The Report of the IFMBE Secretary General

In conjunction with the Administrative Council Meeting, Naples, July 2004

Since my election to the office of the IFMBE Secretary General, I have continued the work of the former SG, Dr. Heikki Terio and tried to fulfil all the tasks associated with the position. In my report, I am addressing several items and actions I have taken in the first 11 months of my term of office.

  1. Directory 2004
    As of the year 2000, the IFMBE directory is present on the web site. One of the first actions was updating the directory, which was first done by H. Terrio immediately after the elections in Sydney 2003. Since early spring 2004, the web pages are updated on weekly basis. Therefore, the data published on the IFMBE web pages are, to my best knowledge, the most recent the SG office has and can be used for correspondence and other purposes.
  2. Website
    Since November 2003, the IFMBE web site is hosted by UniWeb, a Belgium Belgian company, thanks to Prof. M. Nyssen.
    After the discussion within the Web Committee, M. Nyssen has prepared detailed specifications for the new IFMBE web site. The discussion on this matter is continuing.
    Some changes I have introduced to the Federation's web site include publishing of important new content on the home page, with links to relevant information. Since January 2004, we publish information whenever:
    • a new Issue of the Federation's Journal MBEC is published and available through the free trial,
    • a new issue of the IFMBE News is published,
    • deadlines and extended deadlines for IFMBE regional conferences approach,
    • deadlines for applications for relevant prize competitions approach.
  3. Administrative Council and Officers' Meetings
    H. Terrio has prepared the minutes of the AC Meeting in Sydney, Aug. 21 - 22, 2003 and the Minutes of the GA, Sydney, Aug. 26, 2003.
    R. Magjarevic has prepared the minutes of the AC Meeting in Sydney, Aug. 28, 2003, and the report from the Officers' Meeting, London, March 30 - 31, 2004.
    The minutes are published on the Federation's web site, see Business Meetings.
    Requests for reports to Committees, WG and Divisions chairs, the IAMBE President and MBEC Editor for the AC meeting in Naples have been sent on June 14. The reports shall include activity plans for the term 2004 - 2006 and budget proposals.
  4. E-mail Ballots
    An e-mail ballot for the appointment of the IFMBE Constitution and By-laws Committee was successfully performed in spring of 2004. The following IFMBE Constitution and By-laws Committee Chair and members have been appointed by the GA:
    J. Barbanel, Chair
    F. Infantosi, member
    M. Nyssen, member
    M. Siebes, member
  5. Membership Information
    1. Affiliated Societies
      The Secretaries of the affiliated societies have been asked to submit their Annual Reports which should include the number of members. Parts of the reports will be published in the forthcoming issues of the IFMBE News.
    2. New Societies
      I have received an application for IFMBE affiliation from the Thai BME Society. The application is under review.
      There was also a request for membership from a second Polish BME society.
    3. Individual Membership
      The Application Form for Individual Membership (AFIM) was published on the web site and is downloadable in PDF format. The Secretariat has received several applications for individual membership and processed them.
  6. Liaisons
    The information on the IFMBE elections and changes of office has been sent to the following relevant organizations: WHO, UNICEF, UNIDO and PAHO. Since February 2004 the SG office is receiving regular mail from the WHO.
    IFMBE was asked to send representatives to several meetings in 2004:
    World Health Assembly (WHA), Geneva, May 17 - 22, 2004. The IFMBE was represented by J. Nagel, M. Nagel and R. Magjarevic. The report on established and re-established contacts and plans for future collaboration will be presented by the President, J. Nagel. A short report was published in the July Issue of the IFMBE News.
    Regional Western Pacific Meeting of the WHO, to be held in Shanghai, September 13 - 17, 2004. An invitation was received. D. Liu kindly agreed to represent the IFMBE at the meeting.
    UNIDO, 28th Session of the Industrial Development Board, May 25 - 27, 2004, Vienna, N. Richter kindly accepted agreed to represent the IFMBE at the meeting and sent a report for the AC meeting.
  7. SG Office
    On January 15, 2004, after the IFMBE elections and the handover of the SG office, I hired Miss Nikolina Volf, a teacher of English and Italian, as a secretary on a part time basis to help me run the IFMBE SG office and the correspondence regarding the IFMBE News.
  8. MBEC Alerts
    Since January 2004, the SG office is sending alerts to the persons who asked for them through the trial subscription for MBEC. The mailing list contains approx. 1700 e-mail addresses.
  9. Conferences
    1. Regional Conferences
      Six conferences are currently processed.
    2. Endorsed Conferences
      The list of endorsed conferences and conferences pending endorsement was presented to the AC. The conferences are listed in the Calendar on the IFMBE homepage and in the News.
    3. Regional Conference Contracts
      A draft for the IFMBE Regional Conferences Contract has been prepared and was accepted under item 7.1 of the AC Meeting Agenda. Together with the procedure for conference organizer selection, it should become a part of the Regional Conferences Guidelines.
  10. IFMBE Conference Proceedings Series
    Information on IFMBE conference proceedings series has been prepared and sent to the publisher in order to get feedback on different options for publishing the series and for post marketing.
  11. Plan 2005/IAMBE and HLM Data Collection
    The Secretary General will start collection of information on and from distinguished IFMBE members, IAMBE members and the HLM.

Ratko Magjarevic
IFMBE Secretary General
Email: office@ifmbe.org