Conference Report: MEDICON 2001, Pula, Croatia, June 12-15, 2001The IX Mediterranean Conference on Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing in Pula has successfully passed. Over 280 participants came from 50 countries from all over the world. At the Opening Ceremony held in the Congress Hall of the Hotel Histria, Prof. Stanko Tonkovic, the President if the MEDICON International Program Committee, welcomed the participants and spoke on the significance of international conferences which enable exchange of the newest scientific and professional information. Prof. Jean-Pierre Morucci welcomed the participants on behalf of IUPESM. Prof. Morucci spoke on the importance of IUPESM's full membership in the ICSU. He addressed the need for building the awareness of the impact of biomedical engineering at international and national level. IFMBE-affiliated biomedical engineering societies should play an important role in this matter. During the opening ceremony, the participants paid tribute to Prof. Lojze Vodovnik, a well-known scientist from Slovenia, who has unfortunately left us forever. In their inspired speeches, Prof. Tonkovic and Prof. Marcello Bracale presented the scientific and professional life of Prof. Vodovnik. Prof. Vodovnik was present on all Mediterranean conferences from their very beginning in Sorrento in 1977. Generations of biomedical engineers will remember Lojze as a great teacher and a good friend as well. Prof. Dov Jaron, President of IFMBE, officially opened MEDICON. In his opening speech, he spoke about the future of biomedical engineering. In his opinion, this century will be a century of biology based on biotechnology, in which biomedical engineering will play an important role. Professor Jaron expressed his thanks to the organisers of the conference. The Proceedings of MEDICON 2001 were presented as the first volume of the IFMBE Proceedings series. This is a new approach of the IFMBE Publishing Committee to the publishing of IFMBE-sponsored conference publications, which should enable better recognition of the published papers in libraries and better citation of all authors through the unique series ISSN number. The editor of the IFMBE Journal, Prof. Alan Murray, presented the online version of the Journal Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing and gave a speech on preparing scientific papers for publication. Besides plenary, oral and poster sessions, five special sessions were held at MEDICON. The special session Biomedical Engineering on the International Scene, organised by Professor Morucci, followed by two workshops: Accreditation of Biomedical Engineering Programs in Europe organised by professors Jaron and Nagel as well as A New Organisation for Medical and Biological Engineering in Europe? organised by professors Saranummi, Hutten and Barbanel, were an excellent platform in anticipation of the Vienna meeting of European IFMBE-affiliated societies representatives. On behalf of the Italian biomedical engineering society, professors Marcello Bracale and Paolo Inchingolo organised special sessions: Health Telematics and Telemedicine and Clinical Engineering towards the New Millennium. The Minister of Health of Croatia, Prof. Ana Stavljenic-Rukavina, took part in the discussions during the telematics session. The Austrian biomedical engineering society organised a special session entitled Research, Development and Collaboration in Biomedical Engineering. Professors Gilly and Windischbauer presented the analysis of the possibilities of organisation of biomedical research in Austria and their invited guests from neighbouring countries their view on the research in their countries. The special session on Point-of Care Medical Device Communication organised by Mr. M. Reynolds gave a very good overlook on practical problems and the state of the art of this part technology. The winners of the Student Competition Awards were: Federica Vatta, Italy; Thomas Baun, Denmark and Ozren Radenovic, Croatia. The president of the Award Committee, Prof. Vladimir Medved and Dr Heikki Teriö, Secretary General of the IFMBE, presented the awards to the winners at the closing ceremony. The next Mediterranean Conference will be held in 2004 in Ischia, organised by the Italian biomedical engineering society. Some of the photos taken at MEDICON in Pula can be found in the PDF file of this issue. For more photos and other details, please visit the MEDICON internet site at www.crombes.hr/MEDICON2001.
Ratko Magjarevic
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