Spectrum 2018 Summer

A warm welcome from everyone at the BEAI. We hope you enjoy reading the summer edition of Spectrum Journal, the official journal of the BEAI. This edition has produced some very thought-provoking and interesting articles and ideas, across a wide range of topics and from various sources across the country and beyond.

We recently held our Annual General Meeting (AGM) on May 3, 2018, which had an encouragingly high attendance from members across the country. At the AGM, our education officer, Andrea Fottrell, discussed the past year and her vision in moving forward with education, and our treasurer, Oleg Shrolik, presented on the financial status of the organisation, which showed the increase in assets during the previous year. It was also noted that membership was increasing and that the Annual Scientific Conference was growing year on year.

The members were informed of the plans to recruit a suitable candidate for paid work, something which we have identified as a critical requirement, in order to allow the organisation to move forward. In terms of changes to our executive team, this year at the AGM saw the resignation of Leighton Curry and Jason Curry. I would like to express my appreciation to both for their contribution to the organisation in the past. I’m pleased to welcome three new members onto the executive for 2018/2019, who are all highly respected and advanced in their respective roles in clinical engineering – Bernard Murphy of Cork University Hospital, John Adlington of Tullamore Hospital and Robert Kinsella of Tallaght University Hospital. We are all excited to welcome new members to our team and wish them well in the future with the BEAI. I’d like to remind everyone that we continue to look for members to work with us on many of the organisation's objectives – if you would like to get involved, please contact me by phone at 045 849570 or email chairperson@beai.ie.

Today, Peter Grainger is attending the IUPESM’s World Congress in Prague, Czech Republic. This is a joint world congress between the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE) and International Organisation of for Medical Physics (IOMP) and is held every three years. There is significant work happening between Ireland and the international community at present, including increased collaboration with the European Alliance for Medical & Biological Engineering & Science (EAMBES), of which the BEAI are now fully fledged members.

Other work includes continued close collaboration with the clinical engineering division (CED) of the IFMBE and other specific pieces of work, all of which will be published and shared with the membership shortly. The BEAI were  recently invited to the Italian Society of Clinical Engineering’s Annual Conference in Rome, of which Brian Farrell and I attended and presented on our plans and progress to date on the recognition, certification and registration of clinical engineers.

I would like to bring two areas to your attention – one is the vast resources available via the IFMBE CED website

(cedglobal.org/) and secondly, the new Global Clinical Engineering Journal (globalce.org/index.php/GlobalCE/index); both of which I would advise you to visit  and consider contributing to in the near future.

On behalf of the committee, I would like to invite you all to an event the BEAI are hosting shortly on Friday, June 29, from 10am to 1.30pm – a presentation and open forum discussion on ‘The clinical engineering profession and  professional in Ireland – past, present and future – a perspective’. This is an ideal opportunity to discuss topics close to the heart of the profession and inform future discussions and ways forward.

Finally, we are now accepting abstracts for our 2018 Annual Scientific Conference, taking place in the Clayton Hotel, Galway, on Friday, October 5, 2018 and kindly sponsored by Aquilant. If there is a topic or speaker you would like to hear more from, or if you would like present on some research or activity in your area, please visit our website at beai.ie or contact me at chairperson@beai.ie. Applications are now closed for Silver Sponsor Exhibitions and a waiting list has been formed. Registration for the event will be opening soon so keep an eye on the website and social media for further info. Wishing you a lovely summer and I hope to see you all soon.

Brian Kearney

Chairperson, BEAI