering at the sauna in the center of Tampere.

There were 135 participants from all over Finland. Students from Oulu and Kuopio came by private buses. Pollex, the student club of the Biomedical Engineering department at Tampere University, organized a sauna and winter swimming evening. The event was completely successful. The next Medical Physics and Medical Engineering Day will be held in Helsinki in conjunction with the Helsinki University of Technology.

The Finnish Society has also arranged a poster competition and exhibition for postgraduate students together with Finnish Physical Society's Biological and Medical Physics Division. The competition was organized during The 'Physics Days' in Joensuu in March 2002. There were 41 posters covering extensively medical physics and engineering. The two winners received 500. Furthermore, the research activities in the field of medical physics and engineering in Finland were presented by professors from Helsinki, Kuopio, Oulu, Tampere and Turku. The evening of the first day culminated with the Society's members dining together at a local restaurant. The Annual General Meeting 2002 was held after the official program of the 'Physics Days'.

Jari Viik, secretary
jari.viik@tut.fi

Finnish Society for Medical Physics and Medical Engineering, Officers during year 2002