The latter end of 2021 and the early months of  2022  saw the slow road to recovery from the pandemic and the effect of the war in Europe. EFOMP condemns the unjustified invasion and pledges whatever support for our Ukrainian Medical physics colleagues. In line with EFOMP statutes, the Lithuanian NMO has called for a special council meeting to discuss a motion on the war in Ukraine. The volunteer nature of  EFOMP  has left the federation in good strength after another busy and productive year.

Mobility and Identity in a European context:

We have increased our number of EFOMP-approved national registration schemes to seven, with another two schemes submitted for approval.  We hope to have nine schemes approved third quarter 2022. This is an important number under European regulations of recognition of workers between states. When a third of  EU member states identify a common training platform they can apply for automatic recognition and mobility within the European Economic Area. EFOMP has begun to make contact with the  EU commission to make steps in this direction.   While it is recognized that these processes can be protracted, harmonization of training and standards remains a key strategic objective of EFOMP since its foundation.

Congresses:

EFOMP held a successful online third European congress of medical physics in Torino in June 2021 with over 1000 delegates.  Preparations for the fourth  European congress of medical physics to be held in Dublin on 17-20 of August are well underway. There are wonderful keynote invited speakers and a very high standard of abstracts. Abstracts, Keynote speakers, refreshers courses, and the pre-congress schools (PETCT MRI  QC, Deep Breast Tomosynthesis QC, out-of-field dosimetry in radiotherapy) are all assigned, and notifications began.  The congress promises to be very exciting with innovations such as the DIY software phantom fair, an early careers medical physics session, a new concept for the EUTEMPE atelier quality, pre-congress workshop, and meet the Special Interest Group. The theme of the congress is multiple energies single patient focus  We have many exciting social programs. This will be our first face-to-face congress since 2018, the low registration fees of 200-250 EURO should encourage people to attend the premium medical physics event in Europe in person this year. The bid review committee for 2024 has completed its deliberations and an announcement is pending from the successful applicant. It is also planned to do a review of the structure and delivery of our congress. The congress will form the focus for many EFOMP activities such as the working groups, council, and officers’ meetings.

Schools:

In the last twelve months, we have had a successful online  Hybrid ( referring to the treatment modality not the method of lecture ) school in radiotherapy. In November we moved to a live and in-person stream delivery model with occupational dosimetry in radiology  European school of medical physics experts in association with Eurados and IRPA at the Baltic regional meeting in  Kaunas in Lithuania. We also deployed a similar hybrid lecture delivery model for the shielding in medical installations where the combination of face-to-face and online interaction worked well. We have planned the three schools at the congress in Dublin however they will be face to face. On the 13-15th  of  October, we will have a school edition on statistics in medical physics in Athens. Our individual associate membership rose to 1000  at the end of 2021

Communications and Publications:

Our website, journal (EJMP, Impactor 2.685), quarterly EMP news, and social media channel continue to be a success. We will enhance these further with the European email news group.

Projects:

Our move to Utrecht facilitated access to apply for EU funding. Thanks to our hardworking projects committee we have been successful in five projects where we feel it is important to have a strong medical physics voice including important topics like exposure in the radiological reports, the implementation of the  EU BSS legislation, and pharmaceutical legislation, education of radiation, isotope supply.  We have worked well with our partners to deliver tenders and appoint experts in a short period.

Core Curriculums and Educational Standards:

A major achievement was the publication with ESTRO of the updated core curriculum in radiotherapy. The learning from this process has already been input into the revision of the nuclear medicine core curriculum with the EANM. The radiology core curriculum with ESR will form the third part of this series which will play a role as the basis of the common training platform.

EU matters & International matters:

EFOMP has memorandums of understanding with  13 organizations, adding  Nuclear Medicine Europe to this group.   This committee has been very instrumental in key projects of EFOMP and works particularly collaborating on the updated Malaga statement, a survey on  Early careers activities which has led to the formation of an Early Careers SIG within EFOMP. We have had webinars with COCIR who represent manufacturers in European. These were well attended and represent a point of contact with many of our 32 company members.

IOMP activities:

EFOMP continues to contribute to IOMP activities such as the international day of medical physics,  medical physics weeks, contribution to the publication of a special edition of MPI international, contribute to committees, contribute to webinars,   contribute to the IUPESM Congress, nomination for awards, use of our communication channels for and partake in ballots.