After Chicago

The world congress in Chicago has successfully passed and we now have to wait for three years until the next one takes place in Sydney. A lot of things happened in Chicago, most importantly the conference itself. The statistics tell us that the Chicago meeting was the largest in our history with 5600 participants. I won’t talk about the conference. There will be a report of it appearing in one of the future issues.   

The IFMBE General Assembly elected new members to the Administrative Council. The composition of the AC between Chicago and Sydney is given in the table.

Among the issues discussed was the future format of this newsletter. Today Internet and web are easily accessible across the world. Therefore do we still need the paper-based version? By going fully electronic we could provide a better and quicker service than today with the paper based newsletter. We could also cut costs both in production and distribution (mailing).   

This idea was discussed in four meetings during the Chicago conference: first in the AC, then in the Secretaries Committee, after that in the IFMBE General Assembly and finally in the meeting of the new AC where a motion was passed to go fully electronic as soon as practicable. The practical issues will be worked out by the Federation Journal Committee. It is expected that this change will take place early next year.   

Going fully electronic means that:

• We will stop the production of the paper version, but will produce the whole newsletter in PDF format and also publish the articles on the web.
• The PDF file will be sent to the member societies by email. It is up to them to forward it to their members in the same format or where necessary print the file and mail the paper version.
• The web version will include the articles and also the full PDF file.
• An email reminder containing the contents will be sent with the file.

The photos from the Chicago events appearing in this issue have been provided by Professor Jos Spaan. Jos is now a Council Member and before that Secretary-General of IFMBE. He was equipped with a digital camera and was kind enough to let me use some of the photos for this issue.

Administrative Council members in the outdoor concert in Ravinia. From left to right: Alan Murray, Dov Jaron (standing in the background), Marc Nyssen, Mrs Hutten, Helmut Hutten and Mladen Poluta).	Some participants of the Administrative Council meeting, which took place in Evanston outside Chicago on Thursday and Friday prior to the world congress. From left to right: Walter Chang, Alan Murray, Joe Barbenel, Richard Kirsner and Antonio Infantosi.
	A view of Chicago skyscrapers from Lake Michigan late in the evening. In the foreground the Planetarium and the museums where the conference party was arranged.

Niilo Saranummi, Editor
Email: Niilo.Saranummi@vtt.fi