The Minister for Health, Social Services and Public Safety, Bairbre de Brún, has welcomed top medical physicists and engineers to an international conference in Belfast.

Opening the European Congress of Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering conference, attended by 350 delegates from 23 countries, Ms de Brún said: “This is the first time the Congress has been held in Belfast and it is good to see so many international leaders in the medical physics and clinical engineering field taking part.”

The Minister acknowledged the crucial contribution that engineering and physics can make to modern healthcare: “Physics and engineering contribute hugely to modern healthcare. They play a vital role in the diagnosis of heart disease and many other conditions, in the treatment of cancers and in the rehabilitation of injured patients. It is a field in which important and rapid advances are being made all the time and that makes events such as this Congress all the more important.”

Emphasising advancement in healthcare, Ms de Brún said: “We need to modernise and make use of the new and emerging technologies and sciences that you are pioneering. There are many challenges ahead in harnessing the power of technology to heal. I have no doubt that science and scientists will play a major part in that process of modernisation and improvement.”

Ms de Brún also acknowledged the strong local involvement in the conference. This included speakers - Professor John Anderson, University of Ulster, who spoke on Emergency Cardiac Assessment and Dr Vivian Cosgrove from the Medical Physics Agency, who works at the Cancer Centre at Belvoir Park Hospital - discussing quality assurance in cancer trials for prostate cancer.

The conference is the first to be jointly organised by the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine, the European Federation of Organisations for Medical Physics, and the (Irish) Association of Physical Scientists in Medicine.

The conference will look at recent scientific advances in the application of physics and engineering to healthcare and as part of the programme.

As part of the conference programme delegates were invited to attend a reception hosted by the Lord Major of Belfast at the City Hall on Wednesday and will attend a dinner in Parliament Buildings on Friday. (SP)