Message from the Chair

Dear Colleagues,

I hope you’re all well and enjoying the longer days and slightly warmer weather. As always, we have plenty of rain in Lancashire, but we’re managing to enjoy some drier days too. Spring has certainly arrived!

The volunteers at IMI have certainly been busy these last few months and we have so much to report on. There are lots of events and news items to cover, so I’ll try and give you a summary of them all, but please do remember to check the website for all the recent updates, and of course all our social media platforms.

Our social media and web teams are working hard to keep our current members up to date… and recruit new members. We are even creating a TikTok account to make sure our younger members can find out all about us!

Healthcare Science Week 11-15^th March

Our social media team have worked hard on a media campaign for the 5 days and will be posting every day. It would be great if you could share the posts through your work profiles and spread the word about our profession.

We have been asked to submit a ‘Day in the Life’ article for the AHCS and they will be promoting us on Wed 13^th. We will be working with their social media team, so next week should be busy online!

I’ve also contacted the Chief Science Officer at NHS England and let them know about our plans for the week, including the build-up to our presence at this year’s Photography and Video Show, at Birmingham NEC.

The Photography and Video Show – NEC, Birmingham 16-19^th March

We are delighted to be running a stand for the first time, at the NEC Photography and Video Show this year. We have been very well supported by our trade companies and will be showcasing a range of equipment from Sony, Heine, Polecam, ProAV and Surface Imaging 3D camera. There will also be daily demos of dental photography and Dermoscopy.

Two of our members, Laura Abbatiello and Luke White, will be presenting to the student audience on Tuesday 19^th, sharing details on the profession and the Institute, and promoting our wonderful Summer School too.

Summer School 3^rd-5^th June

The Summer School booking system is now live and will be open for 8 more weeks, closing at the end of April, so please encourage your staff and trainees to attend.

All the information, prices and booking details can be found at https://www.imi.org.uk/events/imi-summer-school-2024/

Places are filling up fast so make sure to book soon!

Annual Conference 4^th-5^th October

The booking system for conference will be going live imminently, as we start out first year of bookings with ‘Successful Events’. Successful Events have sourced our conference locations for some years but are now leading the bookings for us for the first time.

When you are booking conference this year, please take care to correctly address and send your purchase orders to Successful Events, rather than IMI, as in previous years. All the information will be on the website soon.

The ‘Call for Papers’ has been announced and the closing date is the 15^th March, so with a week to go, make sure to complete the application form at https://www.imi.org.uk/news/call-for-papers-2/

Annual Awards

Bethan Howlett, our wonderful awards lead, has been working hard on the judges panel this year, which will include two guests from our affiliated organisations. A member of the board from the Ophthalmic Imaging Association will be supporting the Ophthalmic judges and Philip Ferguson Jones, Chairman of the Medical Artists Association, will be supporting the graphics judges.

The awards will open on the 29^th April until the 31^st May, and you can stay up to date by checking the website news feed and social media channels. Keep an eye out for the judges’ feedback blog from 2023! Tips on what to avoid when entering the awards!

Website update

The membership section of our website is currently undergoing improvements, which should improve the features for our membership team and help with our process for registering new members.

There will be some changes for all of us, which mirror the system we use with the AHCS website. Every April we will be asked to confirm our contact details and payment details, to make sure our system is up to date. We will also sign a declaration like the AHCS.

We will contact you in the next few weeks with more information on what you will need to do.

Membership Price Increase

Our lovely treasurer Geoff works hard to keep our annual fees low, but with the rise of costs we do have a slight rise in membership fees, which will start in April.

	Annual	Monthly
Professional/Associate Member:	£130.00	£10.83
Student/Retired member:	£87.00	£7.25
Corporate Member:	£330.00	£27.50

 

In addition to everything above, there are many regional meetings happening across the UK, so thank you to our regional reps for their continuing efforts to plan these. Make sure to keep in contact with your regional rep to stay updated on events in your area.

All events and news items can be found on the website.

I’m looking forward to seeing some of you at the NEC Photo and Video Show this week! If you haven’t seen the posts, we will be based on stand J151!

Take care and have a fabulous Healthcare Science Week!

Best wishes,
Cat Lamoon
Chair, Institute of Medical Illustrators