IFMBE Secretaries' Meeting

August 4, 2004
at MEDICON Conference 2004

After opening the meeting, Akos Jobbagy, Chairman of the Secretaries. Committee, stressed the importance of close communication between the secretaries of all affiliated societies and the IFMBE. It is essential that information is disseminated and communication is maintained permanently. For this purpose Akos has established a mailing list interlinking the secretaries of all member societies. The list is accessible via the email address ifmbesec@mit.bme.hu and is moderated by Akos. Members should use it to send e-mails (<40 kbyte).

IFMBE Officers' Reports

President's Report
Joachim Nagel informed the Secretaries. Committee of the most important developments since he took over the presidency at the World Congress in Sydney.

  • There is growing awareness of the Federation worldwide. Thailand and a second Polish society have applied for membership, and there are increasing demands on IFMBE to co-sponsor and endorse conferences.
  • A lot of efforts are being invested in the IFMBE publications (News, Journal, Proceedings Series and Book Series). There has been a major improvement in the News concerning contents as well as layout. The Proceedings Series now contains nine volumes; in 2005 it is expected that another 4 will be added; the book series is developing very nicely.
  • The journal needs a new editor, as Alan Murray's term is about to expire. A search committee, chaired by Joe Barbenel, has been established and has started its work.
  • The IFMBE is in good shape financially; still, efforts are being made to increase the Federation's income in order to allow improved membership services.
  • The officers are looking into possible ways to improve membership services.
  • Cooperation with WHO has been widely expanded to additional activities, e.g. a global initiative on patient safety. IFMBE is, together with WHO, considering to prepare a motion for the World Health Assembly asking governments to make certification of clinical engineers mandatory.
  • Accreditation of Biomedical Engineering Programs and certification of clinical engineers are of global importance. IFMBE has to play a crucial role in these issues and has started initiatives in Europe and other parts of the world.
  • After the formation of the European Alliance for Medical and Biological Engineering and Science, the creation of an African Alliance and a similar umbrella organization in the Asian Pacific Area is being initiated
  • The Divisions for Clinical Engineering and Health Care Technology Assessment are in a phase of restructuring. IFMBE is expecting several new initiatives to be launched shortly.

Secretary General's Report
Ratko Magjarevic updated the Secretaries. Committee on the most important of his activities since his election in August 2003.

  • The IFMBE website has been transferred to a new provider in Belgium.
  • The Federation's directory on the web has been reviewed and corrections were made. It is now updated on a weekly basis.
  • The Constitution and By-laws Committee was elected by electronic ballot. The new members of the Committee are:
    Joe Barbenel, Great Britain, Chairman
    Antonio Fernando Catelli Infantosi, Brazil
    Marc Nyssen, Belgium
    Maria Siebes, The Netherlands
  • Two AC meetings were held; reports are on the website.
  • A new application form for individual IFMBE membership was set up on the web, and applications arrived from Uganda and Malta.
  • As of Jan. 2004, alerts concerning new releases of the IFMBE Journal are sent to all individuals (willing to receive them), including the front cover of the issue.
  • Membership: requests went out for society reports in 2 parts:
    • a table with administrative information
    • a text part to be published in the IFMBE News.
  • The change of address of the SG was sent to all world organisations cooperating with IFMBE.
  • Conference guidelines are available and could be improved by the addition of:
    • guidelines for the submission/selection procedures
    • drafts of contracts
    • instructions for a young investigator competition

Report of the IFMBE Journal Editor, Alan Murray

  • Currently, IFMBE is looking for a new editor. Please contact Joe Barbenel to suggest candidates.
  • There are enough contributions to the Journal and we have an excellent reviewing process leading to short waiting times before publication.
  • To survive, the Journal needs institutional subscriptions, the majority of which are by libraries. However, this number is declining. Currently the publisher does not encourage individual subscription; this may change.
  • Citations: we need everyone's help to increase citations especially within 2 years of the publication date of articles, in order to increase the citation index. Our publications are widely cited but with a half-life of over ten years the number of citations in the first 2 years (for the impact factor) is low.
  • The free access trial for individuals via the web led to more than 2000 subscriptions and 12000 downloads of articles, but it is a balancing act between the number of readers and finances.

Alan Murray asked the secretaries to disseminate the following text in order to learn the opinion of the IFMBE members:

A free trial of MBEC is currently available on the web for individuals to register. Our publisher recommends that we discontinue this free trial at the end of 2004, as it is beginning to harm the income from library subscriptions. We seek the views of IFMBE members on how we can provide a service to members while at the same time ensuring income to support the journal. Member Societies' Reports A. Jobbagy proposed to update the Committee only on those important items that were not reported in writing, since the reports from the member societies are regularly published in the IFMBE News.

Australia: Richard Kirsner reported that the World Congress 2003 resulted in a substantial surplus for IFMBE and IOMP.
Austria: a meeting is being planned in honour of Prof. Hutten who is retiring.
Croatia: reported on an award for the best graduate student in biomedical engineering.
Cyprus: stressed that its society is an umbrella comprising medical physics.
Estonia: plans the 10th anniversary celebration of its society in mid October.
Japan: the name of the society has changed.

Forthcoming elections for the Co-chairperson of the Committee:
It was proposed to have a co-chair from another part in the world (i.e. not from Europe) and to have an opportunity to make room for younger colleagues. On behalf of the secretaries of the Mediterranean IFMBE affiliated societies, R. Magjrevic reported that the next Mediterranean IFMBE regional conference, Medicon 2007, will be held in Potroro., Slovenia. T. Bajd, the President of the Slovenian society, presented the proposal of the Society.

Information on BME conferences where IFMBE is involved is available on the IFMBE web page.

Other Business:
Mark Van Gils briefed the Secretaries. Committee on the CHART project and urged individuals to register via the www.eambes.org website.

It was voted unanimously to convene the next meeting of the Secretaries. Committee at the MBEC'05 in Prague.

From the Report submitted by Prof. A. Jobbagy