President’s Column

It is a tremendous privilege and an enormous responsibility for me to have been elected as President of the IFMBE. I am assuming the Presidency of the Federation following outstanding accomplishments by the outgoing President, Jean Pierre Morucci, and the members of the Administrative Council. I can point to two most important recent accomplishments. One is the admittance of the International Union for Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine (IUPESM) - of which we are a constituent organization - to the International Council of Science (ICSU). The other is the 2000 World Congress that was held in Chicago in July.   

ICSU is a non-governmental organization, founded in 1931 to bring together scientists in international scientific activities. It comprises 98 scientific research councils or science academies and 26 international, scientific unions. It seeks to provide a wide spectrum of scientific expertise, enabling members to address major international, interdisciplinary issues which none could handle alone. The Council strives to break the barriers of specialization by initiating and coordinating major international programs and by creating interdisciplinary bodies, which undertake activities and research programs of interest to several member organizations. A number of committees address matters of common interest to all scientists, such as building the capacity of science, environment issues and the free conduct of science all over the world. The Council acts as a focus for the exchange of ideas and information through hundreds of congresses, symposia and other scientific meetings that are organized each year around the world by its member organizations, and through a wide range of newsletters, handbooks and journals.   

For many years, IUPESM was an associate member of ICSU, with neither voting rights, nor any significant privileges. Our previous applications for full membership were denied on the erroneous grounds that our professions only utilize scientific advances but do not contribute to them. During the last couple of years, many of the IUPESM officers - under the leadership of Keith Boddy, then President of the Union - embarked on a major advocacy effort through the national academies and through the ICSU scientific unions to explain our role in advancing basic science. We should all be gratified that, for the first time in its history, ICSU has recognized engineering and medicine as professions that contribute to the scientific knowledge base. Our admittance as a full member of the ICSU family will permit IFMBE, its member organizations and their individual members to participate in ongoing global activities of ICSU and to embark on new transnational initiatives to improve health and health care delivery world-wide. Just as important, membership in ICSU lends our profession prestige and recognition by our scientific peers in other disciplines, opens access to the national science academies in every country and gives us all an opportunity to make the public aware of the major contributions that biomedical engineering has been making to medicine and biology.  

The President, Dov Jaron (right) and Secretary-General, Heikki Terö (left) at the outdoor concert in Ravinia

The 2000 World Congress was the largest assembly of Medical Physicists and Biomedical Engineers ever held. The Congress incorporated seven organizations: The International Union of Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine (IUPESM), The International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE), The International Organization of Medical Physicists (IOMP), The American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), The Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists (COMP), The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and The Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society of the IEEE (EMBS). More than 5600 participants came to Chicago. The size of the congress presented considerable challenges to the organizing committees and to all individuals who were involved in the many congress activities. One of the highlights of the Congress was the opening ceremony, during which Dr. Francis Collins of the National Institute of Health gave a keynote address titled "The Human Genome Project: A Physics and Engineering Challenge". Dr. Collins outlined the promise of the new discoveries in molecular biology and emphasized the need for participation by engineers and physicists in translating these discoveries to practical applications. Through more than 20 scientific tracks, platform and poster sessions and daily keynote addresses, attendees had an opportunity to learn about the most recent research and to interact with engineering and physics colleagues. They also had an opportunity to enjoy the many attractions of the city of Chicago. It was a most successful event, and if you missed it, please make sure to attend the 2003 Congress, which will be held in Sydney, Australia.   

In spite of these recent successes, it is also a time of great challenges to our organization. We need to recruit other countries to join the Federation. We presently have 44 member countries but many others are still not part of our organization. We need to improve the ways by which we communicate with the individual members of our constituent organizations. This has always been a difficult task. However, this should become considerably easier as a larger number of our members gain access to the internet. Beginning next year, we will be publishing our newsletter on the web as well as making it available as a PDF file via email. We must find more effective means of disseminating scientific and professional information. The IFMBE should also increase its efforts to help our members in developing nations. This can be done through special symposia and workshops and by calling on our members in developed countries to offer special lectures where required. We must make our Specialized Divisions and Working Groups more proactive and responsive to the needs of our membership. IFMBE should create regional alliances, which can influence legislative agendas. This should help our profession by increasing the role of our medical and biological engineers in national and regional decision making processes, help legislators to recognize the importance of biomedical engineering in future research and delivery of health care. One such effort has already started by having IFMBE support an ad hoc committee for European Activities. To make all this possible we need to strengthen our financial base, we must seek additional sources of income so that we can support important initiatives.   

Another important challenge is the changing intellectual foundation of our profession. The field is moving in new directions. Research areas are changing and the 21st century will see new ways of delivering health care. We, as biomedical engineers, must be on the forefront of these changes and IFMBE should play an important role in helping our members adapt to them. I will address this challenge in one of my future columns.   

I am honoured to have become your president. I plan to call on many of you to assist me in meeting these challenges and to achieve the goals of the Federation. I hope that you will be willing to contribute your time and expertise to help us move IFMBE ahead into the 21st century.

Dov Jaron,
President IFMBE