IFMBE Secretaries meet in Cyprus

During the Medicon '98 Conference, held in Cyprus (14-17 June,1998), the IFMBE's Secretaries Committee convened at their annual meeting.

As the Secretaries Committee's chairman, I attended the Administrative Council's meeting partly to inform you the readers of IFMBE News and to foster better communication between the countries and affiliated societies. In this brief report, the minutes of these meetings will not be replicated - these will be available on a later date. Instead, my purpose is to inform you of the details of the meeting as rapidly as possible, in the form of a synthesis of the main points, and to give you some points for reflection and action.

Secretaries committee meeting

The Secretaries met on Sunday 14 June. Fifteen countries (no transnational societies) were represented, mostly by their Secretaries, some by their Presidents (this is about one out of three, as IFMBE groups, 44 affiliated societies).

The Secretaries Committee, which is the Federation's body that offers the possibility of direct contact amongst affiliated societies and between the officers who serve in the Administrative Council, in working groups, divisions or committees.

I would like to highlight the main points (the minutes which are currently being prepared by Keith Copeland and will be sent to the Secretaries as soon as they are ready).

A matter that remained to be settled after the Nice meeting was the election of a co-chair. After two rounds of voting, Walter Chang from Taipei, China was finally elected.

IFMBE officers reported on their activities and plans; a few important points to mention are:

  • Requests for affiliation to the IFMBE from Yugoslavia and the International Federation for Biomechanics are in the 'pipeline'
  • The 'Clinical Engineering' group decided to start meditating on a new 'strategic plan', to foster response from their members;
  • the Administrative Council wants to 'streamline' the information flow in the Federation by encouraging electronic mail exchange and electronic publication via worldwide web
  • The Federation's web pages will be taken care of by a new editor, under direct control of the Secretary General. This poses a question as we have no idea how many of our members have access to the Internet at the present time, and how this will evolve in the future.
  • The Federation Journal now has a strongly decreased turn-around time between submission of papers and publication. Alan Murray (Editor of MBEC), strongly encourages us all to renew and propagate subscriptions to the journal and to let it be known to libraries. Cellular Engineering is now part of the Journal and will encompass the somewhat broader field of 'Tissue Engineering'
  • The efforts to gain recognition from the Biomedical Engineering field by ICSU in the context of IUPESM are well under way and will receive an extra push from the IFMBE President, Prof. Morucci himself.
  • The International Liaison Committee led by Nandor Richter (Hungary) has made important efforts to identify useful contacts with bodies such as WHO, Unesco, etc.
  • The IFMBE officers plan to present reports and be open for dialogue during the next Secretaries' meetings. The Administrative Council will hold its next meeting during the 1999 Pan-Pacific meeting in Seoul, Korea, September 1999.

Little was heard about other 'Working Groups'. However a very positive proposal emanated from the ESEM Society, for activating IFMBE activities in Europe.

After all these reports, the Secretaries presented a brief overview of the situation within their societies in the form of handwritten reports.

It was decided by voting that next year's Secretaries Meeting will take place in Tallin (Estonia) during the 1999 Nordic-Baltic Meeting, which will be between 10 June and 13 June 1999.

Action points

If you want to participate effectively, please note following 'action points':

  • Send me (by email) and the IFMBE Secretariat, your society's updates: addresses, information, planned activities etc.
  • Propagate the Federation Journal (folders are available for mailing) and encourage the subscription by your members and any libraries you know.
  • Try to make contact with neigbouring countries' societies, active in the fields of biomedical or clinical engineering, in order to make them join the Federation.
  • Report news articles to IFMBE News.
  • Keep in contact and try to attend the Secretaries Meetings; the next one is in June 1999, Tallin, Estonia.

Conclusion

Please note the effort to increase communication deployed by the Administrative Council and the Secretaries Committee. I hope to speed up considerably the flow of information towards the Secretaries, so that you will all be informed quicker, better and on a more regular basis.

I thank the IFMBE Secretariat and especially the Secretary General to be willing to materialise this effort! It is also my wish to try to give more (financial) support to Secretaries to enable them to come to the meetings, provided they make an effective contribution and make a request at least three months in advance, for the administrative handling! Although the budget is tight, we should be able to do something.

It is up to you to respond, give feedback and to make requests so that we, as Secretaries of the affiliated societies can have an active impact on the management of the Federation!

Marc Nyssen

Secretaries Committee Chairman

Email: marc@minf.vub.ac.be