Volume 20, Number 2________________________________________October 2001

Message from the President

An they're off,

That's right Ladies and gentlemen, thanks to the help of GE Medical Systems, the 2001 - 2002 BMETS year is off to a great start. I personally want to thank Jennifer P. Poloff, Brian H. Smith, and Scott K. Burke for a great meeting. The membership showed its support with an attendance of about 70 people. Thanks again to Jen and GE.

Make sure you mark your calendar for October 17, 2001. This is the October meeting that Biotek/Strickler Medical is hosting. The presentation will be The “new” Joint Commission and YOU. Make sure you make your reservations by October 12th.

It's looking like a good year for meetings. There are just a few things to keep in mind. When an RSVP is asked for, please respond by the date given. This gives the people hosting a meeting a good idea of what to plan for. This can save the host as well as you some inconvenience. The start time of the meetings is generally 6:30 pm unless otherwise stated. Check with the officers when you sign in for admittance to the room. Everyone will be checked in, member and non-member.

Spread the word about the web site. Rich is updating when he gets information and let him know what you think while your visiting the site. Jobs, biomedical links, information about equipment, and anything you might think relevant. In case you forgot, that's WWW.BMETS.ORG.

Last but certainly not least, I would like to point out the hard work that Brian, Gary, and Terry have been doing and congratulate them on their first meeting. Great job guys, keep up the good work.

Don't forget to make time to attend a meeting. See ya soon.

Message from the Secretary

I must concur with those excellent words from the President.

Just a reminder to all from Brian Zelubowski, our Vice President, that the next few meeting are all scheduled for Wednesdays. Make sure you keep this newsletter or check the web site so you don't forget. Additionally, the November meeting will come early because of the Thanksgiving holiday.

For those of you who missed this opening meeting, I must say that you were quite unfortunate. This was an outstanding affair. The presentation covered Wireless Medical Telemetry Systems (WMTS).

Scott K. Burke is a guy that knows and loves his job and he doesn't mind sharing the wealth. He talked about new bandwidths, potential interference from radio and TV, new frequencies on the horizon, and the length of time remaining before you will have to move to new channels.

Scott K. Burke was also interviewed by Jonathan Briggs in an article for the August 2001 edition of 24x7 Magazine. The article is very well written and will give everyone the flavor of what was presented at our meeting. It also touches briefly on the use of Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) in hospitals. It appears they are getting more popular as they get faster.

This was excellent information on how to plan for the future if you have or plan to get a wireless telemetry system.

Next time you see Brian Zelubowski, give him a hearty thanks for his efforts. I can assure you that he has plans for more of the same.

I would like to thank all of you who supported our first meeting and it's membership drive. The Society picked up 41 new members in 2001 and we have 28 renewals and 3 lifetime members for a total of 72. Let's all try to get an invitation to more of our colleagues. The new Corporate membership has been a huge success with 28 of the members mentioned above falling into this new category.

Welcome, to all our new members. We are pleased and excited to have you with us and are looking forward to knowing you better.