The New Secretary-General introduces himselfAlmost six months have passed since I was elected as Secretary General of the IFMBE. These months have not been so hard and I feel confident of managing this mission well. The transition of the secretariat from Amsterdam to Stockholm takes a while since there is a lot of papers that must be gone over and to be sent to Stockholm. Marijke Lensing has told me that she has shipped 28 boxes with IFMBE material and these boxes should be in Sweden at the beginning of March. I think that at the end of March I must spend some time archiving all the documents and establishing routines to take care of all the new ones. Before I continue with my thoughts about the work as the new Secretary General, I think it is appropriate to tell who I am. Most of the members have perhaps not seen the short CV that was available on the IFMBE home page at the General Assembly held in Nice. I hope also that IFMBE news will reach more of the individual members. I was born in 1953 in Finland and moved to Sweden to study at the Linköping University of Technology. I received an MSc degree in Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering and a PhD degree in Biomedical Engineering in 1983 and 1989, respectively. From 1990 to 1992 I worked at the department of Clinical Neurophysiology, University Hospital of Linköping working on the design of software and systems for diagnosis and research. From August 1992 to July 1997 I worked at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, University Hospital of Northern Sweden in Umeå as manager of the research and development section. Since August 1997 I have been working as the Director of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Huddinge University Hospital, which is one of the two university hospitals in Stockholm. It is located at the southern campus, some 17 km from the Stockholm city. My research work deals with biomedical instrumentation, signal processing and biomechanics, and especially urodynamic measurements. I am also lecturer in biomedical engineering and I started the clinical engineering education program at the University of Umeå. I have been board member of the Swedish Society for Medical Engineering and Medical Physics since 1989 and served as Scientific Secretary from 1990 to 1992, Secretary General from 1992 to 1994 and President from 1994 to 1996. I have represented Sweden in General Assembly and Secretaries Committee of IFMBE since 1991 and in 1994 I was appointed as a member of the IFMBE Working Group for European Activities. I have also actively taken part in the organisation of several national and international conferences. One of my first duties as Secretary General is to edit a new IFMBE Directory and I have already noticed that it will not be so easy as one first thinks. To maintain a good communication network around the world is not a very easy task. A lot of the addresses in the1997 Directory are incorrect, in particular, the e-mail addresses. I will therefore send, as soon as possible, a letter to every National Secretary and ask them to send me correct addresses. It is very important that we communicate without delay. Another important task is to create a model to co-ordinate the different meetings and conferences. For example, the Federation Secretariat can put up a list or a calendar in co-operation with other organisations where as many conferences and meetings as possible will be noted down. It can be available on the Federation home page or sent by fax or mail to people who wish to organise meetings. We must also try to increase support to our member societies in the Baltic States, Eastern Europe and developing countries. The Secretariat can promote this by identifying companies, organisations and even persons who can in some way support the education and development of biomedical and clinical engineering in these countries and then of course act as an intermediary in contacts. I know that all this will take a lot of time, but with good organisation and devoted co-workers, it is possible to accomplish this. Of course I need also support from all the members with ideas, so do not hesitate to contact me, preferably by e-mail. Director Heikki Teriö, PhD Department of Biomedical Engineering, Huddinge University Hospital, S-141 86 HUDDINGE, Sweden Tel. +46-8-585 808 52; fax.+46-8-585 862 90 E-mail: heikki.terio@mta.hs.sll.se | ||