Cuban Society of BioengineeringReport 2003 - 2004The Cuban Society of Bioengineering was established back in 1974. Since then, various Administrative Councils have been active, including the present one that was elected for office in 1999 and which we represent in this assembly. We are in the electoral process until the end of this year. The present AC's main efforts have been continued in the organization of workshops and meetings to share knowledge and experiences among our membership. A program has been developed to achieve the main goals established for this period:
All activities and congresses have been duly scheduled. In December 2003, we had an important and productive workshop. It was about the state of the art in Biomedical Engineering and in particular, in Regulations, Design and Production of Medical Devices. It also had a session dedicated to continued education and the future of our specialty in Cuba. The Society had an important attendance to the 25th International Conference of The IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society in Cancun, Mexico, in September 2003, with 12 attendees and the participation in the CORAL AdCom which convened in Cancun. In CORAL's meeting the US Government ruling which made it illegal for publishers of scientific journals in the US to peer review and edit manuscripts from certain countries including Cuba was pointed out. The relaxing of the ban was signaled by a letter from the US Department of the Treasury on 2 April, but the creation of IEEE National Chapters in these countries is still banned. As an important step in increasing scientific and technical exchange among our members, our virtual community is working and it has its URL at www.socbio.sld.cu. Through this virtual work and our web site, information and documents are available to inform our members of the problems we face and enable them to contribute, as a whole, to solving them. Chatting, discussion forum and general interest documents as well as links are available. The site has also been used uninterruptedly to post notices and information regarding national and international conferences, as is the case for Joao Pessoa 2004, Havana'2005 and Seoul 2006. A discussion list allows the members to debate common-interest issues by e-mail. All member data were updated so as to reach all members by means of e-mail and ordinary postal mail. These communication means have been used efficiently in maintaining the links with our affiliates. The Society has been actively involved in the academic aspects of a new profile in Biomedical Engineering that started in 2003, as a new full five-year course at the Higher Polytechnic Institute Jose A. Echeverria in Havana. Between congresses, lectures on scientific subjects were offered by highly qualified society members. An exchange with specialists from the Federal University of Florianopolis, Brazil, where all our members were invited was recently organized. We have supported national congresses and workshops of other scientific societies with the participation of highly recognized lecturers affiliated with the Society. We also have continued supporting the electronic journal "Revista Bioingeniería y Física Medica Cubana" (Cuban Journal for Bioengineering and Medical Physics), edited by the Central Institute for Digital Research, in Havana. A new section of the By-laws, allowing non-university technicians to join the Society as associated members was applied, which fulfils an old wish of previous Councils. Furthermore, we look forward to working hard to transform the Society into a permanent arena for the continued education of our professionals and technicians, to achieve increased interaction and information exchange among them as well as to increase the social role of our specialty. The Society is involved now in elections that will end in October 2004 and it's also organizing a national workshop that will be held in September 2004. The next edition of our National Congress will take place in July 2005. We are also coordinating the attendance of our delegation to the III Latin-American Congress on Biomedical Engineering to be held in Brazil in September 2004.
Dr. Susana Llanusa Ruiz
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