IUPESM: the international umbrella organisation for biomedical engineering and medical physics
JH Nagel, ScD
Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
Abstract
An account of the development, aims and activities of the
International Union for Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine (IUPESM)
is presented. Associations with the International Council of Science (ICSU) and
the World Health Organization (WHO) are leading to exciting new projects
towards improving global health, healthcare, quality of life and support of
health technologies in developing countries. � 2007 Biomedical Imaging and
Intervention Journal. All rights reserved.
Keywords: IUPESM, IFMBE, IOMP, ICSU, biomedical engineering,
medical physics
History
The 20th century was an inspirational period for physical
and engineering sciences applied to medicine. The seeds for the rapid growth of
medical physics and biomedical engineering in healthcare were already sown in
the closing decade of the 19th century by three important discoveries: x-rays
by Wilhelm R�ntgen in Germany in 1895, radioactivity by Henri Becquerel in France in 1896, and the electron by JJ Thompson in England in 1897. As with other aspects of
technological development, the underlying principles elucidated by physicists
were soon turned into practical applications through the skill of engineers. As
we enter the 21st century, medical physicists and biomedical engineers continue
to play an essential role in delivering modern, effective healthcare in a wide
variety of ways. The work of these dedicated health professionals takes place
in hospitals, research laboratories, industrial companies, academic
institutions, and governmental organisations.
In the early second half of the last century, two
international scientific and engineering organisations with a large overlap of
interests [1] were founded, both with the intent to support the newly forming
national societies in the fields of biomedical engineering and medical physics
in their missions to strengthen research and practical applications of their
disciplines to improve the health, healthcare and quality of life of all human
beings. These two international organizations were the International Federation
for Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE) founded in 1959, and the
International Organization for Medical Physics (IOMP) founded in 1963. In the
following years, many other international organisations appeared with
objectives similar to those of the IFMBE and the IOMP, spurred by the rapid
growth in the scope and increasingly important interaction between engineering
as well as science and medicine, coupled with the perception that the IFMBE and
the IOMP could not cover the whole field. Many sub-disciplines of medical and
biological science, engineering as well as medical physics formed their own
organisations, including those for biomechanics, biomaterials, artificial
organs, computing in medicine, medical informatics, hospital engineering,
nuclear medicine, radiation research, radiation protection and magnetic
resonance in medicine goji cream asli. Some developed cooperation with the IFMBE and IOMP, while
others appeared to be competing.
The Federation (www.ifmbe.org), however, considered itself
unique in its general coverage of biomedical science and engineering, and
firmly believed that this breadth should be retained and that it should work
towards building links with and between specialist bodies to encourage
interaction and integration [2]. The Federation also considered it important to
build a strong bond with physicists working in the medical sector and viewed
the IOMP (www.iomp.org) as a potential sister organisation.
There was considerable overlap between the activities of
the two organisations, and the discussion of a possible collaboration started
in the 1970s. Opinions about cooperation differed among the member countries.
This was at least partially due to the fact that in some countries the
membership in societies for engineers and those for physicists almost totally
overlapped, or there was only one common society for engineers and physicists,
while in other countries the two groups formed entirely separate associations.
After several years of preliminary explorations, the IFMBE
collaborated with the IOMP in its Third International Conference of Medical
Physics, held in 1973 in G�teborg, Sweden. In that year representatives from
the two organisations met and discussed the possibility of collaborating or
merging.
In order to create the opportunity to exchange views
between biomedical engineers and medical physicists, to learn from each other
and to think about how to improve cooperation between IFMBE and IOMP, the two
organisations held their major international conferences together for the first
time in 1976. The two meetings were still separated, but held in immediate
succession in Ottawa, Canada, and the leaders of the associations met officially
to exchange views on a closer relationship. Agreement was reached in principle
that an umbrella organisation should be formed and that the IFMBE and the IOMP
should hold joint conferences, although each association would retain its
autonomy.
In 1979, the conferences were completely merged and held
in Jerusalem as the �Combined Meeting of the XII. International Conference on
Medical and Biological Engineering and V. International Conference on Medical
Physics�, a very special event that triggered the foundation of the long-discussed
umbrella organisation for the IOMP and IFMBE: the International Union for
Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine (IUPESM) in 1980. The joint
conference became the �World Congress for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering�
and was first held under this name in 1982 in Hamburg, Germany. Since then, the World Congress has been organised every three years, the next one being
scheduled for 2009 in Munich, Germany (www.wc2009.org).
The IUPESM now represents more than 140,000 professionals
in over 100 countries. In spite of the difference in membership numbers between
IFMBE (>120,000) and IOMP (>20,000), the Union operates based on the
principle that there should be equitable sharing between the two organisations.
Thus, the surplus generated by the World Congresses does not contribute to the
IUPESM income at all, but is shared between the organising national societies,
the IFMBE and the IOMP.
The IUPESM objectives, as stated in its constitution, are
to contribute to physical and engineering science in medicine, to organise
international cooperation, to coordinate activities by holding conferences, and
to represent the professional interests and views of engineers and physical
scientists in the healthcare community.
As for all other associations, the key question to be
answered when justifying their existence is what the benefits are for their
members and how much they contribute to a positive development of society as a
whole, with IUPESM focusing on the health and well-being of the people. For
many years, the only major activity of the IUPESM was the World Congress. New
fields of cooperation between IFMBE and IOMP, such as the launch of the book Series
in Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering in 1994, remained largely
outside IUPESM. As a logical consequence, members of both constituent bodies
started asking whether their umbrella organisation was actually worth being
sustained. Such thoughts were nourished by occasional problems that arose due
to differences in policy and emphasis, though agreement has always been reached
based on the belief that collaboration is more important than controversy. By
the end of the 1990s, however, there was only one issue that prevented the Union from breaking apart: the common desire of the IOMP and the IFMBE to be recognised by
the International Council of Science (ICSU) as scientific organisations. For
many years, the necessary cooperation between IFMBE and IOMP to reach this goal
was the bond that kept IUPESM together. Fortunately, IUPESM was admitted to
ICSU as a full member in 1999 after many years of hard work by the IUPESM
officers, in particular Keith Boddy (IUPESM President 1997-2000), and
persistent, convincing discussions between the constituent societies of IFMBE
and IOMP with the national members of ICSU, which were mostly the national
academies of science. Since its admission to ICSU, the IUPESM has consistently
engaged in the establishment of ICSU-sponsored research projects related to
health.
Though the IFMBE has a long history of working with the
World Health Organization (WHO), mainly in support of developing countries, it
only started in this millennium to develop really strong activities on
professional issues and to become a powerful international player in the area of
public health, the global improvement of the health workforce and in advocacy
for improved patient safety. Recently the IOMP, too, adopted a more proactive
approach to support developing countries, accepting a responsibility towards
those nations that may deviate somewhat from past priorities. These
developments made it possible for the IUPESM, at its last Council meeting in
2006, to decide on establishing an official relationship and close cooperation
with WHO. As a first initiative in this new partnership, IUPESM decided to
launch a Health Technology and Training Task Group (HTTTG) with the goal
of helping developing countries to improve their healthcare systems by
introducing appropriate health technologies and training for their health
workforce.
At the IUPESM meeting in Seoul during the World Congress
2006, the General Assembly also decided to accept new members to the Union, to further strengthen collaboration between IFMBE and IOMP committees and to start
new initiatives in cooperation between the two organisations. So it appears
that after 25 years, the liaison between IFMBE and IOMP has begun to bear
fruits beyond the common Congress. The IUPESM is starting a new life as an
active international representative of the biomedical/clinical engineering and
medical physics community.
Objectives
The principal objectives of the IUPESM are to contribute
to the advancement of physical and engineering science in medicine for the
benefit and wellbeing of humanity; to organise international cooperation and
promote communication among those engaged in healthcare science and technology;
to coordinate activities of mutual interest to engineering and physical science
within the healthcare field, including international and regional scientific
conferences, seminars, working groups, regional support programs and scientific
and technical publications; and to represent the professional interests and
views of engineers and physical scientists in the healthcare community.
In order to further attain these objectives, the IUPESM
shall, according to its statutes, be empowered to:
- collaborate with other international scientific and professional bodies;
- establish committees, commissions, working groups and other bodies for
purposes within its mandate;
- organise and coordinate international meetings or conferences for the
constituent associations within the IUPESM, including the triennial World
Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering;
- represent the IUPESM members in the International Council of Scientific
Unions, in accordance with the statutes of ICSU;
- disseminate, promote and/or develop standards of practice in the fields
of medical physics and biomedical engineering in order to enhance the quality
of health care worldwide;
- assist developing countries to achieve appropriate levels of science and
technology in medical physics and biomedical engineering;
- provide suitable channels for the exchange of information between
nations.
Points (5) and (6) are rather unusual for a scientific
union and stress the high responsibility that the IUPESM has assumed for
professional issues, the enhancement of healthcare worldwide and their
dedication in assisting the developing countries to achieve high quality
healthcare for their people. Led by Barry Allen and Joachim Nagel, IUPESM has
stepped up its efforts towards attaining these objectives with the recent
launch of its Health Technology and Training Task Group.
The Union has also established key programs, which are
complementary to, and symbiotic with, those of ICSU. They include Public and
Governmental Understanding of Health Sciences; Education, Training and
Continued Professional Development for the 21st Century and Global Biomedical
Information Networking for developing countries for which a Global On-line
Medical Physics Textbook and a Biomedical Engineering Encyclopedia are being
developed; Evidence Based Health Technology; and Medical Equipment Evaluation.
IUPESM is establishing collaboration with other members of the ICSU family on
these and related projects.
IUPESM is committed to improving public understanding of
the applications of science and engineering in health care.
Structure
Although the IUPESM currently serves as an umbrella for
only two organisations, the IFMBE and the IOMP, it is intended to cover a wide
range of technical disciplines in the life sciences, health and healthcare. The
provision for the admission of other appropriately qualified international
societies is laid down in its constitution. The administrative structure of the
Union is shown in Figure 2. The governing bodies of the IUPESM are the General
Assembly (GA) and the IUPESM Council [3].
The General Assembly, to which the IUPESM Council is
responsible, consists of the representatives of the constituent organisations
and is the highest authority of the IUPESM. It meets physically every three
years during the IUPESM world congresses. The GA determines the Union�s general policy. Its main functions are, among others, to provide guidance for the
administration of the IUPESM; to review, accept or reject recommendations of
the Council; to elect Officers and Ordinary Members of the IUPESM Council; to
amend the statutes and bylaws of the IUPESM; to ratify the creation or
dissolution of standing committees, special committees, commissions and other
appropriate bodies recommended by the IUPESM Council; and to approve
applications for membership.
The activities of the IUPESM are being administered by a
Council which consists of the Officers (President, Vice-President, Past
President, Secretary General and Treasurer) and Ordinary Members elected by the
GA. The President is the retiring President of one of the constituent organisations,
and the Vice-President is the retiring President of another of the constituent organisations,
with these offices to be alternated between the organisations to give equal
representation.
The Council is empowered to act on behalf of the IUPESM
but is responsible to the GA for its actions. The Council conducts the business
of the IUPESM between sessions of the General Assembly. The Union maintains a
number of committees, both standing and ad hoc, to deal with specific and well-defined
tasks and fields of particular interest to the Union. Administratively, the
Committees are sub-groups of the Council.
Currently there are seven Committees:
- Congress Coordinating Committee, standing
- Nominating Committee, standing
- Awards Committee, standing
- ICSU Liaison Committee, ad hoc
- Education and Training Committee, ad hoc
- Regional Development Committee, ad hoc
- Public and International Relations Committee, ad hoc.
Commissions and Action or Task Groups may be established
upon specific needs inside as well as outside the Committee structure, such as
the Health Technology and Training Task Group.
The affiliations of the Union are shown in Figure 3.
Membership
Through its adhering national and international societies
with members in over 100 countries (see Table 1), the Union comprises a global
network of more than 140,000 medical physicists and biomedical engineers
dedicated to improving healthcare and people�s well-being worldwide, with some
special focus on supporting developing countries in achieving these goals, too.
Members of IUPESM have specialised postgraduate training, many with higher
degrees. Their activities include research and development that exploits physical
and engineering sciences for the maximum benefit of patients and people with
disabilities. Scientific support is provided for clinical colleagues in a wide
variety of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures and, in some cases, services
are provided directly to patients and the disabled.
Awards
Since 1988 the Union presents the IUPESM Awards of Merit
every third year. Originally, the award was given in medical physics only, but
since 1997 it has been extended to two triennial awards which recognise a
medical physicist and a biomedical engineer who have established distinguished
careers in medical physics and biomedical engineering, respectively.
World Congress
IUPESM has held triennial World Congresses on Medical
Physics and Biomedical Engineering for some 20 years. This is the
scientific meeting of the IUPESM and incorporates the international conferences
of its affiliate organisations (IFMBE and IOMP), i.e. the International
Congress on Medical Physics (ICMP) and the International Congress on Medical
and Biological Engineering (ICMBE). The Congress is organised by the national
member societies of the country in which the Congress takes place. The
Congresses provide a unique opportunity for medical physicists and biomedical
engineers to meet and present the latest developments in their respective
fields, in an environment that fosters cross-fertilisation of ideas and
innovations in these two disciplines.
ICSU
The most important milestone in the recent history of the
IUPESM was its acceptance into the International Council of Science (ICSU) in
1999. ICSU is a non-governmental organisation, founded in 1932, whose mission
is to �strengthen international science for the benefit of society�. The ICSU
membership is made up of 112 national academies of science or research councils
and 29 international scientific unions [4].
IUPESM admittance into ICSU, the most prestigious
scientific umbrella organisation, represents the true maturing of the
biomedical engineering and medical physics professions and their acceptance as
equals in the global scientific establishment.
The primary benefits of Full Membership of IUPESM in ICSU
are symbiotic for both organisations. ICSU brings to the table its substantial
international stature, greater resources, as well as programs and committee
structures linking closely to those of the Union. IUPESM offers vast
international experience that complements ICSU to create an authoritative
international advocate for the application of science, including engineering,
for the benefit of the sick and disabled worldwide. In addition IUPESM
contributes its key programs outlined earlier in this document, all with
special reference to developing countries and to be linked with ICSU's committees
on science and developing countries as well as its programs on capacity building
in science and its International Network for the Availability of Scientific
Publications.
There are currently many organisations that work towards
improving health and well-being. However, there is a lack of coordination at
the global level between the basic sciences and the medical community.
Moreover, the wealth of scientific knowledge is often not fully utilised to
address the human condition. IUPESM believes that science should be more
effectively employed worldwide to improve health and well-being. In 2002, both
IUPESM and IFMBE appointed Prof Dov Jaron (Drexel University, Philadelphia) to assume
a leading role in establishing a major trans-ICSU Unions initiative on �Science
for Health and Well-Being� (SHWB). Dov Jaron proposed the formation of this
initiative at the ICSU General Assembly in Rio, during a meeting of ICSU�s
bio-related Unions, and participated in extensive discussions that followed its
creation. These discussions brought about a major addition to the 2006-2011
Strategic Plan for ICSU together with a new emphasis on health �to ensure that
health considerations are duly taken into account in the planning and execution
of future activities (of ICSU).�
The mission and scope of the SHWB initiative were defined
as follows: the Science for Health and Well-Being Initiative (SHWB) seeks to
improve and advance human health and well-being. It will marshal expertise from
the natural, social, behavioural and engineering sciences into a coordinated
program designed to attain new insights into research and policies that affect
the health and well-being of people, mindful always of their intimate links to
the health of the fauna, flora, and environmental systems among which humankind
abides. SHWB will organise programs and projects that transcend scientific
boundaries and are most effectively pursued by multidisciplinary teams,
including teaching and research units to explore real life problems of various
communities. SHWB will identify unmet needs and work within a distinctive
conceptual niche that complements research conducted in other international
initiatives. SHWB will build upon existing synergies among international
scientific organisations affiliated with the International Council for Science
(ICSU), seek to foster new synergies among them, and welcome links with other
international programs.
Seventeen ICSU Unions and a number of ICSU
Interdisciplinary bodies have joined the initiative and will participate in
various programs and policy matters related to health and well-being. IUPESM,
as a Union most closely related to the new strategic focus of ICSU, will retain
a leading role in ICSU�s programs on human health.
Future Tasks and Goals: Appropriate Health Technologies for Developing
Countries
Modern healthcare relies heavily on a whole range of
health technologies [5]. Health technologies should be efficient, safe, cost-effective
and available to all people without causing an excessive financial burden to
the healthcare systems, in order for the technologies to be achievable and
sustainable. An important prerequisite to attaining these goals is the
implementation of health technology assessment, planning and management as an
accountable, systematic approach to ensuring that the technologies meet the
demands of high quality patient care.
Health technology assessment (HTA) has, in times of rising
costs of healthcare systems and limited budgets in most countries, become an
important tool and often a political issue, too. The rapid growth of medical
knowledge as well as diagnostic and therapeutic techniques and technologies
requires a conscientious employment of available resources. Finding appropriate
solutions is a major challenge for HTA since a wide range of aspects has to be
included into the decisions, such as security, efficacy, cost in comparison to
the benefit, as well as social, legal and ethical implications. Decisions in
the health sector and in health policy are to be made on the basis of
scientific findings, meaning that they have to be evidence-based. HTA helps to
prevent the uncontrolled dissemination of unsuitable technologies in the health
systems, as well as to minimise the financial burden involved and to increase
the quality of health care. With an early comprehensive evaluation, HTA also
contributes to a fast integration of innovative procedures in the health
systems, as well as to a removal of unnecessary, and therefore cost-intensive,
methods.
In spite of all efforts to make the whole range of health
technologies available to every country, an increasing number of nations still
cannot shoulder the financial burden of acquiring and maintaining all
technologies that would be desirable and beneficial for the healthcare of their
people. Therefore it is necessary to establish priorities based on available
resources and the burden of disease, a rather complex task for which the World
Health Organization (WHO) together with the IFMBE has already developed
methodologies and tools such as the WHO Integrated Health Technology Package
(IHTP) [6].
One of the prerequisites for proper use of health
technologies is the existence of an appropriate, reliable infrastructure. In
order to set up and/or maintain such an infrastructure, centres for health
technologies should be established as part of the health ministries or at least
strongly linked to them. These centres should implement the national strategies
and plans for the health technologies, as well as oversee and guide the
national healthcare systems and, where appropriate, regional healthcare centers
with regard to the health technologies. These centres should also collaborate
and build partnerships with healthcare providers, industry, patients�
associations and professional, scientific and technical organisations.
Another important step in improving the quality of
healthcare through health technologies is to build up the necessary health
workforce, i.e. medical physicists, clinical engineers and technicians, which will
be able to manage, maintain and operate the technologies and educate the users,
i.e. physicians and nurses, in the safe and competent use of equipment and
devices. The industrialised countries should be called upon to offer
educational support to help those countries who cannot afford to provide
education and training for a sufficient number of clinical engineers and
technicians.
The IUPESM in cooperation with the WHO has set up a joint
IFMBE/IOMP Health Technology and Training Task Group (HTTTG), directly
responsible to the IUPESM Council. This task group will assist countries in
defining their health technology needs, and identifying and rectifying health
system constraints for adequate management and utilisation of health
technology, particularly through training, capacity-building and the
development and application of appropriate technology. Specific tasks for the
Group are to help identify needs in health technologies and training for each
cooperating country, to make recommendations for actions to satisfy these needs
as far as appropriate and possible, to support the countries in the necessary
actions, and to set up a brokerage to match health technology donations with
appropriate recipients.
References
-
Guide to Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine. Available at www.iupesm.org.
-
Masao Saito et al., eds. Meeting Challenges in Medicine & Health Care through Biomedical Engineering, a History of the IFMBE. Amsterdam: International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering, 1997.
[Medline]
-
IUPESM Statutes and Bylaws. Available at www.iupesm.org.
[Medline]
-
ICSU: Strengthening international science for the benefit of society. Available at www.icsu.org/Gestion/img/ICSU_DOC_DOWNLOAD/967_DD_FILE_ICSU_brochure.pdf.
[Medline]
-
Issakov A, Heimann P, Kwankam Y. Global Challenges of Health Care Technology. IFMBE News 2007; 84:7-10.
[Medline]
-
Judd T. WHO Essential Health Technology Package. 1st Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Workshop for Latin America. 2004. Available at www.salud.gob.mx:8080/JSPCenetec/ArchivosETS/tom_judd_who.pdf.
[Medline]
Received 6 September 2007; received in revised form 28
November 2007, accepted 6 December 2007
Correspondence: President of IUPESM, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Stuttgart, Seidenstrasse 36, 70174 Stuttgart, Germany. Tel.: +49-711-68582370; Fax: +49-711-68582371; E-mail: jn@bmt.uni-stuttgart.de (Joachim Nagel).
Please cite as: Nagel JH,
IUPESM: the international umbrella organisation for biomedical engineering and medical physics, Biomed Imaging Interv J 2007; 3(3):e56
<URL: http://www.biij.org/2007/3/e56/>
This article has been viewed 3052 times.
|