Administrative Council meetingsThe Administrative Council (AC) has met twice recently. First immediately after the IEEE EMBS conference in Amsterdam (November 3) and for the second time prior to the Okayama International Medical Engineering Forum in Okayama (14-15 February ). The agenda included the usual issues of budget, membership, reports & annual plans of the IFMBE divisions, working groups and committees. It is the intention to provide reports by the chairpersons of the IFMBE divisions, working groups and committees on a regular basis in this newsletter. Therefore, a brief summary of other points of general interest follows: Rio '94 conferenceAntonio Giannella Neto (MBE co-president of the Rio '94 world congress) reported that the congress was a success in technical and scientific terms and also made a healthy profit. EMBS conference, Amsterdam '96Herman Boom (co-president of IEEE/EMBS conference) reported on the preliminary outcome of the Amsterdam conference. It looked like that conference met its goals in terms of participants and financial outcome. As IFMBE was a co-sponsor with a 20% risk the council was happy to hear this news. New membership applicationsThe Institute of Medical Engineering & Clinics, Ukraine has applied for membership. The application fulfils IFMBE criteria and the application is going out for postal ballot by the General Assembly delegates. The European Society for Engineering & Medicine (ESEM) has applied for membership in the transnational organisations category. After an in-depth discussion the AC decided in favour of this application and it will be sent for postal ballot by the General Assembly delegates. A few words about this discussion - it focused on the relationship between ESEM and IFMBE member societies in Europe in the past and how it might change in the future. The origin of ESEM comes from the former COMAC-BME activity of the European Union (now continued inside the BIOMED-2 programme). ESEM's aim is to combine medical doctors and engineers under one society. During the IEEE/EMBS conference representatives of the IFMBE AC met with the ESEM President and Secretary-General. They discussed ESEM's membership application, the European situation and possible coordination of conferences in Europe. ESEM's relationship with IFMBE European member societies is potentially complicated. ESEM is primarily a transnational society with individual members, whereas IFMBE members are national societies with individual members. However, ESEM's constitution also recognises member societies. Furthermore, IFMBE has established a regional structure. In Europe we have a working group (headed by Helmut Hutten) to look after the regional interests of our members. This year the ESEM conference is taking place in Warsaw, Poland in May. In 1999 ESEM will meet in Portugal and the first IFMBE European conference (EMBEC) will take place in Vienna. Therefore, the earliest year in which we can have coordination in place is 2001. Better late than never! It was strongly felt that one of IFMBE's missions is to unite the biomedical engineering communities. That was also the motivation for the establishment of the transnational membership category. It was pointed out that the situation with ESEM is very similar to the one in 1991 when IEEE/EMBS applied for membership. IFMBE and EMBS have been able to do several things together since then. Similarly, having ESEM as an IFMBE member offers the possibility of stronger relations and joint activities. Finally, it was emphasised that IFMBE continues to serve its European member societies through our European working group! International AcademyThe formation of the Academy of Medical & Biological Engineering is progressing well. An Initial Committee of Membership headed by Robert Nerem was established some time ago. The members are Kazuhiko Atsumi (Japan), Richard Cobbold (Canada), Zhen-Huang Kang (China), Daniel Laurent (France), Maciej Nalecz (Poland), Robert M. Nerem (USA), John Paul (UK), Ake Oberg (Sweden), Robert Plonsey (USA), Gunther Rau (Germany), Annelise Rosenfalck (Denmark), Klaus Schindhelm (Australia) and Max E. Valentinuzzi (Argentina). The Academy's name has been changed by postal ballot, adding the word 'International'. During the Nice World Congress the first induction ceremony of Academy members will take place. The membership committee is preparing a list of members to be invited. The target number of persons to be invited is around 100. This first list will not have anyone from the present Administrative Council since the AC itself selected the first committee. The program of the induction ceremony was discussed and preparations left to the French organisers. Policies and proceduresAfter a discussion in Amsterdam, Dov Jaron volunteered to prepare a document on IFMBE policies and procedures. In Okayama this was unanimously accepted. The document handles our logo and conference policies. The logo is a registered trademark owned by the IFMBE. Therefore any use of it must have prior authorisation by the IFMBE. Three types of IFMBE conference participation are recognised: sponsorship, affiliation and endorsement. For IFMBE to participate in any of these three ways requires that the conference is consistent with IFMBE's mission. Sponsorship indicates complete responsibility for technical, financial and administrative elements. Such conferences are financially accountable to the AC. Affiliation can be either through co-sponsorship or co-operation. In the former IFMBE shares a significant involvement in the financial, technical, publicity and administrative elements of the conference. Approval of co-sponsorship is done by the AC based on a request accompanied by a list of conference officers and conference budget. In the latter IFMBE has no financial involvement with the conference but is otherwise supporting it, e.g. through participation in the organisation of the technical programme and encouragement of its members to submit papers. In both cases conference announcements and publications must include a statement ackowledging IFMBE's co-sponsorship/co-operation. Furthermore, if the conference is of a local or regional nature it must include participation by a local national society holding IFMBE membership. Endorsement indicates that IFMBE approves the conference but has neither financial nor direct involvement in its organisation. The president is authorised to provide endorsement. Bids for 2003 World CongressIn the year 2000 the World Congress will be held in Chicago. The site of the 2003 world congress will be decided in Nice. This process is run by the conference coordinating committee of IUPESM, headed by Colin Orton. At the moment it looks like there will be several bids. Australia, Korea, Slovenia and the UK have all indicated an interest. NIILO SARANUMMI | ||