International Union of Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine2000 Annual ReportIntroductionThe principal objectives of IUPESM are: (a) to contribute to the advancement of physical and engineering science in medicine for the benefit and wellbeing of humanity; (b) to organise international co-operation and promote communication among those engaged in healthcare science and technology; (c) to co-ordinate 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. MembershipThe 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 . The number of National Members of IOMP is 70 and that of the IFMBE is 44. An overlap in membership between the Constituent Organisation results in a total national membership of 80. Vital statisticsTwo Constituent Organisations , 80 national organisations, consultative status at IAEA, PAHO and WHO, more than 40,300 individual members, triennial World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, approximately 16 regional scientific meetings and 15 educational courses organised in 2000, two journals, two electronic newsletters and internet webpages, 80 sponsored specialty libraries in developing countries Organisational mattersVirtual meetings of the 11-member IUPESM Administrative Council are held on a quarterly basis using electronic communications to manage ongoing affairs. Minutes of these meeting are posted on the IUPESM homepage 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 IUPESM, IOMP and IFMBE. At present the collective financial assets of the IUPESM and its two Member Organisations is in excess of $500,000. 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 (USA) while the Secretariat of IFMBE is in Sweden. Activities undertaken during 2000The main event of the year 2000 was the World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Chicago (USA) on 23-28 July with more than 4600 attendants including about 900 students and 1100 exhibitors. National Conferences or Workshops with International ParticipationClinical Engineering Workshops in 2000; Helsinki (Finland), January; Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), April; Riga (Latvia), May; Wurzburg (Germany), June; Chicago (USA), July; Vilnius (Lithuania); Panama City (Panama), October; Second European Symposium on Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics, Patras (Greece), October; Workshop on Biomedical Engineering Education, Chicago (USA), July; First Slovenian-Croatian Meeting on Biomedical Engineering, Bled (Slovenia) October; First Japanese-Korean Symposium on Medical and Biological Engineering, Osaka (Japan); Fifth Portuguese Conference on Biomedical Engineering, Coimbra (Portugal), May; Eigth National Conference on Biomedical Physics and Engineering, Sofia (Bulgaria), October; International Conference on Radiation and its role in Diagnostic and Treatment FICR 2000 Tehran (Iran), October; Conference on Medical Radiation Physics and Engineering, Lisboa (Portugal), November; National Science Meeting, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) April. Graduate education programs in medical physics as an aid to both students and professionals are organised in 19 countries all over the world. The IOMP medical physics education programs during the year 2000 were in Algiers, Algeria (January, 2000), Bangkok, Thailand (May/June, 2000), Prague, Czech Republic (October, 2000), Sofia, Bulgaria (October, 2000), Tehran, Iran (October, 2000), Lisbon, Portugal (November, 2000). IOMP special topic scientific meetings were held in Beijing, China on 27-29 May 2000, Latin American regional meeting "Nuevas Técnicas en Radioterapia", Chicago, Illinois, on 17-22 July 2000, and Bangalore, India, November, 2000. The internet international listing of graduate education programs initiated in 1999 is now completed. Work continues on a global online medical physics textbook and an online encyclopedia of biomedical engineering. A special focus is given on building a global communications network for all the Members of the Union. Conclusion and future plansThe Union has established Key Programmes, which are complementary to and symbiotic with those of ICSU. They include public and governmental understanding of health sciences; education, training and continued professional development for the 21st century and global biomedical information networking for developing countries; evidence based health technology; and medical equipment evaluation. IUPESM has created an ICSU Liaison Committee whose duties are to:
IUPESM is establishing collaboration with other members of the ICSU family on these and related projects.
J.P.Morucci
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