IOMP’s presence at the annual AAPM meetings has evolved into a significant and impactful tradition. The 2023 annual meeting was no exception, as it contributed to furthering the collaboration between IOMP and AAPM in the long term. It also served as a platform to disseminate essential information about IOMP and its upcoming activities and events, thereby enhancing IOMP’s visibility in the medical physics industry. The presence of esteemed delegates from IOMP, including Prof. John Damilakis, Prof. Eva Bezak, Dr. Ibrahim Duhaini, and Prof. M. Mahesh, played a pivotal role in the success of the event.
Key highlights of IOMP’s engagement at AAPM 2023:
IOMP Booth:
The IOMP booth at the AAPM 2023 meeting became a popular hub for medical physicists and representatives from other scientific and professional organizations to connect with IOMP. Discussions at the booth centered around potential future collaborations and interactions with IOMP.
Symposium on Data Analysis and AI in Medical Physics:
The symposium on “Data Analysis and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Relation to Medical Physics Profession: The IOMP’s View” garnered widespread attention and success. This symposium brought to light the latest advancements in medical physics and provided insights into IOMP’s perspectives on addressing the challenges posed by AI and big data science. Topics covered included the opportunities for medical physicists in utilizing AI in clinical settings, data collection, preprocessing, model training, testing, and evaluation. Additionally, the symposium focused on examining how AI can be employed for patient organ dose prediction and discussed the impact of data bias in integrating AI tools. Risk minimization associated with AI model evaluation was another critical objective of the symposium.
AAMP-IOMP Meeting:
A dedicated meeting between AAPM and IOMP was held on July 26 to discuss various aspects of their collaboration. This meeting allowed the organizations to explore opportunities for scientific and professional collaboration, joint events, and the activities conducted by the liaison group. It facilitated the strengthening of their partnership and fostered the exchange of ideas for future initiatives.
Industry Engagement:
The delegates, Prof. John Damilakis, Prof. Eva Bezak, and Dr. Ibrahim Duhaini, proactively engaged with company booths during the event. Their interactions were aimed at informing these companies about the upcoming World Congress of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering 2025 (WC2025) to be hosted in Australia. Additionally, the delegates extended invitations to these companies to become corporate members of IOMP, and many companies expressed keen interest. Plans were made for follow-up contact calls to pursue potential partnerships further.
Prof. M. Mahesh’s Recognition:
A moment of pride for IOMP was the announcement of Prof. M. Mahesh, Chair of the IOMP Science Committee, being honored with the inaugural Edith H. Quimbly Lifetime Achievement Award. This recognition celebrates Prof. Mahesh’s remarkable contributions to the field of medical physics and adds to IOMP’s reputation in the industry.
In conclusion, IOMP’s presence at AAPM 2023 was marked by tremendous success, cementing its role as a leading organization in the field of medical physics. The collaborative efforts with AAPM and the engaging activities during the event demonstrated IOMP’s commitment to the advancement of medical physics and its professional and scientific development worldwide.