Funds are requested to partially defray costs of convening and publishing the scientific sessions of Computers in Cardiology for the 5 year period July 2003 to June 2008. Computers in Cardiology is an important and influential international conference that has been meeting annually for the past 29 years. Its purpose is to bring together biomedical engineers, computer scientists, physiologists, and physicians who are actively engaged in research involving the application of engineering and computer technology to problems in clinical cardiology and basic cardiovascular physiology. The conference meets on even-numbered years in the United States, and on odd-numbered years in Europe. Each year the conference is organized and hosted by an Organizing Committee based at an academic institution within the host city. Planning of the meeting is accomplished through the efforts of both the local organizing committee and the Board of Directors of Computers in Cardiology, a non-profit organization incorporated in the state of Missouri. Responsibility for the scientific content of the meeting is shared between these two groups. The Board of Directors serves to provide continuity and quality control for the conference from year to year, and to support the local hosts in conference planning and fund-raising. Over the years the conference has received support from the National Institutes of Health, the European Society of Cardiology, the IEEE EMBS Society, industry, and from the local host institutions. The Organizing Committee prepares and mails a preliminary announcement, and later a Call for Papers to the 1500-name regular mailing list, mailing lists from other conferences and professional societies, local and state cardiology lists, and others as appropriate. Meeting notices are also posted on the Web (www.cinc.org) and in relevant journals. Abstracts are due on May 1st, and are reviewed at the end of May by both the local organizing committee and the Board of Directors. The reviewers always include expertise in both the medical and technical disciplines. Selected abstracts are printed in a program booklet that is made available to all attendees. Formal papers are collected at the time of the meeting, and the conference Proceedings is printed by the IEEE press and distributed to all attendees, and a number of libraries.
