EDUCATION & TRAINING

IOMP is dedicated to improve medical physics worldwide by disseminating systemized knowledge through education and training of medical physicists, to advance the practice of physics in medicine by fostering the education, training and professional development of medical physicists, and to promote internationally sponsored education and training programs sponsored or endorsed by IOMP, National Member Organizations and Regional Organizations.

IOMP sponsors and endorses a number of educational events worldwide and also organizes the widely recognized IOMP school as a major tool to support the education and professional development of medical physicists.

2015

  • AAPM/IOMP/ISEP Imaging Physics Workshop, 11-14 November 2015, Malaysia

2016

  • XIV Mexican Symposium on Medical Physics, 18-21 March 2016, Mexico
  • 7th Latin American Congress on Medical Physics – 13th Argentine Congress on Medical Physics, 4-7 September 2016, Malaysia
  • ISEP/AAPM Diagnostic Imaging Symposium, 26-29 March 2016, Morocoo
  • XII-th NATIONAL MP and MBE Conference NMPEC, 3 5 Nov 2016, Bulgaria
  • 1st African Conference on Medical Physics, Biomedical Engineering and Sciences (AFROBIOMEDIC 2016), 17 21 October 2016, Nigeria

2017

  • IC Neuro elect, 10-11 3 2017, Bagladesh
  • AAPM-ISEP, 29-30/9 2017, South Africa
  • AMPICON, 4 7 11 2017, India
  • AAPM-ISEP, 23-27 Oct 2017, Cuba
  • 3rd International Conference on Medical Physics in Radiation Oncology and Imaging (ICMPROI-2017), 21 23 October 2017, Bagdladesh
  • 17 th Asia Oceania Conference of Medical Physics [AOCMP2017] in conjunction with AMPICON2017, 4 7 Nov 2017, India, Jaipur

2018

  • 18th Asia-Oceania Congress of Medical Physics and 16th South-East Asia Congress of Medical Physics (AOCMP-SEACOMP 2018), 11 14 Nov 2018, Malaysia
  • AAPM-ISEP-UI Diagnostic Imaging Medical Physics Workshop, 3 7 october 2018, Indonesia


IOMP WEBINARS 2023


 

Women in Medical Physics

(on the occasion of the International Women’s Day)

Wednesday, 8th March 2023 at 12 pm GMT; Duration 1 hour

Register here

NEW: CME/CPD credit point shall be awarded for participation in the webinar in full

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Organizer: Magdalena Stoeva and Eva Bezak
Moderator: Loredana Marcu

Title: Improving Women Health: the needs of medical imaging and the IAEA perspective 
Speaker: Virginia Tsapaki, PhD

Medical Physicist (Diagnostic Radiology), Dosimetry and Medical Radiation Physics Section, Division of Human Health, Department of Nuclear Applications, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

Medical Physicist specialised in radiology at the DMRP Section, Division of Human Health, IAEA since August 2019. Since then, involved in multiple regional, national training courses, as well as various missions and activities related to human health. Scientific Secretary of 3 IAAEA publicaitons and contributor to 3 other related guidance documents. From 2004 until 2019, an IAEA expert sent in several missions, analysing data and publishing scientific papers from various IAEA surveys. Clinical experience for approximately 30 years with more than 150 publications in national/international journals/conference proceedings and more than 200 presentations/posters in national/international conferences. Participated in multiple European projects such as the Clinical Diagnostic Reference Levels, ENEN+ project, Basic Safety Standards Transposition project, ENETRAP III, Paediatric Diagnostic Reference Levels, EUTEMPE-RX, EMAN, SENTINEL, DIMOND II/III research projects. Served as a chair or member of committees in international organizations (AAPM, IOMP, EFOMP, ESR, EURAMED). Chair of Organizing committee of 2 European conferences (2016, 2018).

Abstract:

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) assists Member States in nuclear sciences and applications to benefit human health and to ensure safe, high quality and effective medical uses of radiation. The overall goal of the IAEA Human Health programme is to build capacity and transfer technology for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases in radiation medicine according to best practices. Various activities to support the above efforts, relevant to improving women health are: a) Guidance documents, training and professional matters; b) Coordinated Research Activities; c) Development of training resources; and d) Clinical audit programmes. All these will be presented in more detail during the session.


Title: Pioneer women in medical physics from the Middle East 
Speaker: Huda Al Naemi, PhD

Executive Director, Hamad Medical Corporation, A/Professor, Weil Cornel Medicine, Qatar

Dr. Huda has been working in Hamad Medical Corporation for almost 3 decades and she is the Executive Director of Occupational Health and Safety Department since 2006. Dr. Al Naemi represents Qatar in a number of international and global organizations such as; International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), IPEM and World Health Organization (WHO) and implement some of their projects at the national level. Dr. Al Naemi is an active member in many international organizations such as, European Society of Radiology(ESR), American Organization of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), IOMP, Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM) and, Gulf Nuclear medicine association.

In 2019 Dr. AlNaemi was appointed as Assistant professor of Medical Biophysics Research in Radiology at Weil Cornel Medicine (WCM). Dr. AlNaemi’s role in WCM is to collaborate in education and training for medical students and to conduct research at the cutting edge of knowledge to provide the highest quality of care to the community. Dr. AlNaemi has collaborated on several research and educational projects including some funded by the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). These have led to several peer-reviewed publications, this research focused on radiation dose optimization in imaging modalities for patients including pregnant women and pediatrics. The two projects funded by QNRF were in collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School USA and Geneva University Hospital Switzerland.

Dr. AlNaemi was elected president of the Middle East Federation of Organization of Medical Physics (MEFOMP) for the term 2018 – 2022 and she is also the president of the Qatar Medical Physics Society (QaMPS) since 2018. As MEFOMP president Dr. AlNaemi led the MEFOMP efforts for the publication of a chapter in a published book on “Medical Physics during the COVID-19 Pandemic. In 2019 Dr. Al Naemi was awarded the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM) The Healthcare Gold Medal. In 2017 she was awarded the State Encouragement Award for Medical Sciences Category, Doha Qatar. In 2022 Dr. Huda received an appreciation from IOMP for her strenuous efforts in her work as president of MEFOMP  from 2018-2022. In 2022 Dr. Al Naemi has been elected as a regular member of the IDMP, one of the IOMP committees.

Abstract:

Main Objectives

  • To Believe in ourselves as women and face the challenges
  • To do the maximum energy in work and giving
  • To be always optimistic and believe of better future.

Middle Eastern women have a very limited opportunity when it comes to professional career and they are thought to be better off staying at home taking care of the household. Yes indeed, such fact existed in the old days. It has rooted from the very own families of the Arabs and continued in primary school where girls and boys studies separately. There is an opportunity then for women, but it was limited only to teaching and nursing profession. But gone are those days; opportunities have opened for women. Slowly, the colleges started admitting women in the so-called “men field” especially in the healthcare industry.

Eventually, I started work in healthcare as senior radiation physicist then became the Executive Director of Occupational Health and Safety Department where I direct various health and safety sections including the Radiation Safety Section which was later named as Medical Physics Section. Being the only Medical Physicist in Qatar then, I represented the country internationally and had the opportunity to work with various international organizations such as WHO, IAEA, UNEP to name a few, and has implemented some of their projects at the national level. It has always been my aspiration to further the advancement of the medical physics profession locally and regionally. I established the Qatar Society of Medical Physics (QSMP) and co-founded the Middle East Federation of Medical Physics (MEFOMP) which I also became the President in 2018-2021.


Title: Wearing more than one hat – is this the new fashion trend for women in medical physics? 
Speaker: Iuliana Toma-Dasu, PhD

Medical Radiation Physics Division, Stockholm University and Karolinska Institutet, Cancer Center Karolinska, 171 76 Stockholm

Iuliana Toma-Dasu is Professor in Medical Radiation Physics and the Head of the Medical Radiation Physics division at the Department of Physics, Stockholm University, affiliated to the Department of Oncology and Pathology at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, and the Editor in Chief of Physica Medica – European Journal of Medical Physics.

Iuliana Toma-Dasu studied Medical Physics at Umeå University, Sweden, where she also became a certified medical physicist and received a Ph.D. degree. In parallel with her involvement in the educational program for the medical physicists run at Stockholm University, her main research interests focus on biologically optimised adaptive radiation therapy, including particle therapy, modelling the tumour microenvironment and the risks from radiotherapy.

Abstract:

Achieving gender equality has been one of the objectives of the medical physicists’ community in many European countries, as well as in many other places around the world. This objective has been partially reached, nowadays women in the medical physics being much less underrepresented than in other physics fields. Becoming a medical physicist and performing clinical duties is, therefore, possible for many women due to the various strategies developed and implemented at institutional, national or international levels within the professional associations under the IOMP umbrella. Reaching, however, higher positions in the hierarchy on either clinical or academic side in medical physics is still a considerable challenge for women compared to men. The question therefore is: how many hats should a woman wear, how many accolades should she receive, how many merits should she prove, to be regarded as successful in medical physics and accede to a leading position? This talk would attempt to answer some of these questions while highlighting the importance of successful women in medical physics to share their experience to inspire others and help the policy makers develop the most successful strategies to continue the work towards offering the same opportunities to all genders in the medical physics field.

IOMP Webinar: Carbon-ion Radiotherapy: Current Status and Future Perspective

Tuesday, 7th February 2023 at 12 pm GMT; Duration 1 hour

Register here

NEW: CME/CPD credit point shall be awarded for participation in the webinar in full.

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Organizer: Eva Bezak, IOMP
Speaker: Taku Inaniwa, National Institute for Quantum Science and Technology, Japan

Taku Inaniwa, Ph.D, is a group leader of treatment beam research group at the Institute for Quantum Medical Science, National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology (QST) in Japan. His research focuses on developing dose calculation algorithms and biological models used for charged-particle therapy treatment planning. He has contributed more than 100 peer reviewed publications. He is a member of international scientific advisory board of Physics in Medicine and Biology. For his works, he has received several national and international awards. From April 2022, he has concurrently served as a guest professor at Division of Health Science, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University.

Abstract:

Charged-particle therapy with carbon ions (C-ion RT) has attracted growing interest due to their advantageous physical and biological characteristics. So far more than 40,000 patients have been treated worldwide. During the past three decades, C-ion RT has made remarkable progress in clinical and technological aspects. In my presentation, I would like to introduce physics, dosimetry, radiation biology, carbon RBE, and some clinical results of C-ion RT.


Safety Blinded or Safety Minded – Don’t Learn Safety by Accident

Monday, 23rd January 2023 at 12 pm GMT; Duration 1 hour

Register here

NEW: CME/CPD credit point shall be awarded for participation in the webinar in full.

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Speaker: Chris Trauernicht, President of FAMPO

Chris Trauernicht is the head of the medical physics division at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, as well as an associate professor at Stellenbosch University. He is the current president of the Federation of African Medical Physics Organizations (FAMPO) and currently serves on the IOMP Accreditation Board.

Chris has north of 150 congress contributions and 30 papers, and he is a member of the editorial boards of “Advances in Radiation Oncology” and the “South African Journal of Oncology”.

He serves as an assessor for the Health Professions Council of South Africa and has acted as examiner and convenor for the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa. The IAEA has appointed Chris as an expert on numerous occasions, including on the implementation of the Basic Safety Series for medical professionals, on the prevention of accidents and incidents in radiotherapy, and most recently on a regional training course to train the trainers in radiation safety culture (hence the idea for this talk).

Chris was the recipient of the 2020 “International Day of Medical Physics” award for his services to medical physics in the FAMPO region.

Abstract:

Should have, would have, could have… many healthcare professionals may be familiar with that sinking feeling when a preventable incident has slipped through the safety net and reached the patient. The incorporation of safety culture in healthcare can help prevent many adverse incidents and events.

Safety culture can be defined as “the assembly of characteristics and attitudes in organizations and individuals which establishes that, as an overriding priority, protection and safety issues receive the attention warranted by their significance”. In fact, the Bonn Call for Action specifically proposed the strengthening of radiation safety culture as one of its ten main actions.

In 2021, the International Atomic Energy Agency published a booklet on safety culture traits and proposed ten traits – patterns of behaviour or thinking – that encourage the prioritization of safety.

The implementation of these traits is free, yet many systems fail to apply these characteristics effectively. In this talk a brief overview of the ten traits is given. The application of these will improve your institution’s safety culture.


IOMP WEBINARS 2022


Radiation Biology Updates: From Low Doses to Ultra-high Dose Rates

Thursday, 15th December 2022 at 12 pm GMT; Duration 1 hour

Register here

NEW: CME/CPD credit point shall be awarded for participation in the webinar in full.

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Organizer: Eva Bezak, IOMP
Moderator: M Mahesh, IOMP

Title: Low dose simulation: perspectives in radiation protection 
Speaker: Andrea Abril, Profesora Asistente, Departamento de Física, Universidad Nacional de Colombia 

Dr Abril is an Assistant Professor and Academic Coordinator for the Master of Medical Physics at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Bogotá-Colombia), and since 2022 she is an Assistant Professor (part-time ) at Universidad Nacional de Colombia.  She taught subjects such as Advanced radiation physics, Radiobiology, and Numerical Methods for MP which enabled her to integrate her experience in MC simulations with the radiobiological concepts, relevant to imaging optimization.  Before that, She held a postdoc position where the main objective was to set up the proof of concept of the development made her my Doctoral thesis (Dr.Sc Universidad Nacional de Colombia 2018 ); a Hybrid device gamma-MRI that integrates dosimetric gel as a gamma radiation detector, the methodologies wrere based on MC simulations.

Abstract:

Doses over 100 cGy have been reported to have evident and consistent biological effects that the patient safety and radiation protection limits are based on it. However, low dose effects are still misunderstood. The NCRP27 compiled relevant studies in which biological responses were reported, even though the effects are unrelated to each other.

The low reproducibility does not permit the determination of the effects observed in the risk models. The main recommendation to boost the knowledge barrier is to design specific experiments at low doses to reproduce the SF curves. DNA mechanistic simulations are a tool to perform in silico experiments under different doses and radiation conditions and to evaluate if they have considerable effects on the SF. These simulations can even distinguish the probability and specific damage reparation mechanism through the damage location to compare with biochemical in vitro assays.


Title: The state of ultra-high dose rate (FLASH) radiotherapy: the rapid developments of a rapid therapy
Speaker: Nolan Esplen, University of Victoria, Canada

Nolan Esplen is a PhD candidate at the University of Victoria (Victoria, BC, Canada). As a member of the UVic XCITE lab, Nolan’s active research interests pertain to the development of enabling technologies supporting delivery of novel preclinical modalities including spatially-fractionated and ultra-high dose rate (FLASH) radiotherapy. His recent work has found focus on physics and dosimetry within the context of ultra-high dose rate x-ray source development, including that of a megavoltage x-ray platform for FLASH radiobiological research at TRIUMF (Vancouver, BC). Nolan has been awarded a number of honors for his scientific contributions.

Abstract:

Renewed interest in the use of ultra-high dose rates (UHDR) in radiation therapy (RT) has been prompted by a growing body of literature supporting UHDR irradiation, or “FLASH”, as a means to reduce normal-tissue toxicity when compared to irradiation at conventional dose-rates. The potential for improved normal-tissue outcomes (i.e. FLASH effect), paired with isoeffective tumor control and the ability to freeze target motion, has thus made FLASH an attractive candidate for widening the therapeutic window in curative RT. However, while tissue-sparing effects have since been demonstrated across various animal models and radiation modalities (photons, electrons, protons), the radiobiological mechanisms which underlie the FLASH effect, and the beam parameters required to reproducibly elicit it, remain to be elucidated. Continuously updated knowledge has given rise to a number of competing or complementary mechanistic explanations and technologies for more accessible delivery and investigation into this exciting frontier. In this session, a general overview of FLASH radiobiological concepts and delivery techniques will be presented.

PAST WEBINARS 2023

IOMP Webinar: Carbon-ion Radiotherapy: Current Status and Future Perspective

Tuesday, 7th February 2023 at 12 pm GMT; Duration 1 hour

Register here

NEW: CME/CPD credit point shall be awarded for participation in the webinar in full.

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Organizer: Eva Bezak, IOMP
Speaker: Taku Inaniwa, National Institute for Quantum Science and Technology, Japan

Taku Inaniwa, Ph.D, is a group leader of treatment beam research group at the Institute for Quantum Medical Science, National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology (QST) in Japan. His research focuses on developing dose calculation algorithms and biological models used for charged-particle therapy treatment planning. He has contributed more than 100 peer reviewed publications. He is a member of international scientific advisory board of Physics in Medicine and Biology. For his works, he has received several national and international awards. From April 2022, he has concurrently served as a guest professor at Division of Health Science, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University.

Abstract:

Charged-particle therapy with carbon ions (C-ion RT) has attracted growing interest due to their advantageous physical and biological characteristics. So far more than 40,000 patients have been treated worldwide. During the past three decades, C-ion RT has made remarkable progress in clinical and technological aspects. In my presentation, I would like to introduce physics, dosimetry, radiation biology, carbon RBE, and some clinical results of C-ion RT.


Safety Blinded or Safety Minded – Don’t Learn Safety by Accident

Monday, 23rd January 2023 at 12 pm GMT; Duration 1 hour

Register here

NEW: CME/CPD credit point shall be awarded for participation in the webinar in full.

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Speaker: Chris Trauernicht, President of FAMPO

Chris Trauernicht is the head of the medical physics division at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, as well as an associate professor at Stellenbosch University. He is the current president of the Federation of African Medical Physics Organizations (FAMPO) and currently serves on the IOMP Accreditation Board.

Chris has north of 150 congress contributions and 30 papers, and he is a member of the editorial boards of “Advances in Radiation Oncology” and the “South African Journal of Oncology”.

He serves as an assessor for the Health Professions Council of South Africa and has acted as examiner and convenor for the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa. The IAEA has appointed Chris as an expert on numerous occasions, including on the implementation of the Basic Safety Series for medical professionals, on the prevention of accidents and incidents in radiotherapy, and most recently on a regional training course to train the trainers in radiation safety culture (hence the idea for this talk).

Chris was the recipient of the 2020 “International Day of Medical Physics” award for his services to medical physics in the FAMPO region.

Abstract:

Should have, would have, could have… many healthcare professionals may be familiar with that sinking feeling when a preventable incident has slipped through the safety net and reached the patient. The incorporation of safety culture in healthcare can help prevent many adverse incidents and events.

Safety culture can be defined as “the assembly of characteristics and attitudes in organizations and individuals which establishes that, as an overriding priority, protection and safety issues receive the attention warranted by their significance”. In fact, the Bonn Call for Action specifically proposed the strengthening of radiation safety culture as one of its ten main actions.

In 2021, the International Atomic Energy Agency published a booklet on safety culture traits and proposed ten traits – patterns of behaviour or thinking – that encourage the prioritization of safety.

The implementation of these traits is free, yet many systems fail to apply these characteristics effectively. In this talk a brief overview of the ten traits is given. The application of these will improve your institution’s safety culture.

Growing Professional Recognition for Medical Physicists: Raymond Wu and IMPCB

Tuesday, 6th December 2022 at 12 pm GMT; Duration 1 hour

Register here

NEW: CME/CPD credit point shall be awarded for participation in the webinar in full.

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Organizer: Tomas Kron, IMPCB Nomination and Election Committee Chair
Moderator: Tomas Kron, IMPCB Nomination and Election Committee Chair

Speakers: Colin Orton, John Damilakis , Adel Mustafa, Ibrahim Duhaini, Art Boyer

(Office bearers and Board members of IMPCB) 

Abstract:

Raymond Wu has been instrumental in setting up the International Medical Physics Certification Board more than 10 years ago. As CEO he has guided the organisation through its rapid growing phase and the many ups and downs typical for an international organisation run by volunteers. IMPCB now has mature processes for accreditation of Medical Physics Certification Boards and certification of medical physicists in countries where no certification board exists. At the end of 2022 Raymond Wu will retire from his position as CEO and the present mini-symposium celebrates his contributions to IMPCB and medical physics.

Monday, 7th November 2022 at 12 pm GMT; Duration 1 hour

Register here

NEW: CME/CPD credit point shall be awarded for participation in the webinar in full.

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

                                                                                           

Chairman                                                                                                         Co-Chairman John Damilakis, IOMP President                                                                         Ibrahim Duhaini, IDMP                                                                                                                           Coordinator

Invited Speakers Organization
1.      Paddy Gilligan EFOMP
2.      Arun Chougule AFOMP
3.      Patricia Mora ALFIM
4.      Chai Hong Yeong SEAFOMP
5.      Christoph Trauernicht FAMPO
6.      Meshari AlNuaimi  MEFOMP
7.      J. Daniel Bourland AAPM- USA
8.      Boyd McCurdy COMP- Canada

Joint IOMP-IFMBE Webinar on Clinical Engineering Day 2022: management and maintenance of medical technologies 

Wednesday, 19th October 2022 at 12 pm GMT; Duration 1 hour

Register here

NEW: CME/CPD credit point shall be awarded for participation in the webinar in full.

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Organizer: Magdalena Stoeva, IOMP
Moderator: Francis Hasford, IOMP
Speakers: Ernesto Iadanza, IFMBE & Magdalena Stoeva, IOMP

Ernesto Iadanza, BME, CE, M. Sc., Ph.D., Senior Assistant Professor in Bioengineering (tenure-track) at the Department of Medical Biotechnologies, University of Siena, nationally qualified as Associate Professor in Bioengineering. He is currently a member of the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE) Administrative Council, and Chair of its Council of Societies. He received the IBM Faculty Award in 2013 and the IFMBE/CED Teamwork Award in 2019. Editor in Chief of the Clinical Engineering Handbook 2nd Edition, Academic Press, 2020. Associate Editor of many BME journals. Supervisor in 200+ graduation theses. Author of 190+ publications on international books, scientific journals, volumes, and conference proceedings.

Magdalena Stoeva, PhD, FIOMP, FIUPESM is the present Secretary General of the International Organization for Medical Physics (IOMP) and the International Union for Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine (IUPESM) and an Editor-in-Chief of the journal Health and Technology, jointly published by Springer and the IUPESM in cooperation with the WHO.

Dr. Stoeva has expertise in medical physics, engineering and computer systems at academic and clinical level, as well as organizational and international experience.

Prof. Stoeva’s work is directed towards the technological advancements as a driving factor of contemporary healthcare.

IOMP – WHO Joint Webinar on World Patient Safety Day 2022

Wednesday, 14th September 2022 at 12 pm GMT; Duration 1 hour

Register here

NEW: CME/CPD credit point shall be awarded for participation in the webinar in full.

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Organizer: John Damilakis, IOMP
Moderator: Eva Bezak, IOMP
Speakers: John Damilakis, IOMP; Emilie van Deventer, WHO; Erik Briers, EPCC

Prof. John Damilakis, MSc, PhD, FIOMP, FIUPESM
John Damilakis is professor and chairman at the Department of Medical Physics, School of Medicine, University of Crete and director of the Department of Medical Physics of the University Hospital of Heraklion, Crete, Greece. He is President of the ‘International Organization for Medical Physics’ (IOMP), Past President of the ‘European Alliance for Medical Radiation Protection Research’ (EURAMED), Past President of the ‘European Federation of Organizations for Medical Physics’ (EFOMP) and Past President of the ‘Hellenic Association of Medical Physics’. Prof. Damilakis is a member of the ICRP Committee 3 and member of the steering committee of the ‘EuroSafe Imaging Campaign’ of the European Society of Radiology. He is coordinator or an active research member of several European and national projects. As a Visiting Professor he has given lectures on dosimetry and radiation protection in Boston University, USA. His publications have been focused on medical radiation protection and dosimetry and, recently, also on Artificial Intelligence in medical imaging. He is editor, author or co-author of several books. Number of publications in PubMed: 243, number of citations: 8286, h-index 48 (Google Scholar). He has received several awards for his work.

Abstract:

Medical Physicists’ Impact on Patient Safety
Medical Physicists are essential healthcare professionals working in varied settings such as hospitals, industry, academia, research institutions, and national radiation protection competent authorities. Regardless of where they work, all medical physicists contribute to safe and quality health care. In radiation safety, a combination of practices and measures are applied to ensure that patients are not exposed unnecessarily, and radiation use is justified. This presentation will summarise the key categories of patient safety issues and provide information about what medical physicists can do to promote patient radiation safety.

Dr Emilie van Deventer
Dr Emilie van Deventer is the Head of the Radiation and Health Unit at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. This programme covers the public health aspects of both ionizing and non-ionizing radiation safety and provides information and guidance to national authorities on radiation protection and health. She is responsible, inter alia, for the WHO International EMF Project, the Global UV project and radon activities.  Before joining WHO in 2000, she was a chaired professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto, Canada. She holds a PhD from the University of Michigan, USA and an honorary doctorate (doctor honoris causa) from the University of San Marcos, Lima, Peru.

Abstract:

Patient Safety: A WHO perspective
Patient safety is a fundamental principle of health care and is now being recognized as a large and growing global public health challenge. Patient safety is a framework of organized activities that creates cultures, processes, procedures, behaviours, technologies and environments in health care that consistently and sustainably lower risks, reduce the occurrence of avoidable harm, make error less likely and reduce its impact when it does occur. Recognizing the huge burden of patient harm in health care, the 2019 World Health Assembly adopted a resolution on “Global action on patient safety”, which endorsed the establishment of World Patient Safety Day, to be observed every year on 17 September; and recognized “patient safety as a global health priority”. The theme of World Patient Safety Day 2022 is “Medication Safety”, emphasizing the need to adopt a systems approach and promote safe medication practices to prevent medication errors and reduce medication-related harm. In the context of radiation safety, it is important to address quality and safety in the use of radiopharmaceuticals, both in terms of manufacturing and administration/use. (175 words)

Dr ERIK A.M. BRIERS MS PhD
Dr Erik Briers holds a doctorate in Chemistry from the University of Leuven, Belgium. Since his promotion in 1979 he has been involved in laboratory medicine.
He founded in 1982 the diagnostic company Eco-Bio diagnostics and served as its CEO until 1990. In this function he developed a diagnostic test for the detection of Aspergillus antigens with a fast assay allowing the potential curative treatment of patients with disseminated aspergillosis, a deadly disease. This test has been approved by the FDA.
He has been a guest lecturer for the subject “Applied immunology” within the Master study programme Biochemical Engineering at the University of Leuven 2009-2016.
Erik Briers was the Executive Director of the European Cancer Patient Coalition (ECPC) (2012-2013) and ad interim executive director of EPPOSI (The European Platform for Patient Organizations Science and Industry) (2014).
He was active at the European Medicine Agency (EMA) at the Patient and Consumer working party (PCWP) and later was appointed by the EU commission as an alternate patient member of the Committee on Advanced Therapies (CAT) (2016-2019).
He is board member and vice chairman of Europa Uomo.
He is a member of the Guidelines Panel on the treatment of prostate cancer of the European Association of Urology (EAU) since 2013.
He is since 2013 member of the patient advisory board of the European Society of Radiology (ESR-PAG) and has given many presentations at the occasion of the yearly European Congress of Radiology (ECR).
He is vice-president of Us Too Belgium and the chief editor of PROSTAATinfo the magazine of the organization.
He serves as a member of advisory boards of several scientific organizations.

Abstract:

Radiation without harm: Patient’s perspective
Radiation is used in medical applications in imaging, treatment, or as a guiding tool for interventions. The objective is to contribute to the health outcome and the guiding principle is as always “do not harm”.
But radiation by itself can cause harm, depending on the energy and the dose but also on the kind of carrier, photons, electrons etc.
It is a guiding principle that the benefit of a “use” should always outweigh the possible harms or side effects. Thus, when the objective is a screening of apparently healthy individuals for a potentially serious disease such as cancer with a prevalence of some percent the dose should be as low as technically possible. The dose used to treat the discovered cancer on the other hand can be much higher because now we want to harm the cancerous tissue.
The discussion on what is a harmful dose will always depend on the purpose of the application and is to be discussed with the patient, or in case of screening with the healthy individual.

IOMP Webinar: Fractionated radiotherapy and its synergistic relationship with immunotherapy

Tuesday, 21st June 2022 at 12 pm GMT; Duration 1 hour

Register here

NEW: CME/CPD credit point shall be awarded for participation in the webinar in full.

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Organizer: Eva Bezak, IOMP
Moderator: Eva Bezak, IOMP
Speaker: Rebecca D’Alonzo, PhD Candidate


Rebecca D’Alonzo, PhD Candidate is a PhD candidate at the School of Physics, Mathematics and Computing, University of Western Australia, Australia. Rebecca is a 3rd year PhD student at the University of Western Australia. She completed her Bachelor of Science at UWA, majoring in Physics and Pathology. She the graduated from Masters of Medical Physics where she won the Master of Physics Medical Physics Prize in 2018. Rebecca is passionate about pre-clinical research, using novel radiotherapy and imaging devices to better understand cancer and how to improve treatment outcomes. Rebecca has also won numerous awards for her research presentations. .

Abstract:

Malignant tumours have decreased oxygenation due to malformed blood vessels. Hypoxia decreases the effectiveness of radiotherapy (RT), and the abnormal vessels prevent both systemic therapies and immune cells from reaching areas of the tumour. This study quantified the alterations of the tumour microenvironment (TME) that can be achieved with varying RT fractionation. The objective was assess the changes in vasculature normalisation and reoxygenation that can be achieved with localised RT. The optimal RT was then combined with various immunotherapy schedules, to find the immunotherapy + RT combination that improves treatment outcomes.
AB1-HA mesothelioma tumour cells were subcutaneously injected into BALB/cJAusbP mice. Mice underwent RT fractionation with a small animal RT device. Starting 10 days post-inoculation, mice received various RT fractionations. Fractions were delivered on consecutive days. On day 15 mice underwent hybrid optical and Doppler ultrasound imaging with a LAZR-X photoacoustic imaging instrument to assess the vasculature and oxygen saturation concentration within the tumour. Imaging continued every second day, until day 29 post-inoculation. The RT fractionation schedule that resulted in the most TME alterations was then combined with various immune checkpoint inhibitor (anti-PD1 and anti-CTLA-4) schedules to find the optimal treatment combination. Mice with cured primary tumour then underwent tumour rechallenge.
Alterations to the TME were observed following different RT fractionation schedules. Imaging showed the most significant increase in vascularisation and oxygen saturation for 2 Gy x 5 fraction. This fractionation schedule was then combined with immunotherapy given at varying timepoints. Immune checkpoint inhibitors given concurrently with RT resulted in the most tumours cured, and lead to tumour rechallenge resistance.
RT fractionation can be used to modulate the TME. This has the potential to be exploited to prime the tumour for susceptibility to other treatments, especially immune checkpoint inhibitors.
Acknowledgements: This study was supported by grant 1163065 from the Cancer Australia Priority-driven Collaborative Cancer Research Scheme.

IOMP Webinar: Non-cancer effects associated with low to moderate doses radiation exposure: what we know so far from epidemiological studies

Monday, 9th May 2022 at 12 pm GMT; Duration 1 hour

Register here

NEW: CME/CPD credit point shall be awarded for participation in the webinar in full.

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Organizer: John Damilakis, IOMP
Moderator: John Damilakis, IOMP
Speakers: Marie-Odile Bernier, Sophie Jacob


Marie-Odile Bernier, MD, PhD, works as researcher in the Epidemiology Department of the French Institute for radiation Protection and Nuclear safety (IRSN) since 2005. She is coordinating epidemiological studies on low dose exposure in the field of medical exposure at IRSN. She launched a large cohort specifically designed to study cancer risk in 100 000 children exposed to CT scans in France. She has also more than 25 years of experience as endocrinologist, specialized in the treatment of thyroid cancer.

Sophie Jacob, PhD, is a radiation epidemiologist at IRSN since December 2007. She is specialized in non-cancer effects of ionizing radiation in the context of medical exposure. She coordinated the French O’CLOC study on radiation cataract and lens opacities and was then involved in the OPERRA – EURALOC study (2013-2017), a European multicentric study. In 2013, she initiated research on radiation-induced cardiovascular effects after breast cancer radiation therapy with the French BACCARAT study, further developed in the frame of European MEDIRAD EARLY-HEART study (2017-2022). Dr. Jacob received a PhD in epidemiology (2007) and a master degree in mathematics and biostatistics for biology (2004) from the University of Paris, France.

Abstract:

The use of ionising radiation in medicine is steadily increasing, with clear benefits for population health through improved diagnostic and therapeutic technologies, but it also raises issues in the radiation protection of patients and medical workers.
There is accumulating evidence from epidemiological studies for increased risk of some non-cancer effects following exposure to ionising radiation at low to moderate doses, in particular for circulatory diseases, lens opacities or neurological effects, that may take decades to manifest and present clinically. But there are still uncertainties related to the risks of late-developing non-cancer diseases and effects of radiation exposure.
This webinar will provide an overview of recent epidemiological results and ongoing research in the era of non-cancer diseases related to ionising radiation exposure, with a special emphasis on medical application of radiation.

IOMP Webinar: Computational challenges in patient dose

Tuesday, 10th May 2022 at 12 pm GMT; Duration 1 hour

Register here

NEW: CME/CPD credit point shall be awarded for participation in the webinar in full.

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Organizers: Madan Rehani and Pedro Vaz
Moderator: Pedro Vaz, Portugal, Centro de Ciências e Tecnologias Nucleares of IST (University of Lisbon), Portugal.
Speakers: Choonsik Lee, PhD; NCI, NIH, USA & Manuel Bardiès, INSERM (National Institute of Health and Medical Research), France


Pedro Vaz, Portugal, Centro de Ciências e Tecnologias Nucleares of IST (University of Lisbon), Portugal.

Pedro Vaz, Ph.D. in Physics, is Coordinator Researcher at Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon. His areas of research include Radiation Protection and Dosimetry. He was the President of the Center for Nuclear Sciences and Technologies of IST (2017-2020). He is/has been Portuguese Representative in several Committees of the European Union (Group of Experts in Radiological Protection of the EURATOM Treaty and Consultative Committee on Energy Fission of the European Union) and the OECD/NEA (namely the Committee on Radiological Protection and Public Health). He is the institutional representative in European Union research platforms such as MELODI and EURADOS. He served as the National Liaison Officer (NLO) of Portugal for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Is member of the Editorial Board of the journal “European Journal of Radiology” and Associated Editor of the journal “Radiation Physics and Chemistry”. Pedro Vaz teaches Radiation Protection and Dosimetry topics in different Portuguese Universities.

Choonsik Lee, PhD; NCI, NIH, USA

Topic: Current status and challenges in organ dose estimation for patients undergoing diagnostic radiology procedures

Dr. Lee is a senior investigator and Dosimetry Unit head at the United States National Cancer Institute. He has more than 20 years of expertise on computational and experimental radiation dosimetry for patients undergoing medical radiation procedures. His research team develops methods and tools to estimate radiation dose from medical exposures, including treatment and diagnostic tests, in order to generate reliable dosimetry data for use in epidemiological studies of ionizing radiation and cancer risk. Dr. Lee has involved in several task groups in the International Commission on Radiological Protection in the past years and was appointed to the ICRP Committee 2 (Doses from Radiation Exposure).

Abstract

Diagnostic medical radiation sources have substantial contributions to effective dose per capita worldwide. Although radiology procedures provide indisputable benefits to patients, there are still concerns about potential risks from radiation doses, especially in pediatric patients who are more sensitive to radiation than adults. The investigators at the United States National Cancer Institute are developing methods and tools including National Cancer Institute dosimetry system for Computed Tomography (NCICT), nuclear medicine (NCINM), and radiography and  fluoroscopy (NCIRF) to estimate individualized organ doses. The tools have been actively used for epidemiological and clinical research. The major outcomes from the research and remaining challenges will be presented at this seminar.

Manuel Bardiès, INSERM (National Institute of Health and Medical Research), France.

Topic: Clinical dosimetry in diagnostics and therapy: recent developments and new perspectives

Manuel Bardiès obtained his Doctorate from Toulouse University, France, in 1991. He developed his research in radiopharmaceutical dosimetry within INSERM (National Institute of Health and Medical Research) since 1992 in Nantes, then in Toulouse, and currently in Montpellier (2021-).  He was member of the EANM Dosimetry Committee (2001-2013, chair 2009-2011). He chaired EFOMP Science Committee (2014-2016), and is currently chairing the EFOMP Special Interest Group for radionuclide internal dosimetry.  He has been involved in education in various European structures (ESMIT, ESMPE). He’s members of the Board of the medical physics resident programme in France. The group led by Manuel Bardiès is primarily involved in radiopharmaceutical dosimetry, at various scales (cell, tissue, organ). This requires the ability to assess radiopharmaceutical pharmacokinetics, through quantitative imaging. An important part of the research activity involves Monte Carlo modelling of radiation transport. The objective is to improve molecular radiotherapy by allowing patient-specific treatments.

Abstract

Targeted and Selective internal radiotherapy have boosted the development of clinical internal dosimetry. The recent developments include a better appraisal of activity uptake in different compartments of the body, more accurate pharmacokinetics and absorbed dose determination. In addition, there is a growing awareness of the real challenges, both methodological and technological, raised by therapeutic nuclear medicine dosimetry. It is now clear that conventional clinical dosimetry workflows developed for reference dosimetry in diagnostics are not relevant in a context of therapy. More work is needed to better identify the relevant dosimetric indices that will contribute effectively to therapeutic optimisation. On the bright side, the increasing development and dissemination of clinical dosimetry, associated with the advent of commercial treatment planning software participates to both quantitative and qualitative improvements of our professional practice. Now come the time to develop quality assurance in clinical dosimetry.

IOMP Webinar: GEANT4 for medical physics applications: an overview and latest updates & Overview of the Geant4-DNA project

Wednesday, 11th May 2022 at 12 pm GMT; Duration 1 hour

Register here

NEW: CME/CPD credit point shall be awarded for participation in the webinar in full.

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Organizer: Eva Bezak, IOMP
Moderator: Eva Bezak, IOMP
Speakers: Associate Professor Guatelli (University of Wollongong) & Prof Sebastien Incerti (University of Bordeaux)


Associate Professor Susanna Guatelli, Centre For Medical and Radiation Physics, University of Wollongong, Australia, is an international leading expert of the Geant4 Monte Carlo code for medical physics applications, working in the field since 2002.
Since 2018, S. Guatelli is member of the Steering Board of the Geant4 International Collaboration in her role of Coordinator of the Geant4 Advanced Examples Working Group. Since 2018, she leads the Geant4 Medical Simulation Benchmarking Group dedicated to the systematic testing of Geant4 for medical applications. S. Guatelli has extensive expertise in teaching Geant4 at various levels and organised many Geant4 short courses addressed to the use of this Monte Carlo code in medical physics.
S. Guatelli has been chair/co-chair of several international workshops and conference sessions dedicated to Monte Carlo codes applied to medical physics. She is Associate Editor of Physica Medica and of Applied Radiation and Isotopes.
In 2021, she was awarded with the prestigious Women in Physics Lecturer award, of the Australian Institute of Physics, for her significant contribution to research at the international level. In 2022, she became a member of the College of Experts of the Australian Research Council (ARC).

Abstract

Topic: GEANT4 for medical physics applications: an overview and latest updates

Geant4, which is a Monte Carlo toolkit describing particle transport and interactions in matter, is widely used in medical physics in critical applications such as verification of radiotherapy treatment planning systems, and the design of equipment for radiotherapy and nuclear medicine. It is also used in medical imaging for dosimetry, to improve detectors and reconstruction algorithms, and for radiation protection assessments.
In this seminar, an overview will be given of the capability of Geant4 for medical physics applications, focusing on the latest updates concerning Geant4 11.0. In addition, she will present the project G4-Med, which has been developed by a large international collaboration, the Geant4 Medical Simulation Benchmarking Group, including both Geant4 developers and users. The goal of the project is to perform a systematic benchmarking of the accuracy of the Geant4 physics models in a set of application scenarios of interest for medical applications.
Information will be provided on how to start to use Geant4 for medical applications. The seminar will finish by describing briefly the Geant4 development processes and Geant4 user support, which are in place to continue to develop this simulation code for and in synergy with the medical physics community.

Professor Sébastien Incerti is director of research at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the National Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics (IN2P3), in France. He is involved in the development of the open source Geant4 Monte Carlo toolkit (http://geant4.org) for the simulation of particle-matter interactions. His research activities focus on the study of the biological effects of ionizing radiation in several application areas, including medical physics and space sciences, in particular for the Geant4-DNA project (http://geant4-dna.org) for which he has been the spokesperson since 2008. Since 2019, he is the scientific director of CNRS-IN2P3 for interdisciplinary science.

Abstract

Topic: Overview of the Geant4-DNA project

In this webinar, we will present an overview of the Geant4-DNA extension (http://geant4-dna.org) of the general-purpose Geant4 Monte Carlo simulation toolkit (http://geant4.org). Initially proposed by the European Space Agency, Geant4-DNA aims at simulating in a mechanistic way the biological effects of ionizing radiation on living organisms at the sub-cellular level. In particular, it allows to simulate the physical, physico-chemical and chemical stages that take place in the biological environment after irradiation, allowing in particular the prediction of early DNA damage from simplified geometries of biological targets. Geant4-DNA is fully included in Geant4 and is freely available to the scientific community. It contains examples of various applications in physics, chemistry and radiobiology, which can be used to learn Geant4-DNA. Its development continues in the framework of an international collaboration.

IOMP Webinar: Virtual imaging trials in breast imaging

Thursday, 12th May 2022 at 12 pm GMT; Duration 1 hour

Register here

NEW: CME/CPD credit point shall be awarded for participation in the webinar in full.

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Organizer: John Damilakis, IOMP
Moderator: John Damilakis, IOMP
Speaker: Hilde Bosmans


Hilde Bosmans is professor in medical physics in the University of Leuven (Belgium), she is expert in medical physics in the radiology department of the University Hospital Leuven and steers the physico-medical quality control procedures in 103 mammography units in the Belgian breast cancer screening. She has 261 peer reviewed papers and works currently with 12 PhD students at different themes in medical physics. Research in Virtual Clinical Trials was worked out in the frame of PhD theses by Ann-Katherine Carton, Federica Zanca, Elena Salvagnini, Lesley Cockmartin, Eman Shaheen and Liesbeth Van Coillie. Ongoing projects in VCTs in breast imaging focus on the creation of synthetic data for AI training, the optimization of contrast enhanced mammography and expansion to other modalities such as chest x-ray imaging (with the PhD project of Sunay Rodriguez) and cone beam dental applications.

Abstract

Quality requirements in breast imaging are high, especially in breast cancer screening where the ultimate results are also measured and compared to (European) Guidelines. This has triggered many optimization projects and models for detailed breast dosimetry. The parameter space for optimization is however big, many new techniques are being introduced and clinical trials in breast cancer screening require a huge amount of images and take a lot of time. From the early days on, effort has therefore been put in developing breast models and virtual clinical trial (VCT) frameworks.
We will report on the typical components in VCT studies, on their validation and their limitations. The lecture will conclude with illustrating unique results that could be obtained with virtual imaging trials.

IOMP Webinar: Relative biological effectiveness of protons – time for a change?

Friday, 13th May 2022 at 12 pm GMT; Duration 1 hour

Register here

NEW: CME/CPD credit point shall be awarded for participation in the webinar in full.

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Organizer: Madan Rehani, IOMP
Moderator: Eva Bezak, IOMP
Speaker: Iuliana Toma-Dasu


Iuliana Toma-Dasu is Professor in Medical Radiation Physics and the Head of the Medical Radiation Physics division at the Department of Physics, Stockholm University, affiliated to the Department of Oncology and Pathology at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, and the Editor in Chief of Physica Medica – European Journal of Medical Physics.

Iuliana Toma-Dasu studied Medical Physics at Umeå University, Sweden, where she also became a certified medical physicist and received a Ph.D. degree. In parallel with her involvement in the educational program for the medical physicists run at Stockholm University, her main research interests focus on biologically optimised adaptive radiation therapy, including particle therapy, modelling the tumour microenvironment and the risks from radiotherapy.

Abstract

Current practice in proton radiotherapy planning is based on the assumption that the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of protons has a constant value of 1.1 as recommended by the ICRU report 78. Nevertheless, increasing evidence is pointing nowadays towards to fact that the RBE of protons is not constant but it varies with the endpoint, the dose per fraction, the actual beam quality described by the linear energy transfer (LET) or other metrics and, of course, the tissue type. This presentation will give a brief overview of the clinical evidence for variable proton RBE and will introduce the frame of the mathematical models for variable RBE based on in vitro cell survival data and the application of these models on proton treatment evaluation and optimisation. A critical discussion on the change from a constant 1.1 proton RBE to a variable value will also be presented.

Wednesday, 20th April 2022 at 12 pm GMT; Duration 1 hour

Register here

NEW: CME/CPD credit point shall be awarded for participation in the webinar in full.

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Organizer: Madan Rehani, IOMP
Moderator: Christoper Clement, ICRP
Speakers: Werner Ruehm, Dominique Laurier, and Richard Wakeford


Christopher Clement is the Scientific Secretary & CEO of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), overseeing the daily business of ICRP and representing the organisation in many international fora since 2008. He has presented well over 300 invited lectures in more than 40 countries and overseen the production of more than 70 issues of Annals of the ICRP as Editor-in-Chief. Since 2012 he has been a member of the International Radiation Protection Association (IRPA) Executive Council, and Vice-President of IRPA since 2021. He has more than 30 years of experience in radiological protection, including environmental monitoring and remediation, radiological counterterrorism, and as Director of Radiation Protection at the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. In 2019, he received the Ambassador’s Award from the Ambassador of Japan to Canada for his work in recovery after the Fukushima Daiichi accident and the promotion of mutual understanding and friendly relations between Japan and Canada.


  Werner Rühm leads the Medical and Environmental Dosimetry Group at the Helmholtz Center Munich, Institute of Radiation Medicine, Germany. In addition, he is professor at the Medical Faculty of the University of Munich. He has been a member of Committee 1 “Radiation Effects” (C1) of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) since 2005, serving as C1 Secretary from 2012 to 2016, and as C1 Chair from 2016 to 2021. Currently he is currently chairing ICRP TG91 on Dose and Dose-Rate Effectiveness Factor. From 2014 – 2020 he was Chair of the European Radiation Dosimetry Group (EURADOS), and in 2020 he was elected Chair of the German Radiation Protection Commission (SSK). In 2020 Werner Rühm was elected by the German Federal Parliament and the Federal Council of Germany as a member of the National Civil Society Board, and in 2021 he was elected Chair of ICRP. He is a member of the German delegation to UNSCEAR.


Dominique Laurier has 25 years of experience in the field of radiation epidemiology. He works at the French Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) as Deputy Head of the Health Division. He has been a member of the main commission of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) since 2017 and chairman of ICRP committee 1 since 2021. He is the French representative to UNSCEAR, and the chair of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) High Level Group on Low Dose Research (HLG-LDR).


Richard Wakeford is Honorary Professor in Epidemiology in the Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health at The University of Manchester, UK. He worked in the nuclear industry for nearly 30 years advising on radiation risks before taking early retirement in 2006, then joining the academic staff of The University of Manchester as Professor before retiring at the end of 2019. Richard has been a member of ICRP Committee 1 since 2009 and has also been a member of a number of expert groups including as a member of the UK delegation to UNSCEAR, the EU Article 31 Group, the UK Committee on Medical Effects of Radiation in the Environment (COMARE), the UK Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) at the time of the Fukushima Dai-ichi accident, and various technical groups for WHO, IAEA, NEA/OECD and US NCRP. He has been Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Radiological Protection since 1997.

Abstract:
Recent studies suggest that every year worldwide about a million patients might be exposed to doses of the order of 100 mGy of low-LET radiation, due to recurrent application of radioimaging procedures. This webinar provides a synthesis of recent epidemiological evidence on radiation-related cancer risks from low-LET radiation doses of this magnitude. Specifically, reviews of recent results are given with respect to a) the atomic bomb survivors (by W. Rühm), b) low dose-rate exposures during adulthood (by D. Laurier), and c) in utero and childhood exposures. (by R. Wakeford). Taken together, substantial evidence was found that ionizing radiation causes cancer at acute and protracted doses above 100 mGy, and growing evidence for doses below 100 mGy. It is concluded that doses of the order of 100 mGy from recurrent application of medical imaging procedures involving ionizing radiation are of concern, from the viewpoint of radiological protection.

Literature:
W. Rühm, D. Laurier, R. Wakeford, Cancer risk following low doses of ionising radiation – current epidemiological evidence and implications for radiological protection, Mut. Res. – Genetic Toxicol. Environ. Mutagenesis 873 (2022) 503436
M.P. Little, R. Wakeford, S.D. Bouffler, K. Abalo, M. Hauptmann, N. Hamada, G.M. Kendall, Review of the risk of cancer following low and moderate doses of sparsely ionising radiation received in early life in groups with individually estimated doses, Environ. Internat. 159 (2022) 106983
R. Wakeford, J.F. Bithell, A review of the types of childhood cancer associated with a medical X-ray examination of the pregnant mother, Int. J. Radiat. Biol. 97 (2021) 571-92.

IOMP Webinar: Biologically Targeted Radiotherapy: utilising imaging biomarkers to characterise tumour heterogeneity for precision radiation therapy

Tuesday, 22nd March 2022 at 11 am GMT; Duration 1 hour

Register here

NEW: CME/CPD credit point shall be awarded for participation in the webinar in full.

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Organizer: Eva Bezak, IOMP
Moderator: Eva Bezak, IOMP
Speaker: Annette Haworth

Prof Haworth is the Director of the Institute of Medical Physics at the University of Sydney and the course coordinator for the medical physics postgraduate program. She has more than 25 years experience as a clinical medical physicist having previously worked at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne Australia before moving to Sydney in 2016. Annette’s research interests have focused on novel approaches to brachytherapy and radiotherapy treatments, in particular using quantitative imaging for biological optimization of treatment planning and treatment response.

Abstract:

Intra-tumoral heterogeneity is largely ignored in radiation therapy (RT) treatment planning. Imaging biomarkers derived from quantitative MRI (qMRI) enable voxel-wise mapping of biological characteristics, providing an opportunity to optimise RT dose distributions based on spatially defined Intra-tumoral biology. Mapping changes in qMRI post-treatment offers the opportunity for early identification of those at risk of recurrence. In this presentation I will showcase our work demonstrating how quantitative imaging may be used to produce 3-dimensional maps of tumour heterogeneity to facilitate a precision-based approach to biologically targeted RT treatment planning and treatment response.

IOMP webinar: Image quality monitoring, Medical Physics 3.0, and patient-centered care

Wednesday, 9th February 2022 at 12 pm GMT

Register here

NEW: A certificate of attendance will be provided to those who attend the session in full.

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Organizer: Madan Rehani
Moderator: Madan Rehani

Speaker: Ehsan Samei

Ehsan Samei, PhD, DABR, FAAPM, FSPIE, FAIMBE, FIOMP, FACR is a tenured professor, Chief Imaging Physicist, and director of Center for Virtual Imaging Trials at Duke University. Authored over 320 referred papers, he is passionate about bridging the gap between scientific scholarship and clinical practice through virtual clinical trials, clinically-relevant metrologies, and Medical Physics 3.0. He aims towards quantitative patient-centric use of imaging, effectual realization of translational research, and clinical processes that are based on evidence.

Abstract:
While much of medical physics is vested with imaging and therapy technologies, those technologies are effective only to the extend they are used for the care of patients. The physicist is in fact vested with the expertise and the responsibility to ensure that each patient gets the optimum imaging and therapy towards the best clinical outcome. This involves a closer understanding of the clinical nuances of technologies in clinically-relevant quantitative terms, understanding how the advantages of technologies can be effectually realized in its implementation and patient-specific use, and monitoring to ensure the expected outcome is realized. This presentation offers a holistic perspective, anchored to the principles of Medical Physics 3.0, to integrate the rigor of science of medical physics and the relevance of practice towards patient-centered care.

IOMP webinar: Re-igniting the role of physics in medicine

Wednesday, 19th January 2022 at 12 pm GMT

Register here

NEW: A certificate of attendance will be provided to those who attend the session in full.

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Organizer: Madan Rehani
Moderator: Madan Rehani

Speaker: Robert Jeraj

Dr. Robert Jeraj is a Professor of Medical Physics, Human Oncology, Radiology and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a Professor of Physics at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, where he leads international research groups of medical physics. Dr. Jeraj is a founding member of the Topical Group on Medical Physics within American Physics Society (APS), the Working Group on the Future of Medical Physics Research and Academic Training within American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), the Medical Physics for World Benefit (MPWB) organization, and is a founding Editor in Chief of the Biomedical Physics and Engineering Express (BPEX) journal. He has served as a member of the Medical Imaging Drug Advisory Committee at Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and is on the Board of Commission on Accreditation of Medical Physics Education Programs (CAMPEP). Dr. Jeraj is an author of over 150 published papers, text books and book chapters, and is a frequent invited lecturer and presenter on the use of molecular imaging in therapeutic interventions and general applications of medical physics in radiation and medical oncology.

Abstract:
Medical physics has led to many achievements contributing to modern day medical practice, ranging from high-resolution diagnostics to high-precision treatment deliveries. However, the rapid pace of developments in medicine particularly fueled by personalized therapeutic approaches are posing some unique challenges. At the same time, they are providing new opportunities for involvement of physics in medicine beyond traditional roles. In this lecture, we will (1) review current trends in personalized medicine, (2) summarize some strategic initiatives aimed to address these trends by medical physics societies, (3) highlight the need for additional skills and knowledge required to tackle the challenges and (4) overview some examples of physics involvement in medicine beyond traditional medical physics roles. Specifically, we will present state-of-the-art solutions in the area of quantitative imaging biomarkers, which could be extended and adopted on a global scale.

IOMP webinar: Modelling the invasiveness of high-grade gliomas using computational tools – from imaging to radiotherapy target definition

Tuesday, 7th December 2021 at 12 pm GMT

Register here

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Organizer: Eva Bezak
Moderator: Eva Bezak

Speaker: Wille Häger

Wille Häger is a PhD student at the Department of Physics, Stockholm University, and Department of Oncology and Pathology, Karolinska Institute, in Stockholm, Sweden, under the supervision of Prof. Iuliana Toma-Dasu and Dr. Marta Lazzeroni. His PhD project is focused on models and computational tools for simulating the tumour invasion of high-grade gliomas and the potential implications for radiotherapy.

 

Abstract:
High-grade gliomas (HGGs) are notoriously invasive of normal tissue, and to this day prognosis remains poor. The main issue in treating HGGs appears to be determining the extent of the tumour invasion, as regions of considerable clonogenic cell populations are not detectable using conventional diagnostic imaging methods. This presentation will discuss the use of modelling to simulate the HGG growth and its invasion of brain matter, how well the simulated invasion agrees with the conventional clinical target volume (CTV) delineation, and the future prospects of model assisted CTV delineation and probabilistic treatment planning.

IOMP webinar on IDMP 2021: Communicating the Role of Medical Physicists to the Public

Sunday, 7th November 2021 at 12 pm GMT

Register here

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Organizer: Madan Rehani, President, IOMP
Moderators: Madan Rehani and Ibrahim Duhaini

 

Speaker 1

Title: Why Communicating the Science is Worth the Effort

Professor Joan Leach

Director, Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science
The Australian National University (ANU)

 

NEW BOOK: An Ethics of Science Communication
https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030321154

Professor Joan Leach, PhD is a TED talker. She is Director of the Australian National Centre for Public Awareness of Science and Chair of the Academic Board at The Australian National University. She also Chairs the National Committee for History and Philosophy of Science at the Australian Academy of Science. Her recent books include An Ethics of Science Communication (with Fabien Medvecky) and an edited collection, Science Communication: A Global Perspective which tells the stories of 39 nations and territories attempts to raise the profile of science over the last 50 years. While remaining transfixed by science, she advocates for better science communication that critically examines the social impacts of science, technology and biomedicine.

 

Speaker 2
Title: Communication is Understanding Waiting to Happen

Jeanne Erdmann

Award winning health and science journalist

 

• Tagline: Independent health and science journalist, board member Association of Health Care Journalists, cofounder The Open Notebook
• She is freelance journalist who lives near St. Louis, Missouri. Nearly 20 years ago, she left the world of cells and microscopes for writing and reporting. Jeanne specializes in genetics, aging, end-of-life issues, and wellness. Her work has appeared in both trade and consumer publications, including Real Simple, Discover, Science News, Family Circle, Nature, Nature Medicine, Women’s Health, and The Washington Post. She is a board member of the Association of Health Care Journalists, and co-founder and editor at The Open Notebook, a craft-focused site for science, health, and environmental writers. She’s also been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships.

 

Speaker 3
Title: Journalists – love them hate them but you need them. How to make friends with the press and benefit from the results

Peter Rickwood

Executive Director, Atomic Reporters, Vienna, Austria.

 

He was environmental journalist on Canada’s largest daily newspaper; then Press Officer for a decade at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); media advisor to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO); consultant to the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR); and is founder Atomic Reporters which has been organizing training workshops bringing specialists and journalists, professional and citizen together, to promote nuclear literacy and support more informed reporting.

IOMP webinar: New Tools of Phantoms, Monte Carlo Calculations, and AI for Medical Physics Applications

 

Wednesday, 6th October 2021 at 12 pm GMT

Register here

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Organizer: Madan Rehani
Moderator: Madan Rehani
Speaker: Prof. Xie George Xu, University of Science and Technology of China (Hefei, China)

 

Speaker biosketch:
Prof. Xie George Xu is professor and director of the Institute of Nuclear Medical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China (Hefei, China). Before relocating to China recently, he was the Edward E. Hood Endowed Chair Professor of Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, New York, USA). He received a Ph. D. in Nuclear Engineering (health/medical physics focus) from Texas A&M University (College Station, Texas, USA) in 1994. Since 1995, Prof. Xu has mentored nearly 100 Ph.D and M.S. students in the U.S. and China. His research has focused on “radiation dosimetry” for radiation protection, medical imaging, and radiotherapy applications, with continuous funding by governmental agencies and private sector industry. His publication list includes 2 books, 200 peer-reviewed papers/chapters, 400 abstracts, and 140 invited talks. Widely known for his work on “computational phantoms” and “advanced Monte Carlo simulations”, Prof. Xu is a fellow of American Nuclear Society (ANS), Health Physics Society (HPS), American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), and American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), as well as a council member of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement (NCRP) and a past president of the Council on Ionizing Radiation Measurements and Standards (CIRMS). He has been on the editorial board of Medical Physics and Physics in Medicine & Biology for 20 years. Prof. Xu and his team have developed a number of commercial software tools including VirtualDose (a CT and IR patient dose reporting software), ARCHER (a GPU-based Monte Carlo dose computing software for treatment planning and dose QA verification), and DeepViewer (an image segmentation and registration software tool). Prof. Xu has received numerous professional recognitions including, recently, CIRMS Randal S. Caswell Award for Distinguished Achievements (2015), HPS Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award (2018), ANS Arthur Holly Compton Award in Education (2020), ANS Rockwell Lifetime Achievement Award in Radiation Protection and Shielding (2020), and AAPM Edith H. Quimby Award for Lifetime Achievement in Medical Physics (2020).

Abstract:
Estimation of organ doses in medical physics depends on computational phantoms and Monte Carlo calculations ─ two tools that have seen major advancement recently. Phantoms have evolved from the 1st-generation stylized phantoms to 2nd-generation voxel phantoms, and to 3rd-generation boundary representative (BREP) phantoms. Aided with the latest deep-learning image segmentation tools, patient-specific phantoms can be created consisting of organ outlines ready for Monte Carlo calculations. And GPU-based Monte Carlo codes can reduce dose computing time from hours to less than one minute. This presentation will cover: (1) Historical review of computational phantoms and Monte Carlo codes, (2) Development of patient-specific phantoms using an automatic multi-organ segmentation tool, DeepViewer, that is based on neural convolutional network (called U-Net) , (3) Development of rapid Monte Carlo dose calculation code, Archer, that is based on nVidia GPU co-processors and virtual-source-modeling of medical accelerators. Examples in medical imaging dose (CT, PET/CT) and radiation treatment will be discussed.

IOMP webinar: Cardiac radioablation: An introduction, an overview, and how medical physicists could help shape its future

Tuesday, 7th September 2021 at 11 am GMT

Register here

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Organizer: Eva Bezak
Moderator: Eva Bezak
Speaker: Suzy Lydiard, ACRF ImageX Institute, University of Sydney

Suzy Lydiard is a part-time PhD student at the ACRF ImageX Institute, University of Sydney, supervised by Prof. Paul Keall. Her PhD is investigating cardiac radioablation for atrial fibrillation, a new and developing non-invasive treatment alternative for the most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia. Her work is specifically evaluating the feasibility of an MRI-guided treatment on an MRI-Linac using non-invasive target tracking and MLC tracking. Suzy is also working as a clinical Radiation Oncology Medical Physicist at the Kathleen Kilgour Centre, New Zealand.

Presentation Overview: Cardiac radioablation has rapidly grabbed the attention of both clinicians and academics after stellar initial clinical results. Cardiac radioablation has the potential to advance and expand the clinical care available to those suffering from certain cardiac arrhythmias and is already being implemented within clinical trials globally. There are exciting and abundant opportunities for medical physicists and academics to help progress cardiac radioablation technologies and advance cardiac radioablation knowledge in order to make this treatment mainstream and accessible to those patients in need. This presentation will describe the clinical drivers for cardiac radioablation, discuss the challenges cardiac radioablation brings to radiotherapy, summarize the technology approaches currently utilized in clinical cardiac radioablation treatments, and identify potential research and development opportunities.

IOMP webinar: CTV-PTV Margins in Stereotactic Radiosurgery: Do we need them?

Tuesday, 15th June 2021 at 11 am GMT

Register here

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Organizer: Eva Bezak
Moderator: Eva Bezak
Speaker: John Shakeshaft, Site-Senior Physicist ICON Cancer Centre, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia

John Shakeshaft currently works as the site-senior physicist at Gold Coast University Hospital within the ICON Cancer Care network. He has previously worked with both small and large radiation oncology departments across Australia and the UK (where he trained). He is the current chair of the Australasian College of Physical Scientists & Engineers in Medicine (ACPSEM) Radiation Oncology Specialist Group.
Recently he has also been the trial physicist for the Trans-Tasman Radiation Oncology Group (TROG) Cancer Research Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS) OUTRUN trial and chaired the technical working group developing guidelines for future TROG SRS trials.

Abstract
CTV-PTV Margins in Stereotactic Radiosurgery: Do we need them?
Traditionally in Radiation Oncology margins are added to the clinical target volume (CTV) to allow for geometrical uncertainties in the planning and treatment. However, in stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) some practitioners, particularly those treating with a Gamma Knife®, have not added margins to the CTV to form a planning target volume (PTV). This inconsistent approach to handling CTV-PTV between centres providing an SRS service, for example in a clinical trial, difficult.
The talk will consider:
– Geometrical uncertainties in SRS including the magnitude of the different contributing factors
– How different treatment modalities differ and the potential effect on margin requirements (for example achievable steepness of dose gradients)
– The effect of imaging for treatment position verification on modern treatment systems
– The ICRU91 approach for clinical trials
– Clinical evidence for the use of CTV-PTV margins in SRS

IOMP webinar: I tested this x-ray system: Is it acceptable for clinical use?

Wednesday, 26th May 2021 at 12 pm (noon) GMT

Register here

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Organizer: Madan Rehani
Moderator: Dr. Geraldine O Reilly, St. James’s Hospital, Dublin
Speakers: Stephen Balter

Physicists make quantitative measurements to determine therapeutic and diagnostic equipment safety and performance. Measurement uncertainty can influence acceptability decisions. Inappropriate equipment acceptance might result in hazardous operation. Improper rejection could be hazardous to patients if alternative equipment is not available in a timely manner.
This presentation reviews basic concepts and nomenclature for measuring instrument calibration and measurement uncertainty applicable to all areas of medical physics. A brief outline of the differences between manufacturers’ and medical physicists’ processes will be presented using fluoroscopic beam measurements as an example. It concludes with some clinical implications of acceptability.

Stephen Balter, Ph.D. is a Professor of Clinical Radiology (physics) at Columbia University in New York City. His primary clinical responsibility is in a high volume interventional cardiology department.
Dr. Balter is ABR certified and licensed by New York State in the areas of Diagnostic Imaging, Therapeutic Radiology, and Medical Health Physics. He received his Masters in Radiological Physics from Columbia, and his Ph.D. in Experimental Physics, from Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute.
Dr. Balter is an active participant in several physical and clinical societies. He is an elected fellow in the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), American College of Medical Physics (ACMP), American College of Radiology (ACR), Society for Cardiac Imaging and Interventions (SCAI), and the Society for Interventional Radiology (SIR). He is a member of Council of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP), and currently serves on three International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) working groups.
Dr. Belter’s interests have focused on brachytherapy, interventional radiology, and related health-physics topics. He has published over 200 papers, chapters, and books in these and related areas. Among these, he was the chair for NCRP Report 168 on fluoroscopic guided interventions. He has served as an invited lecturer and visiting professor in many USA and worldwide venues.

IOMP webinar: Publishing in medical physics

Monday, 10th May 2021 at 1 pm GMT

Register here

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Organizer: Madan Rehani
Moderator: Paolo Russo, Chair, Publication Committee, IOMP, Past Editor-in-Chief, Eur J Medical Physics
Speakers: Katia Parodi and John Boone
Individual topics
Katia Parodi: Keeping the pace with a rapidly evolving field of medical physics
John Boone: The fundamentals of a great paper

Prof. Dr. Katia Parodi
Chair of Experimental Physics – Medical Physics
Faculty of Physics at LMU Munich
Editor-in-Chief, Physics in Medicine & Biology

Katia Parodi received her Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Dresden, Germany, in 2004. She then worked as postdoctoral fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA. In 2006 she returned to Germany as tenured scientist and group leader at the Heidelberg Ion Therapy Center, obtaining in 2009 her Habilitation from the Heidelberg University. Since 2012 she is full professor and Chair of Medical Physics at the Physics Faculty of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) in Munich, where she initiated a dedicated curriculum for Medical Physics within the Physics Master of Science study. Her main research interests are in high precision image-guided radiotherapy with a special focus on ion beams, from advanced computational modeling to experimental developments of novel methods for imaging and in-vivo ion range monitoring for pre-clinical and clinical applications. Katia Parodi has been invited speaker and committee member at many conferences, contributed to over 200 publications in peer reviewed journals, 12 book chapters and a couple of patents. For her work, she received several national and international recognitions, including the Behnken Berger Award in 2006, the IEEE Bruce Hasegawa Young Investigator Medical Imaging Science Award in 2009, the AAPM John S. Laughlin Young Scientist in 2015 and the awarding of an ERC Consolidator grant in 2016. In 2017-2018 she served as president of the German Society for Medical Physics, and is since 2021 the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Physics in Medicine and Biology.

 

John M. Boone, Ph.D.
Professor of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering
Editor-in-Chief, MEDICAL PHYSICS

John M. Boone, Ph.D. received his undergraduate degree in Biophysics at UC Berkeley and his MS and Ph.D. in Medical Physics at UC Irvine. After faculty positions at University of Missouri, Columbia and Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, he is now Professor of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering at the University of California Davis, in Sacramento California. His research interests include the development of cone beam CT systems for dedicated breast imaging, and the use of Monte Carlo methods for radiation dose assessment in diagnostic radiology especially in breast imaging and CT. His lab has also developed accurate x-ray spectral models for diagnostic radiological imaging, non-destructive testing, and ortho-voltage therapy applications. His interests also extend to whole body CT, including the development and implementation of new methods for image quality evaluation (e.g. 3D MTF and 3D NPS) and for radiation dosimetry (Size Specific Dose Estimation – SSDE).

IOMP webinars on IMPW 2021

Organizers: John Damilakis and Madan Rehani.

One webinar every day at 12 noon GMT.

 

Monday, 26th April

Monochromatic X-rays: A new source with potential to replace century-old technology

Further information: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33368354/

Moderator: John Damilakis

Speakers: Madan Rehani and Eric Silver

Registerhttps://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZArdu6sqTouGNzPXbEEPsy-rHGa6ye8cR2R

Dr. Madan M. Rehani is Director, Global Outreach for Radiation Protection at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA. He is President, International Organization for Medical Physics (2018-2021). He was earlier Radiation Safety Specialist at the International Atomic Energy Agency for 11 years and prior to that Professor and Head of Medical Physics at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India. Dr. Rehani is a Member, International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP). He is author of 8 Annals of ICRP, 4 of which as Chair of the Task Group. He is Senior editor BJR, Assoc Editor, Eur J Medical Physics. He has more than 165 publications, has written 40 chapters in Books and has edited 5 books. He has published papers in high impact factor journals e.g. JAMA Intern Med, Br Med J, Eur Heart J, Cardiovascular Imaging, Am J Gastroenterol, Circulation J, The Lancet.

Eric Silver has dedicated his career to experimental high energy astrophysics. He spent 21 years as a Senior Astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) where he directed an interdisciplinary program of X-ray spectroscopy, polarimetry and low temperature physics for 1) the study of cosmic x-ray and gamma ray sources such as black holes, supernova remnants and clusters of galaxies; 2) fundamental physics investigations of highly charged ions produced in heavy ion accelerators and laboratory plasmas; and 3) industrial and medical applications where high resolution x-ray spectroscopic imaging is important to materials and chemical analysis. The latter included studies of silicon wafers for the semiconductor industry, interstellar dust and cometary particles returned to Earth from NASA probes, examining artifacts and fine art for conservation science, and even mapping anti-cancer drugs at the cellular level. He received his B.S. degree in Physics from M.I.T. and Ph.D. in Astrophysics from Columbia University, has served on many NASA, NIH, DoE and NSF review panels, authored/co-authored 130+ publications on spectroscopy and x-ray imaging and is the co-editor of a book on spectroscopy. Eric was a recipient of a NIH Challenge Grant and the George E. Burch Fellowship for new medical applications and has 16 patents to his credit.

 

Tuesday, 27th April

 

 

Artificial Intelligence and medical physics: The initial experience of the SINFONIA Horizon project’

Further information: https://www.sinfonia-appraisal.eu/

Moderator: Mika Kortesniemi

Speakers: John Damilakis and Habib Zaidi

Register: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUucemtqj4vEtLygZPRDckteBTEdzFWPHwP

Prof. John Damilakis, PhD, FIOMP, FIUPESM
John Damilakis is professor & chairman at the Department of Medical Physics, School of Medicine, University of Crete & director of the Department of Medical Physics of the University Hospital of Heraklion, Crete, Greece. He is Vice President & President‐elect of IOMP, Immediate Past President of EURAMED, Past President of EFOMP and Past President of the ‘Hellenic Association of Medical Physics’. Prof. Damilakis is a member of 2 ICRP Task Groups & member of the steering committee of the ‘EuroSafe Imaging’ of the European Society of Radiology. As a Visiting Professor he has given lectures on dosimetry and radiation protection in Boston University, USA. His publications have been focused on medical radiation protection and dosimetry. He is editor of 2 books published by the IOP Publishing and Springer‐Verlag and co‐author of 2 chapters in books published by Springer and Academic Press. Number of publications in PubMed: 220, number of citations 7220, h‐index 45 (Google Scholar, February 2021).

Professor Habib Zaidi is Chief physicist and head of the PET Instrumentation & Neuroimaging Laboratory at Geneva University Hospital and faculty member at the medical school of Geneva University. He is also a Professor at the University of Groningen (Netherlands) and the University of Southern Denmark. His research is supported by the Swiss National Foundation, private foundations and industry (Total 8.3M US$) and centres on hybrid imaging instrumentation (PET/CT and PET/MRI), computational modelling and radiation dosimetry and deep learning. He was guest editor for 11 special issues of peer-reviewed journals and serves on the editorial board of leading journals in medical physics and medical imaging. He has been elevated to the grade of fellow of the IEEE, AIMBE and the AAPM. His academic accomplishments in the area of quantitative PET imaging have been well recognized by his peers since he is a recipient of many awards and distinctions among which the prestigious (100’000$) 2010 kuwait Prize of Applied sciences (known as the Middle Eastern Nobel Prize). Prof. Zaidi has been an invited speaker of over 160 keynote lectures and talks at an International level, has authored over 320 peer-reviewed articles in  prominent journals and is the editor of four textbooks.

 

Wednesday, 28th April

Patient radiation protection: How IAEA and WHO are contributing?

Moderator: Madan Rehani

Speakers: Ola Holmberg and Maria Perez

More details: https://www.iomp.org/iomp-school-on-impw-2021-day-3

Register: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMtdeCoqzIqH9YZlqwQsXnVD7nIF65ver79

 

Dr. Ola Holmberg is the Head of the Radiation Protection of Patients Unit at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna, Austria since the last 12 years – an organization within the United Nations family. He is a medical physicist who has previously worked in Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands and Denmark.

 

 

Dr María del Rosario Pérez is a physician who worked in the field of radiation protection for more than 3 decades. She received her M.D. in 1980 from the School of Medicine of the Buenos Aires University (Argentina). She completed her professional education on Diagnostic Imaging and Radiotherapy and worked as radiation oncologist at a public hospital until 1990. After obtaining a post-graduate diploma on Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety she worked at the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) and the Nuclear Regulatory Authority (ARN). Since 2007 she works at the WHO Radiation and Health Unit in Geneva (Switzerland). She represents WHO at the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), the IAEA Radiation Safety Standards Committee (RASSC), the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), the EC Art 31 Group of Experts and the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety (IACRS), which she is currently chairing.

Thursday, 29th April

Does contact shielding improve patient safety?

Moderator: Chai Hong Yeong

Speaker: Paddy Gilligan

More details: https://www.iomp.org/iomp-school-on-impw-2021-day-4

Register: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEtc-ysqzMqG9CXTjaTJTmFysChiV3eTm36

Paddy Gilligan works as chief physicist in the Mater Private Hospital in Dublin Ireland. He has
over thirty years’ experience in diagnostic imaging, He has served on state boards for regulatory radiation protection agencies. He became associate professor in University College Dublin in 2017. He was the chair of the European congress of radiology physics programme in 2019 He was a member the radiation safety committee of the European Society of Radiology, and the Eurosafe imaging steering committee. Prior to becoming President of EFOMP he chaired the successful bid for ECMP 2022 for Dublin. He is a trustee of the Robert Boyle Foundation. He is currently chair of the Gonad and Patient Shielding (GAPS) group of experts who are in the process of producing a consensus document on patient shielding from the major European professional bodies involved in radiology.

Friday, 30th April

The management of unintended and accidental exposures

Moderator: Eva Bezak

Speaker: Colin Martin

More details: https://www.iomp.org/iomp-school-on-impw-2021-day-5

Registerhttps://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYtcu-trjIrE9246p9pKHlmYbo2IwOd0Flw

Dr Colin Martin worked as a hospital-based Medical Physicist in Radiation Protection in Glasgow and Aberdeen, Scotland for over 30 years. He has now retired from the NHS but is an honorary senior lecturer for the University of Glasgow. Colin is Vice-Chair of ICRP Committee 3 (Protection in Medicine), chairs two ICRP Task groups and is a member of several others. He is a member of various UK and EU working parties, COMARE, which advises the UK government on medical uses of radiation, and he has chaired two IAEA Technical Meetings on avoidance and prevention of radiation incidents in medicine. His research interests include radiation protection, diagnostic radiology, radiation dosimetry, and non-ionising physics. He has co-authored/edited several textbooks on radiation protection, written over 300 articles including 150 papers in peer reviewed scientific journals. Colin is a member of Editorial Boards for the Journal of Radiological Protection and Radiation Protection Dosimetry.

IOMP webinar jointly with WHO, IRPA and IAEA

on Radiation Safety Culture

Tuesday, 9th Feb 2021 at 12 noon GMT

Register here

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

We have so many tools and means to practice radiation safety. The transition from radiation safety to radiation safety culture occurs when we are able to make everyone involved practice safety. Thus, radiation safety culture has much to do with establishing culture. Experts from 4 major international organizations shall deliberate on this important topic and will cover both diagnostic and therapeutic activities in which staff in medical institutions are involved with.

Organizer and moderator: Prof. Madan Rehani, IOMP
Speakers in alphabetical orders of organization (IAEA, IOMP, IRPA, WHO):
Dr. Debbie Gilley, IAEA
Dr. Madan Rehani, IOMP
Dr. Bernard le Guen, IRPA
Dr. Maria Perez, WHO

Dr. Debbie Gilley is a Radiation Protection Specialist with the International Atomic Energy Agency in the Division of Radiation, Transport and Waste Safety Radiation Protection of Patients Unit. Her activities within the Agency included the development and implementation of the Safety in Radiation Oncology medical event reporting system (SAFRON), assisting in IAEA patient protection and safety campaigns and assisting countries in supporting radiation protections of patient activities. She is a contributing author of several IAEA publications on patient safety and a chapter in the recently published book entitled “Modern Technology of Radiation Oncology” and “Radiotherapy in Cancer Care: Facing the Global Challenge”.
Past professional responsibilities include Government Relations Specialist with the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) Twenty-four years of service to the Florida Bureau of Radiation Control, United States as Manager of the Training and Quality Assurance Program, Manager of the Radioactive Materials Program, Academically she has an undergraduate and master’s degree from Florida State University and attended Oak Ridge Associated Universities.

Dr. Madan M. Rehani is Director, Global Outreach for Radiation Protection at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA. He is President, International Organization for Medical Physics (2018-2021). He was earlier Radiation Safety Specialist at the International Atomic Energy Agency for 11 years and prior to that Professor and Head of Medical Physics at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India. Dr. Rehani is a Member, International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP). He is author of 8 Annals of ICRP, 4 of which as Chair of the Task Group. He is Senior editor BJR, Assoc Editor Medical Physics. He has more than 155 publications, has written 39 chapters in Books and has edited 5 books. He has published papers in high impact factor journals e.g. JAMA Intern Med, Br Med J, Eur Heart J, Cardiovascular Imaging, Am J Gastroenterol, Circulation J, The Lancet.

Dr Bernard le Guen is the IRPA President for 2021-2024 and was the IRPA Executive officer since 2012. Bernard le Guen is a medical Doctor (MD) and specialising in occupational medicine, in medical biology and in Radiation Protection. He is a senior fellow expert for Radiation Protection and Health for the EDF group. He is Chairman of the CEPN Governing Board (Nuclear Health Physics Research Centre) which assesses measures taken to protect the public from hazards associated with ionising radiation (technical, economic, social and health-related aspects). He received 2 awards from the American HPS in recognition of his contribution to radiation protection, the R.S. Landauer Award in 2011 and the William Morgan Award in 2019 . He launched an IRPA international initiative on Radiation Protection Culture in 2008, published an IRPA guidance on this subject in 2014 and is one of the co –author of the new common guidance on Safety Culture in Health Care.

Dr María del Rosario Pérez is a physician who worked in the field of radiation protection for more than 3 decades. She received her M.D. in 1980 from the School of Medicine of the Buenos Aires University (Argentina). She completed her professional education on Diagnostic Imaging and Radiotherapy and worked as radiation oncologist at a public hospital until 1990. After obtaining a post-graduate diploma on Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety she worked at the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) and the Nuclear Regulatory Authority (ARN). Since 2007 she works at the WHO Radiation and Health Unit in Geneva (Switzerland). She represents WHO at the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), the IAEA Radiation Safety Standards Committee (RASSC), the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), the EC Art 31 Group of Experts and the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety (IACRS), which she is currently chairing.

LAST WEBINAR for 2020: Personalized dosimetry for CT and interventional procedures

December 7, 2020
Time: 12 noon – 1:00 GMT

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Register here: https://www.iomp.org/iomp-webinar-18

Organizers and moderator: Madan Rehani, PhD
Speaker: Dr. Hilde Bosmans, PhD
University Hospital of the KU Leuven, Belgium

Hilde Bosmans is team leader of the medical physics experts in radiology in the University Hospital of the KU Leuven and for more than 100 centers in the Belgian breast cancer screening. She is also professor at the KU Leuven. With a team of PhD students and post doc researchers she works at dose and quality in radiology. Patient specific dosimetry has been the theme of several successful projects. The company Qaelum that develops and commercializes a dose management system is a spin-off of the department. Hilde Bosmans is also project leader of the EUTEMPE-RX courses for medical physics experts in radiology

Publishing in medical physics journals

November 24, 2020
Time: 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm GMT

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Register here: https://www.iomp.org/iomp-webinar-17  

Organizers: Madan Rehani and Paolo Russo

Moderator: Paolo Russo

Speakers:

Paolo Russo, Experience of Physica Medica/EJMP
Iuliana Toma-Dasu: Being a successful author

Paolo Russo was born in Napoli (Italy) in 1958. In 1981 he graduated in Physics magna cumlaude at the University of Napoli “Federico II”, where he became in 1984 research assistant, then associate professor and then full professor of medical physics. His scientific activity is entirely in the field of Medical Physics, mainly in the development of systems for X-ray and gamma-ray medical imaging, with a focus on techniques for X-ray breast imaging. He served as a reviewer for various international peer reviewed scientific journals and for national and European Science funding agencies. From 2008 to 2012 he was Associate Editor for the Medical Imaging area of the journal “Physica Medica: European Journal of Medical Physics”, and for 2013-2020 he is Editor-in-Chief of this journal. In 2018-19 he was Chair of the Publications an Communications Committee of the European Federation of Organizations for Medical Physics and for 2018-2021 he is Chair of the Publications Committee of the International Organization for Medical Physics; for 2018-2023 he is member of the Board of Directors of the International Medical Physics Certification Board. He co-authored over 160 papers in international peer reviewed journals and scientific book chapters and over 100 communications to international conferences.

Iuliana Toma-Dasu is Professor in Medical Radiation Physics and the Head of the Medical Radiation Physics division at the Department of Physics, Stockholm University, affiliated to the Department of Oncology and Pathology at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. Iuliana Toma-Dasu studied Medical Physics at Umeå University, Sweden, where she also became a certified medical physicist and received a Ph.D. degree. In parallel with her involvement in the educational program for the medical physicists run at Stockholm University, her main research interests focus on biologically optimised adaptive radiation therapy, including particle therapy, modelling the tumour microenvironment and the risks from radiotherapy.

Medical physicist as a health professional

Saturday, November 7
Time: 12 noon – 1:00 GMT

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Register here: https://www.iomp.org/iomp-webinar-16

Moderator: Madan Rehani

Panelists

· IAEA: Ola Holmberg, Giorgia Loreti

· IOMP

o Madan Rehani, President IOMP

o Ibrahim Duhaini, IDMP

· Regional Organizations of IOMP

o Ad Maas, Europe, EFOMP (backup Brenda Byrne)

o Hassan Kharita, Middle-East, MEFOMP

o Sandra Guzman, Latin America, ALFIM

o Taofeeq Ige, Africa, FAMPO

o Arun Chougule, Asia, AFOMP

o Freddy Haryanto, South East Asia, SEAFOMP

Dr. Ola Holmberg is the Head of the Radiation Protection of Patients Unit at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna, Austria since the last 12 years – an organization within the United Nations family. He is a medical physicist who has previously worked in Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands and Denmark.

 

Giorgia Loreti is a Training Officer at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Her work focuses on ensuring access to quality education in Medical Physics, adherence to standards, as well as recognition of the profession. Previously, she worked as clinical medical physicist at the S. Orsola University Hospital in Bologna.

 

Dr. Madan M. Rehani is Director, Global Outreach for Radiation Protection at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA. He is President, International Organization for Medical Physics (2018-2021). He was earlier Radiation Safety Specialist at the International Atomic Energy Agency for 11 years and prior to that Professor and Head of Medical Physics at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India. Dr. Rehani is a Member, International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP). He is author of 8 Annals of ICRP, 4 of which as Chair of the Task Group. He is Senior editor BJR, Assoc Editor Medical Physics. He has more than 155 publications, has written 39 chapters in Books and has edited 5 books. He has published papers in high impact factor journals e.g. JAMA Intern Med, Br Med J, Eur Heart J, Cardiovascular Imaging, Am J Gastroenterol, Circulation J, The Lancet.

 

Dr Ibrahim Duhaini is the chief medical physicist and radiation safety officer at Rafik Hariri University Hospital since 2004. He is also a Medical Physics instructor at the Lebanese University. Ibrahim has won several awards in recent years in the field of Medical Physics: The International Day of Medical Physics Award in 2015, the International Organization of Medical Physics Presidential Award in 2016, the International Organization of Medical Physics Fellow Award (FIOMP) in 2017, and the Lebanese University Pioneer Award in 2018.

Ibrahim was a founding member of the Middle East Federation of Organizations of Medical Physics (MEFOMP) and was elected President for two terms (2009-2015). Currently he is the Treasurer of the International Organization of Medical Physics (IOMP) for the term 2018-2021. Also, he serves as the IDMP Coordinator.

Ibrahim has more than 20 years of experience in the field of radiation therapy and safety and is Board Certified by the International Medical Physics Certification Board (IMPCB) in 2018.

 

Dr. Ad J.J. Maas is chair of EFOMP’s Professional Matters committee and member of the EFOMP Board of Officers since 2018. He is a member of a Medical Ethics and Research Committee in the Netherlands and a member of EU Expert Panels on Medical Devices and In Vitro Diagnostic Devices.

 

Mohammad Hassan KHARITA, PhD in Radiation Dosimetry
MEFOMP Secretary General since 2018
Director of Radiation Safety – Hamad Medical Corporation – Qatar
Medical physicist specialized in Diagnostic Radiology and Health Physics

 

Sandra Guzman is a doctor in Medical Physics from the University of Sao Paulo-Brazil, President of the Latin American Association of Medical Physics (2019-2022), President of the Peruvian Society of Medical Physics (2008-2016), President of the Cusco 2010 organizing committee (Latin American Congress of Medical Physics), organizer of national events, university professor and clinical medical physicist in Radiotherapy with more than 18 years of experience. Winner of the IOMP award (IDMP 2016 Award) and recognition from the AAPM-2017.

 

Dr. Taofeeq Ige is the pioneer Secretary-General of the Federation of African Medical Physics Organization (FAMPO) and currently the President. He serves as committee member of the IOMP (Awards and Honours) and also the Health Technology Task Group of the International Union of Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine (HTTG-IUPESM).

 

Dr. Arun Chougule is the Senior Professor and Head Radiological Physics, SMS Medical College, Jaipur with 36 years of professional and teaching experience, Ex. Pro Vice Chancellor, RUHS Dean Faculty of Paramedical Science. Immediate Past President of AMPI and current President of AFOMP and Chair ETC of IOMP. Publications over 110 and more than 300 presentations. Research interest- radiation biology, experimental dosimetry, radiation safety, QA-QC.
Awarded with IOMP-IDMP 2016, AFOMP Member Excellent Presentation Awards, Outstanding Faculty award 2019 SMS Medical College, Dr. Farukh Abdulla Sher – e- Kashmir best researcher award, AFOMP outstanding Medical physicists 2020.

 

Dr. rer.nat. Freddy Haryanto is president of SEAFOMP since 2019. He is lecturer on Physics Department of Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia. He is specialized on Monte Carlo simulation for Radiotherapy. He has interest also in small field dosimetry.

Thursday, October 15
Time: 12 noon – 1:00 GMT

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Register here: https://www.iomp.org/iomp-school-webinar-15

Moderator: Prof. Arun Chougule

Speaker:

Prof. Slavik Tabakov, PhD, Dr.h.c, FIPEM, FHEA, FIOMP
Vice-President IUPESM, Past-President IOMP
King’s College London, UK

Prof Slavik Tabakov, FIPEM, FHEA, FIOMP is the current Vice-President of the International Union for Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine (IUPESM – the Union of IOMP and IFMBE), which has some 150,000 members worldwide. Prof. Tabakov was also President of the International Organization for Medical Physics (IOMP) from 2015 to 2018. He is an active contributor to the international development of medical physics for over 30 years. Prof Tabakov was born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria and graduated at Technical University Sofia. He has been trained and specialised in X-ray Diagnostic Radiology Physics and Engineering in USA, France and Germany.He started his career at Medical University Plovdiv, where he habilitated in 1990. Since 1991 he works at King’s College Hospital and King’s College London, UK, where he is the Founding Director of MSc Clinical Sciences (Medical Physics), MSc Clinical Sciences (Clinical Engineering), and MSc Medical Engineering and Physics. He is also Co-Director of the International College on Medical Physics at ICTP, Trieste, Italy. Prof Tabakov has led 7 international projects, which developed the first e-learning in medical physics, the first educational website in the profession, the first Medical Physics Dictionary (translated to 31 languages) and the first e-Encyclopaedia of Medical Physics (www.emitel2.eu). Prof Tabakov is Founding Co-Editor in Chief of the IOMP Journal Medical Physics International. He has Chaired the Education and Training Committees of IOMP, IFMBE and IUPESM and has advised the development of 15 MSc courses in various countries. Among his many awards are the King’s College London Teaching Excellence Award, the EU Award for Education – the Leonardo Da Vinci Award, the Honorary membership of the Indian Association of Medical Physics, the IOMP Harold Johns Medal for Excellence in Teaching and International Education Leadership.

Tuesday, 6th October 2020
Time: 12 noon -1:00 pm GMT

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Register here: https://www.iomp.org/iomp-school-webinar-14

Organizer & moderator: Prof. Madan Rehani, President, IOMP

Speaker 1: Colin Martin on Effective dose in Medicine
Speaker 2: Madan Rehani: Effective dose: Is it poor man’s cake?
Panel discussion “Is Effective dose thriving or dying?”: Colin Martin and Madan Rehani

Dr Colin Martin worked as a hospital-based Medical Physicist in Radiation Protection in Glasgow and Aberdeen, Scotland for over 30 years. He has now retired from the NHS but is an honorary senior lecturer for the University of Glasgow. Colin is Vice-Chairman of ICRP Committee 3 (Protection in Medicine), and a member of several ICRP Task groups, including TG79 on the use of dose quantities in radiation protection. He is a member of various IAEA committees, UK and EU working parties, and COMARE, which advises the UK government on medical uses of radiation. His research interests include radiation protection, diagnostic radiology, radiation dosimetry, and non-ionising physics. He has co-authored/edited several textbooks on radiation protection, written over 200 articles including 140 papers in peer reviewed scientific journals. Colin is a member of Editorial Boards for the Journal of Radiological Protection and Radiation Protection Dosimetry.

Dr. Madan M. Rehani is Director, Global Outreach for Radiation Protection at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA. He is President, International Organization for Medical Physics (2018-2021). He was earlier Radiation Safety Specialist at the International Atomic Energy Agency for 11 years and prior to that Professor and Head of Medical Physics at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India. Dr. Rehani is a Member, International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP). He is author of 8 Annals of ICRP, 4 of which as Chair of the Task Group. He is Senior editor BJR, Assoc Editor Medical Physics. He has more than 155 publications, has written 39 chapters in Books and has edited 5 books. He has published papers in high impact factor journals e.g. JAMA Intern Med, Br Med J, Eur Heart J, Cardiovascular Imaging, Am J Gastroenterol, Circulation J, The Lancet.

Wednesday, September 23
Time: 1:00 – 2:00 GMT

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Organizer: Prof. Madan Rehani, President, IOMP

Moderator: Prof. Geoffrey Ibbott, Chair Science Committee, IOMP

Speakers:

Katja Maria Langen: Proton Therapy Shielding – Regulatory Aspects

Katja Maria Langen is Professor and Associate Director of Medical Physics at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She received the equivalent of a B.S. in health physics from the Berufsakademie Karlsruhe, and both an M.S. and a Ph.D. in medical physics from the University of Wisconsin. After conducting clinical and research training, Dr. Langan took a position at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Orlando and was in charge of planning for a proton facility. From there, she moved to the University of Maryland Proton Treatment Center, before taking her current position. Among other publications and committee responsibilities, she recently contributed to an IAEA project on Staffing and Training Requirements for a First Proton Facility.

 

Nisy Elizabeth IpeProton Therapy Shielding – Physics and Design Considerations

Nisy Elizabeth Ipe is a consulting radiation physicist in shielding design.   She has a Ph.D. from Purdue University. Previously she was the Head of the Radiation Physics Department at SLAC National Laboratory, Stanford, California. She has 35 years of experience in shielding design and has shielded many proton therapy facilities. She has written 3 book chapters on proton therapy shielding. She was the Task Group Chair for PTCOG Report 1: Shielding and Radiation Safety for Charged Particle Therapy Facilities; and a consultant on NCRP Report 151.   She has given invited talks at various national and international schools, workshops and conferences (ACMP, SEAAPM, AAPM, HPS, PTCCOG, SATIF, etc.)

From radiobiological challenges to imaging biomarkers in personalised radiotherapy

Wednesday, September 9
Time: 12 noon -1:00 GMT

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

r: Prof. Madan Rehani, President, IOMP

Moderator: Prof. Eva Bezak, Secretary General, IOMP

Speakers

Iuliana Toma-Dasu:  Biomarkers for hypoxia and proliferation: from imaging to outcome prediction

Iuliana Toma-Dasu is Professor in Medical Radiation Physics and the Head of the Medical Radiation Physics division at the Department of Physics, Stockholm University, affiliated to the Department of Oncology and Pathology at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. Iuliana Toma-Dasu studied Medical Physics at Umeå University, Sweden, where she also became a certified medical physicist and received a Ph.D. degree. In parallel with her involvement in the educational program for the medical physicists run at Stockholm University, her main research interests focus on biologically optimised adaptive radiation therapy, including particle therapy, modelling the tumour microenvironment and the risks from radiotherapy.

Loredana G. MarcuBiomarkers for cancer stem cells: from imaging to outcome prediction

Loredana G. Marcu is Professor of Medical Physics at the University of Oradea, Romania and Adjunct Professor at School of Health Sciences, University of South Australia. She is a radiotherapy medical physicist, being educated and trained in Adelaide, South Australia. Her current research interests cover in silico modelling of tumour growth and response to treatment, radiobiology, targeted therapies, and the risk of second cancer after radiotherapy. She has published 15 books/book chapters on physics, radiotherapy and radiobiology and over 100 scientific papers. Loredana Marcu is involved in several professional activities within EFOMP and IUPESM.

The importance of certification and accreditation in medical physics

Monday, August 17
Time: 12 noon -1:00 GMT

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

 

Speaker: Prof. Colin G. Orton, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Wayne State University
517 Carroll Court
The Villages
FL 32163, USA

 

 

Moderator: Prof. Arun Chougule
IOMP School webinar Organiser
Senior Professor & Head
Department of radiological Physics
SMS Medical College & hospitals, JAIPUR, INDIA

IOMP Webinar Series on AI and ML in Medicine

Tuesday, August 4
Time: 12 noon -1:00 GMT

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

 

Organizer: Prof. Madan Rehani, President, IOMP

Moderator: Prof. Eva Bezak, Secretary General, IOMP

Speakers:

Engaging medical professionals, physicists, engineers, and biologists in medical machine learning projects: experience from the Australian Institute for Machine Learning

Dr Johan Verjans
Cardiologist
Royal Adelaide Hospital and Deputy director
Medical Machine Learning
Australian Institute for Machine Learning
Adelaide

About the Speaker:
Dr Verjans is a physician-scientist combining cutting-edge research and patient care as a Cardiologist at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. During his research career (PhD Maastricht University, University of California; Post-doctoral fellow, Harvard Medical School), he has predominantly focused on translational pre-clinical and clinical imaging biomarkers using advanced invasive and non-invasive molecular imaging strategies to detect, track and predict disease at an early stage. His recent research has focused on imaging biomarkers from large datasets using supervised and unsupervised machine learning strategies. As Deputy Director of Medical Machine Learning at the Australian Institute for Machine Learning at the University of Adelaide, his main role is to connect world-class machine learning capabilities to the Biomedical Precinct in Adelaide. He is Associate editor of the Netherlands Heart Journal, including editor of a focus issue on Machine Learning in Cardiology. He authored recently the Cardiology chapter for Springer Nature’s first book on Artificial intelligence in Medical Imaging.

Expanding Quantitative Medicine through AI and Automation. 

Dr Price Jackson
Senior Medical Physicist
Peter McCallum Cancer Centre
Melbourne

AI is showing the potential to automate many time-consuming measurements in medical imaging. While efforts to standardise and improve the efficiency of existing manual processes are of great benefit, there is also the potential to apply complex quantitative analyses in routine imaging that would otherwise be too resource intensive to consider for the larger population; often times with a clinical value that is yet unclear. This talk will provide examples of AI organ segmentation as applied to nuclear medicine and radiation oncology with discussion of initiating research work in these areas.

About the Speaker:
Dr Jackson is a medical physicist at Peter MacCallum Cancer centre. He has worked as a post-doctoral researcher supporting their radionuclide therapy service where he developed image-based dosimetry software and protocols. He is currently a clinical radiology physicist and maintains a number of research interests in image analysis which now includes development of neural network tools.

AI in clinical trials

A/Prof Lois Holloway
Research Medical Physicist
Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research
Sydney

Clinical trials in radiation oncology require stringent quality assurance to ensure that protocol violations do not impact on the ability to answer the trial question. Consistency in clinical trials is essential to ensuring that we correctly answer the clinical trial question being asked, without this we risk biased results or studies that despite significant time, energy and resources are underpowered to answer the question posed. Manual review to ensure this occurs is an incredibly time consuming exercise and challenging to achieve in a timely manner. There are a number of approaches using artificial intelligence being considered to address these challenges. These include deep learning networks to consider autosegmentation approaches and knowledge based planning approaches which both utilise retrospective datasets to predict likely outcomes on current datasets. As per all artificial intelligence approaches these must be validated carefully.

About the Speaker:
A/Prof Holloway leads the medical physics research group at the Ingham Institute and Liverpool & Macarthur Cancer Therapy centres. She has an interest in learning from ‘large’ datasets and in particular imaging data such that we can make the best decisions for our patients. She leads the OzCAT distributed data learning research program and is a member of the Australian MRI-linac research program.

Panel discussion: Speakers + Dr Sykes

Dr Jonathan Sykes
Lead Radiation Oncology Medical Physicist – Research
Sydney West Cancer Network
Sydney

About the Panellist:
Dr Jonathan Sykes is an Australia and UK Qualified Medical Physicist with 25 years’ experience in clinical radiotherapy and related research at Western Sydney Local Health District and two of the UKs largest (and leading) cancer centres. He is internationally recognised for research and development in image guided radiotherapy (IGRT) and clinical applications of image registration. He is also an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney where he lectures on the Masters Medical Physics course and is associate supervisor for 4 PhD and 1 Masters students.

Understanding the limitations of current CT dosimetry and the way forward

Monday, July 20
Time: 12 noon -1:00 GMT

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Organizer: Prof. Arun Chougule
IOMP School webinar Organiser
Senior Professor & Head
Department of radiological Physics
SMS Medical College & hospitals, JAIPUR, INDIA

Speaker: Prof. John Damilakis  
Chairman, Department of Medical Physics
School of Medicine
University of Crete, Iraklion, Crete, Greece

Moderator: Prof. Eva Bezak
Professor of Medical Radiation
University of South Australia
Adelaide, Australia

Prof. John Damilakis, PhD

John Damilakis is professor and chairman at the Department of Medical Physics, School of Medicine, University of Crete and director of the Department of Medical Physics of the University Hospital of Heraklion, Crete, Greece. He is Vice President and President-elect of the ‘International Organization for Medical Physics’ (IOMP), Immediate Past President of the ‘European Alliance for Medical Radiation Protection Research’ (EURAMED), Past President of the ‘European Federation of Organizations for Medical Physics’ (EFOMP) and Past President of the ‘Hellenic Association of Medical Physics’. Prof. Damilakis is a member of 2 ICRP Task Groups (TG 108 and TG 109) and member of the steering committee of the ‘EuroSafe Imaging’ of the ESR. He is coordinator or an active research member of several European and national projects. As a Visiting Professor he has given lectures on dosimetry and radiation protection in Boston University, USA. His publications have been focused on medical radiation protection and dosimetry. He is editor of 2 books published by the IOP Publishing and Springer-Verlag and co-author of 2 chapters in books published by Springer and Academic Press. Number of publications in PubMed: 213, h-index 45 (Google Scholar). Many of these publications are in leading journals such as Medical Physics, Physics in Medicine and Biology, Radiology, Investigative Radiology and European Radiology. John Damilakis has given more than 300 invited presentations in national and international conferences including ECR, RSNA, AAPM, IAEA, ICRP, IOMP and EFOMP meetings. He has received 10 awards for his work.

9 July 2020, 12 noon – 1:00 GMT

Webinar Topics:

  1. What is radiomics? What is its relationship to machine learning and deep learning? Arman Rahmin, UBC, Vancouver, Canada
  2. Potential value and pitfalls of machine learning for radiomics applications by Mathieu Hatt, INSERM, France

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link: https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Organizer: Prof. Madan Rehani, President, IOMP

Speakers:

Arman Rahmin is Associate Professor of Radiology and Physics at the University of British Columbia (UBC), as well as Senior Scientist and Provincial Medical Imaging Physicist at BC Cancer, Vancouver, Canada. He received his PhD in medical imaging physics at UBC. Following doctoral studies, he was recruited by Johns Hopkins University (JHU) to lead the high-resolution brain PET imaging physics program and to pursue research at the JHU Department of Radiology. In 2018, he was recruited back to Vancouver, where he leads the provincial molecular imaging and therapy physics program and his lab (rahmimlab.com) pursues research in tomographic image generation and analysis. He has published a book, over 130 journal articles and 280 conference proceeding papers/abstracts, and delivered more than 90 invited lectures worldwide. He was president (2018-2019) of the Physics, Instrumentation and Data Sciences (PIDS) Council of the Society of Nuclear Medicine & Molecular Imaging (SNMMI), and was awarded the John S. Laughlin Young Scientist Award by the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) in 2016

Mathieu Hatt is a computer scientist. He received his PhD in 2008 and his habilitation to supervise research in 2012. His main skills and expertise lie in radiomics, from automated image segmentation to features extraction, as well as machine (deep) learning methods, for PET/CT, MRI and CT modalities. He is an elected member of the EANM physics committee, the SNMMI physics, data science and instrumentation council board of directors, and the IEEE nuclear medical and imaging sciences council.

23 June 2020, 12 noon – 1:00 GMT

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link: https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Moderator: Prof. Madan Rehani, President, IOMP

Speaker:

Prof. Steve Jiang, Ph.D.
Vice Chair, Department of Radiation Oncology;
Director, Division of Medical Physics and Engineering
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
USA

Dr. Steve Jiang received his Ph.D. in Medical Physics from Medical College of Ohio in 1998. After completing his postdoctoral training at Stanford University, he joined Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in 2000 as an Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology. In 2007, Dr. Jiang was recruited to University of California San Diego as a tenured Associate Professor to build Center for Advanced Radiotherapy Technologies, for which he was the founding and executive director. He was then promoted to Full Professor with tenure in 2011. In October 2013, Dr. Jiang joined University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center as a tenured Full Professor, Barbara Crittenden Professor in Cancer Research, Vice Chair of Radiation Oncology Department, and Director of Medical Physics and Engineering Division. Dr. Jiang is a Fellow of Institute of Physics and American Association of Physicists in Medicine. Dr. Jiang’s research in various areas of cancer radiotherapy has been funded by federal, state, charitable, and industrial grants for over 15 million dollars, resulting in over 200 peer-reviewed journal papers with an H-index of 75. His current research interest is on the development and deployment of artificial intelligence technologies to solve medical problems. He is the founding director for both Medical Artificial Intelligence and Automation Laboratory and Program of Excellence in Intelligent Medicine at UT Southwestern. He has supervised over 30 postdoctoral fellows and 10 Ph.D. students.


Radioterapia de Pulmón utilizando IMRT/VMAT y SBRT / Lung IMRT/VMAT and SBRT

Friday, 26th Mar 2021 at 3 pm Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Register here

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Organizers:  Patricia Mora (ALFIM) and Madan Rehani (IOMP)

Speaker: Dr. Cesar Della-Biancia

Department of Medical Physics

Memorial Sloan Kettering

New York, USA

 

Dr. Della Biancia was born in Cordoba, Argentina. He obtained the degrees of Licentiate in Physics under the direction of Lic. Monica Brunetto and Professor in Physics at the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. He continued his post-graduate studies at Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica, Buenos Aires, receiving degree of Physicist Specialized in Medical Physics. He obtained a Doctorate in Physics from Universidad Nacional de Córdoba under the mentorship of Dr. Doracy Fontenla, performing the research at Montefiore Medical Center, New York. He holds certification in Medical Physics (Radiation Oncology) from the ABMP. In 2000, he joined the Department of Medical Physics at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and currently he is an Associate Attending Physicist. In addition to clinical roles, he is the Coordinator of Treatment Planning for MSK Outpatient and Alliances Facilities. He oversees the treatment planning activities across the whole network, maintaining quality and consistency and providing education and clinical support. Dr. Della Biancia is greatly involved in national and international education. He has also been a Board of Directors member of the AAPM as well as the Local Chapter (RAMPS).

El Dr. Della Biancia es originario de Córdoba, Argentina. Obtuvo la Licenciatura en Física bajo la dirección del Lic. Mónica Brunetto y Profesor de Física en la Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Continuó sus estudios de postgrado en la Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica, Buenos Aires, recibiendo el título de Físico Especialista en Física Médica. Obtuvo el Doctorado en Física en la Universidad Nacional de Córdoba bajo la mentoría de la Dra. Doracy Fontenla, realizando el trabajo de investigación en Montefiore Medical Center, Nueva York. Tiene certificación en Medical Physics (Radiation Oncology) del ABMP. Desde el 2000, trabaja en el Departamento de Física Médica del Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, donde actualmente es Associate Attending Physicist. Además de sus funciones clínicas, es Coordinador de Planificación de Tratamiento para MSK Network e Instituciones Aliadas. Supervisa las actividades de planificación del tratamiento en MSK Network, manteniendo calidad y consistencia y proporcionando educación y apoyo clínico. El Dr. Della Biancia está muy involucrado en la educación nacional e internacional. Ha sido miembro del Consejo Administrativo de la AAPM, así como de la Asociación Local (RAMPS).

Seguridad y Protección en salas de Resonamcia Magnética: Actualización / Safety and Protection procedures in the MRI Suite

Friday, 26th Feb 2021 at 10 am Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Register here

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Organizers:  Patricia Mora (ALFIM) and Madan Rehani (IOMP)

Speaker: Dr. Manuel Arreola

Vice-Chair de Radiología

Jefe de los Servicios de Fisica medica de los Hospitales Universitarios (Gainesville y Jacksonville)

Director del programa de posgrado de Fisica Medica

Universidad de Florida

RESUMEN

La presentacion hara un repaso de los componentes y la instrumentación básica de los resonadores y las salas de imágenes por resonancia magnética (IRM), así como, de los efectos biológicos de exposición a campos magnéticos y campos de radiofrecuencia utilizadaos en IRM. Las recomendaciones de seguridad y proteccion a pacientes y al personal en el diseño y uso clínico de las salas de resonancia magnética descritas por el Colegio Americano de Radiología también seran presentadas.

BIOGRAPHY

El Dr. Areola es originario de la Cd. de México. Obtuvo la Licenciatura en Física en la Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana de la misma ciudad; completó estudios de Maestría en Física en la Universidad Estatal de Nueva York en Buffalo bajo la direccion del Dr. Jonathan Reichert. Obtuvo el Doctrado en Física Médica en la Universidad de Florida en la especialidad de Diagnóstico. Después de trabajar bajo la mentoría del Dr. Harvey Neiman en el West Penn Hospital de la ciudad de Pittsburgh, tomó la Jefatura de los Servicios de Física Médica de los hospitales de la Universidad de Florida, donde es también vice-jefe de radiología. En 2017, asumió tambien la dirección del programa de Posgrado de Física Médica, donde a dirigido mas de 12 tesis doctorales y decenas de tesis de Maestría. Desde el 2010, funciona como uno de los expertos en Física Médica de Diagnóstico de la OIEA, donde estuvo a cargo de dicha division en los cuarteles generales del Organismo en Viena en 2017. Es miembro del Consejo Adminstrativo de la AAPM y Presidente el Comité de Prácticas  Educativas de la Sociedad de Directores de Programas de Física Médica de los EUA.

SUMMARY

The presentation will cover the various components and instrumentation of the modern MR scanners. The biological effects of exposure to magnetic fields and radiofrequency fields will also be covered. The various safety recommendations for the design and clinical use of MRI suites, as described by the guidelines of the American College of radiology (ACR) will also be covered.

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Arreola was born in Mexico City. He obtained a Bachelor’s in Physics at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana of that city. He obtained a Master’s in physics from the State University of New York at Buffalo under the direction of Dr. Jonathan Reichert and a doctorate in Diagnostic Medical Physics from the University of Florida. After 5 years under the mentorship of Dr. Harvey Neiman at the West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh, he became Chief of Medical Physics for the University of Florida Hospitals. He was promoted to Vice-chair of radiology and became the Director of the Medical Physics Graduate program in 2017. Since 2010, he has been collaborating with the IAEA and held an interim position of the medical Physics Division at the Agency’s headquarters in 2017. He is currently member of the Board of Directors of the AAPM and Chair of the Educational Practices of the SDAMPP in the US.


Dear Colleagues,

We are delighted to continue with the tradition of webinars of IOMP School during IMPW 2022 that were started during IMPW 2020. We keep one webinar of 60 minutes duration typically at 12 noon GMT.  We have now started issuing Certificate of Attendance for our webinars and are going to issue CPD/CME points soon as a trial.

Despite the time zone differences, the webinars have been having participants from more than 90 countries including those in extreme time zone in East and West. The number of participants has been increasingly so much that we had to increase our payment to zoom by almost 9 times.

The recorded webinars are made available on IOMP website within a few hours of actual webinar and the visit statistics in encouraging.

As in previous years, we will like different countries and organizations to organize activities during the IMPW 2022.

We have provided possibilities by which you can organize events in your city and country with the objective which are reproduced here:

1. Popularizing the profession among other colleagues in the clinical and non-clinical field as also among public,
2. Promoting medical physics among physics colleagues to let them know how their students can find a career in medical physics
3. To let medical physicists know how they can do better in patient care
You are welcome to choose your theme that best suits you locally

Madan Rehani

President, IOMP

Dear Colleagues,

IOMP celebrates the International Medical Physics Week (IMPW) in May 2022, from Monday 9 to Friday 13. Many of the most exciting scientific developments take place in the border areas between physics and medicine. As in the previous years, IOMP organizes once again a series of webinars during the Week to cover a few of these interdisciplinary activities. All IMPW webinars will be freely available so anyone can register and benefit from the expertise of distinguished speakers.  

The main purpose of the International Medical Physics Week (IMPW) is to motivate organization of activities that will result in the promotion of the subject of medical physics globally.  We strongly encourage all regional and national organizations to organize online and on-site events taking into consideration pandemic restrictions. IMPW is a great opportunity to raise awareness of medical physics, improve public understanding of the role medical physicists play in healthcare, enhance interaction between medical physicists and the society at large and promote active involvement of university professors and students in medical physics related activities.  

We have many reasons to gather and discuss topics of scientific interest. IOMP invites you to participate in the webinars and celebrate the IMPW 2022.

With my best wishes,

Prof. John Damilakis

Vice President, IOMP

 

IMPW 2022 Program

Day 1

IOMP Webinar: Non-cancer effects associated with low to moderate doses radiation exposure: what we know so far from epidemiological studies

Monday, 9th May 2022 at 12 pm GMT; Duration 1 hour

More info on IMPW 2022 – Day 1 Webinar

Organizer: John Damilakis, IOMP
Moderator: John Damilakis, IOMP
Speakers:

Marie-Odile Bernier, researcher, Epidemiology Department, French Institute for radiation Protection and Nuclear safety (IRSN), France

Sophie Jacob, radiation epidemiologist, French Institute for radiation Protection and Nuclear safety (IRSN), France

Day 2

IOMP Webinar: Computational challenges in patient dose

Tuesday, 10th May 2022 at 12 pm GMT; Duration 1 hour

More info on IMPW 2022 – Day 2 Webinar

Organizers: Madan Rehani and Pedro Vaz
Moderator: Pedro Vaz, Portugal, Centro de Ciências e Tecnologias Nucleares of IST (University of Lisbon), Portugal.
Speakers:

Choonsik Lee, PhD; NCI, NIH, USA

Manuel Bardiès, INSERM (National Institute of Health and Medical Research), France

Day 3

IOMP Webinar: GEANT4 for medical physics applications: an overview and latest updates & Overview of the Geant4-DNA project

Wednesday, 11th May 2022 at 12 pm GMT; Duration 1 hour

More info on IMPW 2022 – Day 3 Webinar

Organizer: Eva Bezak, IOMP
Moderator: Eva Bezak, IOMP
Speakers:

Assoc. Prof. Susanna Guatelli, Centre For Medical and Radiation Physics, University of Wollongong, Australia

Prof. Sebastien Incerti, Director of research, National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the National Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics (IN2P3), France

Day 4

IOMP Webinar: Virtual imaging trials in breast imaging

Thursday, 12th May 2022 at 12 pm GMT; Duration 1 hour

More info on IMPW 2022 – Day 4 Webinar

Organizer: John Damilakis, IOMP
Moderator: John Damilakis, IOMP
Speaker: Hilde Bosmans, Professor in medical physics, University of Leuven, Belgium

Day 5

IOMP Webinar: Relative biological effectiveness of protons – time for a change?

Friday, 13th May 2022 at 12 pm GMT; Duration 1 hour

More info on IMPW 2022 – Day 5 Webinar

Organizer: Madan Rehani, IOMP
Moderator: Eva Bezak, IOMP
Speaker: Iuliana Toma-Dasu, Professor in Medical Radiation Physics and the Head of the Medical Radiation Physics division, Department of Physics, Stockholm University, Sweden


IOMP Webinar: Carbon-ion Radiotherapy: Current Status and Future Perspective
Tuesday, 7th February 2023 at 12 pm GMT; Duration 1 hour

Organizer: Eva Bezak, IOMP
Speaker: Taku Inaniwa, National Institute for Quantum Science and Technology, Japan


Taku Inaniwa, Ph.D, is a group leader of treatment beam research group at the Institute for Quantum Medical Science, National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology (QST) in Japan. His research focuses on developing dose calculation algorithms and biological models used for charged-particle therapy treatment planning. He has contributed more than 100 peer reviewed publications. He is a member of international scientific advisory board of Physics in Medicine and Biology. For his works, he has received several national and international awards. From April 2022, he has concurrently served as a guest professor at Division of Health Science, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University.

Abstract:
Charged-particle therapy with carbon ions (C-ion RT) has attracted growing interest due to their advantageous physical and biological characteristics. So far more than 40,000 patients have been treated worldwide. During the past three decades, C-ion RT has made remarkable progress in clinical and technological aspects. In my presentation, I would like to introduce physics, dosimetry, radiation biology, carbon RBE, and some clinical results of C-ion RT.


Safety Blinded or Safety Minded – Don’t Learn Safety by Accident

Monday, 23rd January 2023 at 12 pm GMT; Duration 1 hour

IOMP Webinar: Safety Blinded or Safety Minded – Don’t Learn Safety by Accident Monday, 23rd January 2023 at 12 pm GMT; Duration 1 hour Organizer: John Damilakis, President IOMP
Moderator: John Damilakis, President IOMP
Speaker: Chris Trauernicht, President of FAMPO

Chris Trauernicht is the head of the medical physics division at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, as well as an associate professor at Stellenbosch University. He is the current president of the Federation of African Medical Physics Organizations (FAMPO) and currently serves on the IOMP Accreditation Board.
Chris has more than 150 congress contributions and 30 papers, and he is a member of the editorial boards of “Advances in Radiation Oncology” and the “South African Journal of Oncology”.
He serves as an assessor for the Health Professions Council of South Africa and has acted as examiner and convenor for the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa. The IAEA has appointed Chris as an expert on numerous occasions, including on the implementation of the Basic Safety Series for medical professionals, on the prevention of accidents and incidents in radiotherapy, and most recently on a regional training course to train the trainers in radiation safety culture (hence the idea for this talk).
Chris was the recipient of the 2020 “International Day of Medical Physics” award for his services to medical physics in the FAMPO region.

Abstract:
Should have, would have, could have… many healthcare professionals may be familiar with that sinking feeling when a preventable incident has slipped through the safety net and reached the patient. The incorporation of safety culture in healthcare can help prevent many adverse incidents and events.
Safety culture can be defined as “the assembly of characteristics and attitudes in organizations and individuals which establishes that, as an overriding priority, protection and safety issues receive the attention warranted by their significance”. In fact, the Bonn Call for Action specifically proposed the strengthening of radiation safety culture as one of its ten main actions.
In 2021, the International Atomic Energy Agency published a booklet on safety culture traits and proposed ten traits – patterns of behaviour or thinking – that encourage the prioritization of safety.
The implementation of these traits is free, yet many systems fail to apply these characteristics effectively. In this talk a brief overview of the ten traits is given. The application of these will improve your institution’s safety culture.


Radiation Biology Updates: From Low Doses to Ultra-high Dose Rates

Tuesday, 15th December 2022 at 12 pm GMT; Duration 1 hour

Organizer: Eva Bezak, IOMP
Moderator: M Mahesh, IOMP

Title: Low dose simulation: perspectives in radiation protection 
Speaker: Andrea Abril, Profesora Asistente, Departamento de Física, Universidad Nacional de Colombia 

Dr Abril is an Assistant Professor and Academic Coordinator for the Master of Medical Physics at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Bogotá-Colombia), and since 2022 she is an Assistant Professor (part-time ) at Universidad Nacional de Colombia. She taught subjects such as Advanced radiation physics, Radiobiology, and Numerical Methods for MP which enabled her to integrate her experience in MC simulations with the radiobiological concepts, relevant to imaging optimization. Before that, She held a postdoc position where the main objective was to set up the proof of concept of the development made her my Doctoral thesis (Dr.Sc Universidad Nacional de Colombia 2018 ); a Hybrid device gamma-MRI that integrates dosimetric gel as a gamma radiation detector, the methodologies wrere based on MC simulations.

Abstract:
Doses over 100 cGy have been reported to have evident and consistent biological effects that the patient safety and radiation protection limits are based on it. However, low dose effects are still misunderstood. The NCRP27 compiled relevant studies in which biological responses were reported, even though the effects are unrelated to each other.
The low reproducibility does not permit the determination of the effects observed in the risk models. The main recommendation to boost the knowledge barrier is to design specific experiments at low doses to reproduce the SF curves. DNA mechanistic simulations are a tool to perform in silico experiments under different doses and radiation conditions and to evaluate if they have considerable effects on the SF. These simulations can even distinguish the probability and specific damage reparation mechanism through the damage location to compare with biochemical in vitro assays.

Title: The state of ultra-high dose rate (FLASH) radiotherapy: the rapid developments of a rapid therapy
Speaker: Nolan Esplen, University of Victoria, Canada

Nolan Esplen is a PhD candidate at the University of Victoria (Victoria, BC, Canada). As a member of the UVic XCITE lab, Nolan’s active research interests pertain to the development of enabling technologies supporting delivery of novel preclinical modalities including spatially-fractionated and ultra-high dose rate (FLASH) radiotherapy. His recent work has found focus on physics and dosimetry within the context of ultra-high dose rate x-ray source development, including that of a megavoltage x-ray platform for FLASH radiobiological research at TRIUMF (Vancouver, BC). Nolan has been awarded a number of honors for his scientific contributions.
Abstract:
Renewed interest in the use of ultra-high dose rates (UHDR) in radiation therapy (RT) has been prompted by a growing body of literature supporting UHDR irradiation, or “FLASH”, as a means to reduce normal-tissue toxicity when compared to irradiation at conventional dose-rates. The potential for improved normal-tissue outcomes (i.e. FLASH effect), paired with isoeffective tumor control and the ability to freeze target motion, has thus made FLASH an attractive candidate for widening the therapeutic window in curative RT. However, while tissue-sparing effects have since been demonstrated across various animal models and radiation modalities (photons, electrons, protons), the radiobiological mechanisms which underlie the FLASH effect, and the beam parameters required to reproducibly elicit it, remain to be elucidated. Continuously updated knowledge has given rise to a number of competing or complementary mechanistic explanations and technologies for more accessible delivery and investigation into this exciting frontier. In this session, a general overview of FLASH radiobiological concepts and delivery techniques will be presented.


Growing Professional Recognition for Medical Physicists: Raymond Wu and IMPCB

Tuesday, 6th December 2022 at 12 pm GMT; Duration 1 hour

Organizer: Tomas Kron, IMPCB Nomination and Election Committee Chair
Moderator: Tomas Kron, IMPCB Nomination and Election Committee Chair

Speakers: Colin Orton, John Damilakis , Adel Mustafa, Ibrahim Duhaini, Art Boyer
(Office bearers and Board members of IMPCB)
 
Abstract:
Raymond Wu has been instrumental in setting up the International Medical Physics Certification Board more than 10 years ago. As CEO he has guided the organisation through its rapid growing phase and the many ups and downs typical for an international organisation run by volunteers. IMPCB now has mature processes for accreditation of Medical Physics Certification Boards and certification of medical physicists in countries where no certification board exists. At the end of 2022 Raymond Wu will retire from his position as CEO and the present mini-symposium celebrates his contributions to IMPCB and medical physics.


IOMP Webinar on International Day of Medical Physics (IDMP) 2022: Medical Physics for Sustainable Healthcare

Monday, 7th November 2022 at 12 pm GMT; Duration 1 hour

Chairman: John Damilakis, IOMP President
Co-Chairman: Ibrahim Duhaini, IDMP Coordinator

Invited Speakers
1. Paddy Gilligan, EFOMP
2. Arun Chougule, AFOMP
3. Patricia Mora, ALFIM
4. Chai Hong Yeong, SEAFOMP
5. Christoph Trauernicht, FAMPO
6. Meshari AlNuaimi, MEFOMP
7. J. Daniel Bourland, AAPM
8. Boyd McCurdy, COMP


Joint IOMP-IFMBE Webinar on Clinical Engineering Day 2022: Management and maintenance of medical technologies

Wednesday, 19th October 2022 at 12 pm GMT; Duration 1 hour

Organizer: Magdalena Stoeva, IOMP
Moderator: Francis Hasford, IOMP
Speakers: Ernesto Iadanza, IFMBE & Magdalena Stoeva, IOMP

Ernesto Iadanza, BME, CE, M. Sc., Ph.D., Senior Assistant Professor in Bioengineering (tenure-track) at the Department of Medical Biotechnologies, University of Siena, nationally qualified as Associate Professor in Bioengineering. He is currently a member of the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE) Administrative Council, and Chair of its Council of Societies. He received the IBM Faculty Award in 2013 and the IFMBE/CED Teamwork Award in 2019. Editor in Chief of the Clinical Engineering Handbook 2nd Edition, Academic Press, 2020. Associate Editor of many BME journals. Supervisor in 200+ graduation theses. Author of 190+ publications on international books, scientific journals, volumes, and conference proceedings.

Magdalena Stoeva, PhD, FIOMP, FIUPESM is the present Secretary General of the International Organization for Medical Physics (IOMP) and the International Union for Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine (IUPESM) and an Editor-in-Chief of the journal Health and Technology, jointly published by Springer and the IUPESM in cooperation with the WHO.
Dr. Stoeva has expertise in medical physics, engineering and computer systems at academic and clinical level, as well as organizational and international experience.
Prof. Stoeva’s work is directed towards the technological advancements as a driving factor of contemporary healthcare.


IOMP – WHO Joint Webinar on World Patient Safety Day 2022

Wednesday, 14th September 2022 at 12 pm GMT; Duration 1 hour
Organizer: John Damilakis, IOMP
Moderator: Eva Bezak, IOMP
Speakers: John Damilakis, IOMP; Emilie van Deventer, WHO; Erik Briers, EPCC


Prof. John Damilakis, MSc, PhD, FIOMP, FIUPESM
John Damilakis is professor and chairman at the Department of Medical Physics, School of Medicine, University of Crete and director of the Department of Medical Physics of the University Hospital of Heraklion, Crete, Greece. He is President of the ‘International Organization for Medical Physics’ (IOMP), Past President of the ‘European Alliance for Medical Radiation Protection Research’ (EURAMED), Past President of the ‘European Federation of Organizations for Medical Physics’ (EFOMP) and Past President of the ‘Hellenic Association of Medical Physics’. Prof. Damilakis is a member of the ICRP Committee 3 and member of the steering committee of the ‘EuroSafe Imaging Campaign’ of the European Society of Radiology. He is coordinator or an active research member of several European and national projects. As a Visiting Professor he has given lectures on dosimetry and radiation protection in Boston University, USA. His publications have been focused on medical radiation protection and dosimetry and, recently, also on Artificial Intelligence in medical imaging. He is editor, author or co-author of several books. Number of publications in PubMed: 243, number of citations: 8286, h-index 48 (Google Scholar). He has received several awards for his work.


Dr Emilie van Deventer
Dr Emilie van Deventer is the Head of the Radiation and Health Unit at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. This programme covers the public health aspects of both ionizing and non-ionizing radiation safety and provides information and guidance to national authorities on radiation protection and health. She is responsible, inter alia, for the WHO International EMF Project, the Global UV project and radon activities. Before joining WHO in 2000, she was a chaired professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto, Canada. She holds a PhD from the University of Michigan, USA and an honorary doctorate (doctor honoris causa) from the University of San Marcos, Lima, Peru.


Dr ERIK A.M. BRIERS MS PhD
Dr Erik Briers holds a doctorate in Chemistry from the University of Leuven, Belgium. Since his promotion in 1979 he has been involved in laboratory medicine. He founded in 1982 the diagnostic company Eco-Bio diagnostics and served as its CEO until 1990. In this function he developed a diagnostic test for the detection of Aspergillus antigens with a fast assay allowing the potential curative treatment of patients with disseminated aspergillosis, a deadly disease. This test has been approved by the FDA. He has been a guest lecturer for the subject “Applied immunology” within the Master study programme Biochemical Engineering at the University of Leuven 2009-2016. Erik Briers was the Executive Director of the European Cancer Patient Coalition (ECPC) (2012-2013) and ad interim executive director of EPPOSI (The European Platform for Patient Organizations Science and Industry) (2014). He was active at the European Medicine Agency (EMA) at the Patient and Consumer working party (PCWP) and later was appointed by the EU commission as an alternate patient member of the Committee on Advanced Therapies (CAT) (2016-2019). He is board member and vice chairman of Europa Uomo. He is a member of the Guidelines Panel on the treatment of prostate cancer of the European Association of Urology (EAU) since 2013. He is since 2013 member of the patient advisory board of the European Society of Radiology (ESR-PAG) and has given many presentations at the occasion of the yearly European Congress of Radiology (ECR). He is vice-president of Us Too Belgium and the chief editor of PROSTAATinfo the magazine of the organization. He serves as a member of advisory boards of several scientific organizations.