Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine


The Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine is the United Kingdom's professional body and learned society for physicists, engineers and technologists within the field of medicine, founded in 1995, changing its name from the Institution of Physics and Engineering in Medicine and Biology in 1997. The Institute is governed by an elected Board of Trustees reporting to which are the Science, Research and Innovation Council and the Professional and Standards Council. The councils have operational responsibility for scientific and professional aspects of the Institute's work, respectively. Beneath the councils is a substructure of committees, groups and panels of members, which undertake the work of the Institute.
The Institute is licensed by the Engineering Council to register Chartered Engineers, Incorporated Engineers and Engineering Technologists and by the Science Council to register Chartered Scientists, Registered Scientists and Registered Science Technicians.
The aim of the Institute and its members, set out in its charitable objects and articles of association, is to promote for the public benefit the advancement of physics and engineering applied to medicine and biology, and to advance public education in the field.

History

The organization can trace its origin to three societies:
The HPA created its scientific arm in 1984, the Institute of Physical Sciences in Medicine. The trade union and scientific activities split in 1989: the scientific arm merged with the BES to form IPEMB while the trade union joined the Manufacturing, Science and Finance Trades Union.
The Association of Medical Technologists, formerly HPTA, merged with IPEM in 2001.

Membership

There are several categories of membership:
The Institute is a signatory of the Engineering Diversity Concordat of the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Science Council Diversity Declaration and has its own Equality Policy.

Annual Conference and Woolmer Lecture

The Institute holds an annual conference on Medical Physics and Engineering. During this conference the flagship lecture of the Institute, the Woolmer Lecture, is presented. The lecture is dedicated to Professor Ronald Woolmer who was the first Director of the Research Department of Anaesthetics at the Royal College of Surgeons. Woolmer convened a meeting at the Royal College of Surgeons, London, to discuss the evolving field of engineering applied to medicine. It was agreed that the group should hold regular meetings and as a result the Biological Engineering Society was formed with Ronald Woolmer as the first President. Woolmer died two years after the formation of the BES and it was agreed that a memorial lecture would be sponsored in recognition of his achievements.
The following table includes a list of the lectures since 2002:
YearLecturerSubject
2002Professor Anthony UnsworthHip Joint Replacement
2003Dr Arun HoldenComputational Modelling in Medicine and Biology
2004Professor Kevin WarwickImplant Technology
2005Dr Henrik GolleeAssistive technologies for function restoration
2006Professor Denis NobleCardiac Modelling
2007Professor Sir Michael BradyDigital Imaging
2008Professor Clive HahnBioengineering Aspects of the Lung: Models and Measurements
2009Professor Martin BirchallRegenerative Medicine: New challenges, new hopes
2010Professor Mark TooleyImitating the Patient
2011Professor Willi KalenderDevelopments in Computed Tomography: Is sub-mSv a realistic option?
2012Professor Lionel TarassenkoPhysiology-Driven Signal Analysis and Data
2013Professor Molly StevensDesigning Biomaterials for Ultrasensitive Biosensing and Regenerative Medicine
2014Professor David KeatingMedical Physics: A Gateway to Innovation
2015Professor Tony BarkerTranscranial Magnetic Stimulation – the First Thirty Years
2016Professor Andrew TaylorCan engineering and imaging help us design cardiovascular devices?
2017Professor Josef KäsWhy do rigid tumours contain soft cancer cells?
2018Professor Alison NobleHuman Image Recognition, Artificial Intelligence and Shifting Perceptions of Medical Ultrasound

Publications

IPEM owns three international peer-reviewed journals:
PMB and Physiological Measurement are published in association with IOP Publishing while Medical Engineering and Physics is published by Elsevier.
The Institute also publishes:
The IPEM president serves for two years and takes office at the Annual Conference. The following table includes a list of all past presidents of IPEMB/IPEM.
DatesPresident
1995–97Prof Peter N.T. Wells CBE
1997–99Prof P. F. Sharp OBE
1999–2001Prof R.H. Smallwood
2001–03Dr S.W. Smye OBE
2003–05Prof P.C. Williams
2005–07Dr P.C. Jackson
2007–09Dr K.T. Ison OBE
2009-11Dr C.J. Gibson
2011–13Prof P.H. Jarritt
2013–15Prof S.F. Keevil
2015–17Prof D. Brettle
2017–19Prof M. Tooley
2019-21Prof S O'Connor