Madan Rehani, PhD
President, IOMP

Happy holidays, IMPW 2020, IDMP 2020 and ICRP

Dear Colleagues,

The year 2019 is closing and I believe you all had a wonderful year. Season’s Greetings and A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR 2020 for you and near and dear ones. Thank you all for contributing to the development of medical physics and to the patient care in your own best way. We have increasing role in 2020 with the wave of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.

We had announced earlier in Issue#2 of the Newsletter holding of International Medical Physics Week (IMPW) and the very first IMPW shall be celebrated on 11-15 May 2020. All countries are encouraged to celebrate IMPW. The webpage of IMPW provides some guidance on IMPW but countries and organizations are urged to use creative means to celebrate. This may be an opportunity to show how medical physicists are encompassing AI and machine learning. We shall pool your actions on IMPW week. Please feel free to send your feedback to us.

You are all familiar with the International Day of Medical Physics (IDMP) that IOMP established in 2013. The theme of IDMP 2020 has been decided and it is Medical Physicist as a Health Professional. Some countries are still facing the problem of their Ministry of Health not recognizing medical physicist as a health professional. This is despite the fact that International Basic Safety Standard (commonly known as BSS) defines medical physicist as a health professional. The BSS is steered and released by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and is jointly sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO), International Labour Organization (ILO), European Commission (EC), FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA). IDMP2020 shall provide an opportunity to strengthen the recognition and the role of the medical physicist as a health professional. Please use this opportunity to strengthen the role in different regions and feel free to get back to us if we can provide any assistance.

Good News! Now the Annals of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) will be available for free download once they have been for 2 years. Thus, starting Jan 2020, all Annals that were published till 2017 will be free to download. ICRP publications are of great interest to medical physicists. IOMP has a special liaison organization status with ICRP.