The second annual conference of the International
Functional Electrical Stimulation Society, IFESS’97, is undoubtedly another major
achievement. More than 128 papers will
be presented by the most prominent biomedical engineers, physiologists,
physicians, therapists and the best students.
These works will
be complemented by the joint program of the fifth triennial
conference Neural Prostheses: Motor Systems V, NP' 97, what could generate
unpredictable positive synergistic effects.
The idea to found the IFESS was first initiated in Ljubljana at the 1993 FES conference. The Society was then founded at the Vienna 1995 conference. The first
annual IFESS Conference took place in Cleveland, May, 1996. All these actions, accompanied by the
bulletin "FES Update" ,FES Year-books, IFESS Web home
page and other actions gave momentum to the Society: there are now 380 members
from more than 18 countries. The main
idea of IFESS, to plan and coordinate the annual conferences of the Society and
to nurture active contacts with other relevant professional organizations,
already generated fruitful results so far and are expected in the near future. Namely,
in 1998, the joint meeting of International Neuromodulation Society (INS) and IFESS
Society will be organized in Lucerne, Switzerland.
The main idea of integrating scientific sessions as
much as possible in order to exchange the knowledge between INS members, being
predominantly clinicians and IFESS members where the majority
are biomedical engineers.
The IFESS 1999 conference is planned for Sendai, Japan. This will give a chance to
many scientists to get
insight in the achievements and ideas of the Japanese colleagues and others
from South
Asia
countries working in this field. The IFESS 2000 conference will take place in Chicago, as an official satellite
meeting for the World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical
Engineering. This will be, at the beginning of the third
millennium the part of one of the most important events of the biomedical world
community.
Such excellent results would not be possible without
the skilled, committed people. The main credit for the IFESS' 97 conference
organization goes to Dejan Popovic
and Andy Hoffer and their team. Many thanks also to the past and present
IFESS Board members and officials.
See you in Lucerne 1998.
Prof. dr. Uros Stanic
President, IFESS