Ninth National Conference on Biomedical Physics and Engineering with
International Participation
14 – 16 October 2004, Sofia, Bulgaria

Bulgarian Society of Biomedical Physics and Engineering

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Summing Up

The regular National Conference organized by the Bulgarian Society of Biomedical Physics and Engineering (BSBPE) took place in the premises of the National Centre of Hygiene, Medical Ecology and Nutrition. It has been held every four years for 35 years and information could be found at the web-site:
www.usb-bg.org/Bg/BG_society_of_biomedical_.htm.

The co-organizers and co-sponsors were the National Centre of Radiobiology and Radiological Protection (NCRRP), the Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NRA), the Union of Scientists in Bulgaria (USB) and the Centre of Biomedical Engineering “Prof. Ivan Daskalov” (CBE) at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Under the slogan “Through Quality toward a Better Health Care” the meeting demonstrated a serious international interest and participation (15 attendees from 9 countries from 5 continents).

The Conference President Prof. M. Israel emphasized in his opening speech the constantly increasing role of the medical physicists in the medical care (diagnostics and therapy) and the growing importance assigned to this scientific event. Salute addresses have been presented by the USB, NRA, the Bulgarian Association of Radiology, the IRPA, EMBEC and other official institutions.

Prof. F.-E. Stieve from the Federal Nuclear Safety Agency of Germany presented the keynote lecture on “Quality Assurance in Diagnostic Radiology and the Role of the Medical Physicist in this Process”.

A detailed plenary expose was presented by Prof. R. Magyarevic – Secretary general of the IFMBE, focused on the role and significance of the international nongovernmental organizations especially the IFMBE and the EAMBES in our days.

Seventy one abstracts were selected from almost hundred submitted ones for oral (29) and poster (41) presentations (with 14 co-authors from abroad), classified in 8 tracks: “Quality Assurance” (QA), “Non-ionizing Radiation” (NIR), “Medical Physics” (MP), “Biophysics and Radiobiology” (BP & RB), “Radiation Protection” (RP), “Biomedical Engineering” (BME), “Ecology” and “Training/Education”. Following the world trends in the field under consideration “Quality Assurance Systems”, special attention was drawn on quality assurance plans (diagnostics and therapy): the implementation of the European criteria in diagnostic imaging and some modern attempts for control and assessment. The next track “NIR” mainly concentrated on the results and the further efforts in realizing the international project on electromagnetic fields “WHO-EMF”.

A State-of-the-Art Symposium on “Diagnostic Reference Levels and Patient at Medical Exposure” was followed by a round-table discussion where the keynote lecturer Prof. Stieve presented approaches and techniques to reduce the medical irradiation (in Germany up to four times) being acknowledged and introduced in the practice by the leading European countries. Dr. J. Vassileva from NCRRP reported about the Bulgarian experience in this domain and the principal conclusions of the recently terminated Project under the PHARE-Programme. The overview about PET and PET/CT from Prof. E. Piperkova and Dr. R. Georgiev (National Oncology Centre) offered the modern trends and the possibilities to bring this technology in the Bulgarian practice.

In the scope of the Symposium a Seminar about modernization of conventional X-ray equipment was held where a broad-facetted audience was acquainted with methods and tools for quality assurance and reduction of patient radiation exposure.

Track “MP” was predominantly dedicated to diverse aspects in radiotherapy and certain novelties, introduced under local conditions.
Both tracks “BME” and “BP&RB” were devoted to concrete topics under research in the CBE and the NCRRP subject to collaboration of many young specialists.
Track “RP” outlined the contemporary status of the issue with less numerous papers and was supported by an industry exposition on measuring and control equipment.
Track “Ecology” demonstrated the study and the efforts made by the scientists to diminish both the health risk for the population and the influence of radiation over the environment.

Special attention was drawn to the Workshop on Education and Training of the medical physicists and biomedical engineers and particularly on their accreditation and union-defense as professionals. In a great number of contributions the international and the Bulgarian experience was shared and recommendations were made:

1. BSBPE to continue the efforts in setting up a national system for accreditation and certification for these professionals.
2. A national discussion on this topic to be organized in due time in order to accelerate its implementation in practice.

For the first time a Prize “Professor Ivan Daskalov” for the most outstanding young scientist at the Conference was constituted, sponsored by the CBE. After a precise selection the Jury unanimously decided to grant it to Mr. D. Zvetanov for his presentation of the paper “The Influence of Powerful Electromagnetic Disturbances when Registering and Transmitting of Biomedical Signals”.
The Proceedings have been published prior to the Conference and are available at the Society’s Library at the NCHMEN.
Also for the first time the Conference was accredited with the corresponding credit points by the Union of The Scientific-Medical Societies in the common manner.

The scientific programme was extremely dense; strictly organized, the sessions enjoyed an interactive attendance of a large number of specialists from all over the country. The attendees were respected by the ever increasing number of papers and topics and the more and more complex and sophisticated research works as well as the broader participation of young colleagues – a warranty for success in the future.

Summing-up, it should be underlined that the Ninth National Conference on BPE was a respectable continuation of the tradition followed for years and unifying the efforts of physicists and engineers in medicine, and qualitatively a new, higher stage in the development of this multidisciplinary field of science and technology as well as a remarkable event in the Month of Science October 2004.

A. Slavchev
BSBPE