IFMBE News: September 2001

Vienna Resolution Formation of an Umbrella Organisation for Medical and Biological Engineering in Europe

Where we are today in the establishment of the new European umbrella organisation, what are its aims and objectives thought to be and the process so far.

Vienna Resolution

Delegates of IFMBE affiliated national societies and of ESEM and IEEE-EMBS met in Vienna, 26-27 August 2001 at the invitation of the IFMBE appointed ad-hoc committee charged with analysing the situation of medical and biological engineering in Europe. There were 29 delegates in attendance representing 22 IFMBE affiliated societies and organisations. Additionally six countries replied to the invitation but were not able to send a delegate to the meeting. Considering that there are over 30 IFMBE affiliated national societies in Europe in addition to ESEM and IEEE-EMBS the turnout was very good.

The Vienna meeting was convened with the objective of discussing the establishment of a new umbrella organisation for medical and biological engineering in Europe, specifically its aims and objectives, membership, constitution, structure and financing, and of deciding on the next steps in taking this initiative further. At the end of the meeting the participants agreed unanimously to the resolution below:

We the participants recommend the formation of an IFMBE affiliated European umbrella organisation and ask the IFMBE affiliated European national societies, EMBS, and ESEM to endorse its formation in accordance with the discussions that took place in Vienna on 26-27 August 2001.

The meeting further decided to establish a Protem group to take care of the next steps as described in the minutes. This group is charged with working in close collaboration with the European societies. The composition of the Protem group is as follows ¹:

Joe Barbanel, UK
Marcello Bracale, Italy
Helmut Hutten, Austria
Dov Jaron, IFMBE
Ratko Magjarevic, Croatia
Joachim Nagel, Germany
Christian Roux, IEEE-EMBS
Niilo Saranummi, Finland (chair)
Jos vander Sloten, ESEM

On 13 September 2001 the Protem group sent a letter to all European IFMBE affiliates asking for their endorsement of the resolution if at all possible by the end of the current year.

Conclusions of the Vienna meeting

There are two main reasons why a unified medical and biological engineering community is needed in Europe. First, there are the developments taking place in Europe as exemplified by the EU Framework Programmes in R&D, the European Research Area (ERA) and the Bologna declaration (and lately the European Education Area). All these demonstrate that in addition to the national decision making processes increasingly decisions are taken at the European level. Second, affordable and high quality health and health care are high on the agenda of citizens and nations in Europe. Medical and biological engineering is one important means of satisfying those concerns. Divided we will not be successful in being heard and having some influence.

Title of the organisation	The name of the new organisation was not discussed specifically during the meeting. The current tentative name should therefore be considered as a working title only.
Aims and objectives	The aims and objectives were generally approved with some adjustments "here and there". The main objective is to promote medical and biological engineering in Europe. Examples of tasks that the organisation may undertake include (this is not a definite final list): Assisting in the development/strengthening of medical and biological engineering and medical and biological engineering societies in some countries especially in Eastern Europe Assisting/advising/co-ordinating the preparation of guidelines for education, training, and accreditation programmes and by contributing to the establishment of appropriate programmes thus also improving the quality of European medical and biological engineering and enhancing traditional mobility Liaising with national governments, European governmental agencies and European bodies Fostering and co-ordinating the activities of the Member Organisations in the field of medical and biological engineering and collaborating where appropriate with national and international organisations, particularly IFMBE. Taking part in the regulation process of medical devices Representing medical and biological engineering at the European level in order to raise the subject's profile
Membership	The membership should include the entire European medical and biological engineering community, i.e. the new organisation should be inclusive. Further consideration must be given to inviting health care provider organisations and user groups e.g. patients to participate into it as members. The process of building up the organisation must be initiated with the support of the IFMBE affiliated European national societies and EMBS and ESEM. The use of a College of Fellows or similar should also be considered as a way to quickly reach important European players. All European and national societies active in the domain of medical and biological engineering as defined by IFMBE should be approached. Academic institutions, research institutes and industry as well. In addition, the users of health care technology should be approached. There will be no individual members in this organisation.
Constitution, structure, financing	There needs to be short constitution augmented with bylaws giving more detail. The structure of the organisation needs to be such that the European medical and biological engineering community can be represented through its different bodies. Financing will require setting of membership dues. However, it is believed that these will not be enough to enable operations on the necessary scale. Therefore, additional sources for funding must be investigated. A business plan needs to be developed identifying the tasks, the means and the resources (incl. finances).

Activities and milestones leading to the Vienna meeting

As many may remember, at the initiative of Professor Helmut Hutten a discussion forum took place in connection with the 1st EMBEC conference in Vienna in November 1999 as to whether we need a new European medical and biological engineering organisation. Based on the proceedings, IFMBE President Professor Jean-Pierre Morucci appointed an ad-hoc committee to investigate the need for a new European organisation and to propose a solution if a need is identified.

Time	Milestone
November 99	Vienna, 1st EMBEC meeting
November 99	Appointment of the ad-hoc committee
March 00	London, 1st meeting of the committee, creation of an action plan
March 00	Brussels, Meeting with EU Commission representatives (Morucci and Jaron)
April 00	Consulting on EU's Bio-IT initiative and EU-NSF initiative
June 00	Questionnaire sent out on medical and biological engineering educational programs
June 00	Consulting on EU's Bionics initiative
July 00	Chicago, 1st meeting with the European national societies, 2nd meeting of the ad-hoc committee
October 00	Patras, TEMPERE workshop and 3rd meeting of the committee
January 01	Schiphol, 4th meeting of the committee
April 01	Brussels, meeting of the WG and meeting with ESEM representatives and EU officials
June 01	Pula, Workshops on the "one voice" and "accreditation"
June 01	Submission of proposal for COST Action
August 01	Vienna, meeting with the European national societies

The 1st meeting of the committee face-to-face took place in London in March 2000 and created a work plan that we have since been working to put into effect. It is based on two action lines:

Creating a "one voice" mechanism for medical and biological engineering in Europe
Accreditation of medical and biological engineering educational programs in Europe.

During the World Congress in Chicago, July 2000, we arranged a meeting with the European IFMBE affiliates to discuss our findings and plans and to get feedback from the delegates. Since then the committee met in Patras in October and close to Schiphol airport in late January 2001 with an attendance of nearly 20 committee members.

In Schiphol we agreed unanimously to proceed with the establishment of an European umbrella organisation for medical and biological engineering under the following two conditions:

That this new organisation will not be in competition with existing societies in Europe or with IFMBE.
That the aims and functions of such a new organisation add value to what national societies are already doing in Europe.

A small WG was appointed to prepare a meeting with the IFMBE affiliated national societies including ESEM and IEEE-EMBS to discuss and decide on the establishment of the umbrella organisation. This meeting was scheduled to take place in Vienna on 26-27 August 2001. Before Vienna, all societies were contacted to sound out their opinions and to invite them to send a delegate to the meeting. Additionally, two workshops were organised in connection with the 9th Medicon conference in Pula to present and discuss the plans with those present.

It is clear that the setting up and establishment of the umbrella organisation will take time and resources. Therefore, the committee has been looking for possibilities to support the process. The European COST framework² has been identified as such possibility and a proposal for a four-year COST Action was submitted to the COST Secretariat in June this year. It was evaluated in September favourably but still needs adjustments before it can go ahead towards formal approval procedures.

Accreditation of medical and biological engineering programs in Europe

Parallel to this process Professor Joachim Nagel has been heading the accreditation activity in the medical and biological engineering area. Europe is moving towards a European Higher Education Area and the universities are at the core of this process.

The process started by the Sorbonne and a year later by the Bologna Declarations (in 1998 and 1999 respectively) aims at a harmonised European Higher Education Area. In May 2001 the European ministers in charge of higher education, representing 32 signatories, met in Prague to review progress made and to set directions and priorities for the coming years.

The main players in this process will be the universities. This is illustrated among others by the meeting convened by the European University Association (EUA) before the Prague meeting in Salamanca in March 2001. The meeting of universities (http://www.unige.ch/eua) identified six important themes in the creation of the European Higher Education Area:

Freedom with responsibility: Empowering the universities
Employability in the European labour market
Mobility in the European higher education area
Compatibility: a common but flexible qualifications framework
Quality assurance and accreditation
Competitiveness at home and in the world

The most urgent issue in this context is to generate a Europe-wide agreement on the accreditation of biomedical engineering educational programs. Luckily, this activity can draw from the experiences of several European wide networks, projects and programs in this area, the most notable of them being the series of activities carried out by the University of Patras in Greece. The fact that today more than 150 colleges and universities in Europe and about three times that number world-wide offer educational programs in biomedical engineering at all academic levels with numerous areas of specialisation underlines the importance of these activities. Given this context and background the work of the ad-hoc committee has focused on the development of recommendations for accreditation criteria of biomedical engineering programs as a means to assure mobility, compatibility and competitiveness within Europe and the world.

Accreditation of biomedical engineering programs also addresses another aim of the Bologna declaration, which seems to point to a future that can best be characterised with the words "freedom with responsibility". This concept applies both to universities and students. The universities have to take care that the academic programs they offer are competitive and recognised by employers in order to attract students. Similarly, the students will have to be well informed in order to select where they want to get their education and what that education shall comprise to be employable. Mobility is just one facet of this equation.

Given the wide range of interests that biomedical engineering incorporates, from molecular and cellular engineering to the modelling of systems, diagnosis and therapy of whole physiological systems, from nano- and micro-technology to medical instrumentation, information technology to artificial organs, from basic research to quality assurance in hospitals, it is clear that there cannot be one harmonised syllabus for the whole of biomedical engineering. We will need different educational programs also in the future. We also need to continue with the development of our field of science. However, we also need to talk to each other, learn from each other and find ways to participate into the Bologna process. One such occasion is coming up shortly in Eindhoven, the Netherlands where a conference on biomedical engineering education takes place October 31st to November 1st (see www.bmt.tue.nl).

The road ahead

The Vienna meeting set deadlines (see table below) and goals for the process. The first step is to seek endorsement from the IFMBE affiliated European societies of the Vienna resolution. It was anticipated that a majority of the societies would be able to respond by the end of the current year. At the time of writing of this story (September 25th), three endorsements have been received.

End 2001	Resolution is endorsed by majority of societies
March 2002	Draft constitution and bylaws are sent for approval
October 2002	Constitution is accepted by majority
December 2002	The new organisation is officially established and the process of election of board and officers is initiated

The IFMBE appointed ad-hoc committee has been disbanded and its work has been taken over by the Protem group. It is charged with the writing of a draft for a constitution and bylaws and with the development of a business plan for this organisation. It is also authorised to set up committees and/or working groups according to need.

If everything goes according to plan a year from now we will be in a position to officially establish the organisation and to start the election process for its board members and officers.

Niilo Saranummi
Chairman of Protem group
Niilo.Saranummi@vtt.fi

¹ Nicolas Pallikarakis (Greece) was appointed on the group but later asked to be withdrawn because of personal reasons. The chair was authorised to add 1-2 persons from the Central and Eastern European countries to the group (which has been done).

² COST (co-operation on science and technology) covers all European countries, not only EU member countries. It funds concertation of research, not direct research. For more information on COST have a look at their home page at www.netmaniacs.com/cost or http://www.cfm-resources.com/c/castle.