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Raising awareness of medical physics: The ICTP programme
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Abstracts / Physica Medica 32 (2016) 175–178
at local level through short seminars focussing on various new medical devices; links with Hospital management, etc; at national/regional level through links with the media to publicise similar subjects and our involvement in hospital/ patient safety, etc; at international level through further collaboration with institutions related to medicine/sciences/education/safety, etc. Increasing the visibility of our profession is one of the objectives during the current IOMP office and we all have to make this a standing priority. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmp.2016.07.285
RAISING AWARENESS OF MEDICAL PHYSICS: THE ICTP PROGRAMME Renato Padovani. International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), a UNESCO institute, following its mission ‘‘ ... develop highlevel scientific programmes keeping in mind the needs of developing countries . . .”, has developed a medical physics programme addressed to developing countries with pillars the Master of advanced studies in MP, the College of MP, the Radiotherapy school and the Joint IAEA/ICTP advanced courses. The Master: ICTP and the Trieste University in 2014 initiated the Master, a two-years training programme designated to provide young graduates in physics, mainly from developing countries, with a postgraduated theoretical and clinical training suitable to be recognised as Clinical Medical Physicist in their countries. The programme is following the IAEA and IOMP relevant recommendations. Presently, the 3 editions have seen 49 participants from 33 Countries: Africa (19), Asia (11), Central and South America (14), and Europe (5), selected from more than 300 applicants per year. The programme is supported by scholarships awarded to candidates from developing countries by IAEA, TWAS, KFAS, IOMP, EFOMP and ICTP. The MP College and the Radiation Oncology School are 2–3 weeks biennial course, aiming to give basic knowledge in these fields to young medical physicists. The School of radiation oncology, at the 3rd edition next 2017, is receiving a substantial support from IOMP, EFOMP and AAPM. ICTP is seeing these initiatives as an answer to the growing demand of high education from developing Countries and is representing an important International and European contribution to the development of medical physics in the developing world. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmp.2016.07.286
RAISING AWARENESS OF MEDICAL PHYSICS: THE VIEW OF INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY (IAEA) H. Delis, G.L. Poli, B. Healy, K. Christaki, G. Loreti, A. Meghzifene. Dosimetry and Medical Radiation Physics Section, Division of Human Health, IAEA, Austria The International Basic Safety Standards, published in 2014, recognizes the need for multidisciplinary approach to ensure Quality and Safety in Radiation Medicine. Specifically regarding the Medical Physics support, it is highlighted that corresponding requirements for calibration, dosimetry and quality assurance, including the acceptance and commissioning of medical radiological equipment, are fulfilled by or under the supervision of a medical physicist. The IAEA has been working to increase awareness on the need of
comprehensive quality systems and accurate dosimetry practices in radiation medicine; these elements require the involvement of highly competent professionals, such as the medical physicists. Although the role of medical physicists in Radiation Therapy was been relatively well established for many years, corresponding involvement of medical physicists in imaging is still very weak, almost throughout the world. Historically, this can be partially justified by the large number of diagnostic departments and the perception of low complexity and doses in the field of medical imaging. However, the last few years, (i) the importance of accurate diagnosis to the patient management, (ii) the increasing complexity of diagnostic equipment and procedures, and (iii) the possibility of relatively high doses resulted from imaging procedures, have led to an increasing demand for medical physics support also in medical imaging. Supporting the Member States to establish medical physics capacities, the IAEA develops guidelines to harmonize the roles and the education and training requirements of medical physicist. In addition provides structured training to medical physics professionals, through individual fellowships, national, regional and interregional courses and workshops. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmp.2016.07.287
THE IMPACT OF EXTERNAL DOSIMETRY VERIFICATION IN RADIOTHERAPY Catharine Clark. Royal Surrey County Hospital and National Physical Laboratory, UK The value of independent dosimetry audit is now better recognised and has become well documented. From the excellent work of the IAEA and national standards labs in reference dosimetry audit through to end-to-end measurements which follow the commissioning of a new advanced radiotherapy technique, there is no doubt that the quality of radiotherapy has improved over recent decades, and that audit has played a role in this. These independent audits increase the confidence in delivery as well as creating the data which allow centres to benchmark themselves against others and thus know whether they have got the best out of a system. This process also improves standards by identifying outliers and providing support to help them improve. However the impact of dosimetry audit also extends further. A survey in the UK on quality assurance procedures for IMRT, suggested that audit increases confidence and therefore helps to support the reduction of measurement based QA which is done on a per patient basis. There is also increasing evidence that dosimetry audit has an impact on improving clinical outcomes. Additionally the robust approach of external beam audit has been taken up in brachytherapy and an increasing number of dosimetry audits are now taking place for source based therapy. Furthermore the experience in therapy audit is helping to guide the development of quality assurance in pre-clinical work, thus ensuring true end to end dosimetry verification from the laboratory to the clinic. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmp.2016.07.288
REDUCING TOTAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING TIME WITHOUT LOSS OF QUALITY: THE EDUCATION AND TRAINING MODEL IN MALTA Carmel J. Caruana. Medical Physics Department, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Malta, Malta The number of Medical Physicists in Malta was until recently much lower than that recommended by the European Guidelines on the Medical Physics Expert. This was impacting the extent,
Abstracts / Physica Medica 32 (2016) 175–178
at local level through short seminars focussing on various new medical devices; links with Hospital management, etc; at national/regional level through links with the media to publicise similar subjects and our involvement in hospital/ patient safety, etc; at international level through further collaboration with institutions related to medicine/sciences/education/safety, etc. Increasing the visibility of our profession is one of the objectives during the current IOMP office and we all have to make this a standing priority. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmp.2016.07.285
RAISING AWARENESS OF MEDICAL PHYSICS: THE ICTP PROGRAMME Renato Padovani. International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), a UNESCO institute, following its mission ‘‘ ... develop highlevel scientific programmes keeping in mind the needs of developing countries . . .”, has developed a medical physics programme addressed to developing countries with pillars the Master of advanced studies in MP, the College of MP, the Radiotherapy school and the Joint IAEA/ICTP advanced courses. The Master: ICTP and the Trieste University in 2014 initiated the Master, a two-years training programme designated to provide young graduates in physics, mainly from developing countries, with a postgraduated theoretical and clinical training suitable to be recognised as Clinical Medical Physicist in their countries. The programme is following the IAEA and IOMP relevant recommendations. Presently, the 3 editions have seen 49 participants from 33 Countries: Africa (19), Asia (11), Central and South America (14), and Europe (5), selected from more than 300 applicants per year. The programme is supported by scholarships awarded to candidates from developing countries by IAEA, TWAS, KFAS, IOMP, EFOMP and ICTP. The MP College and the Radiation Oncology School are 2–3 weeks biennial course, aiming to give basic knowledge in these fields to young medical physicists. The School of radiation oncology, at the 3rd edition next 2017, is receiving a substantial support from IOMP, EFOMP and AAPM. ICTP is seeing these initiatives as an answer to the growing demand of high education from developing Countries and is representing an important International and European contribution to the development of medical physics in the developing world. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmp.2016.07.286
RAISING AWARENESS OF MEDICAL PHYSICS: THE VIEW OF INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY (IAEA) H. Delis, G.L. Poli, B. Healy, K. Christaki, G. Loreti, A. Meghzifene. Dosimetry and Medical Radiation Physics Section, Division of Human Health, IAEA, Austria The International Basic Safety Standards, published in 2014, recognizes the need for multidisciplinary approach to ensure Quality and Safety in Radiation Medicine. Specifically regarding the Medical Physics support, it is highlighted that corresponding requirements for calibration, dosimetry and quality assurance, including the acceptance and commissioning of medical radiological equipment, are fulfilled by or under the supervision of a medical physicist. The IAEA has been working to increase awareness on the need of
comprehensive quality systems and accurate dosimetry practices in radiation medicine; these elements require the involvement of highly competent professionals, such as the medical physicists. Although the role of medical physicists in Radiation Therapy was been relatively well established for many years, corresponding involvement of medical physicists in imaging is still very weak, almost throughout the world. Historically, this can be partially justified by the large number of diagnostic departments and the perception of low complexity and doses in the field of medical imaging. However, the last few years, (i) the importance of accurate diagnosis to the patient management, (ii) the increasing complexity of diagnostic equipment and procedures, and (iii) the possibility of relatively high doses resulted from imaging procedures, have led to an increasing demand for medical physics support also in medical imaging. Supporting the Member States to establish medical physics capacities, the IAEA develops guidelines to harmonize the roles and the education and training requirements of medical physicist. In addition provides structured training to medical physics professionals, through individual fellowships, national, regional and interregional courses and workshops. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmp.2016.07.287
THE IMPACT OF EXTERNAL DOSIMETRY VERIFICATION IN RADIOTHERAPY Catharine Clark. Royal Surrey County Hospital and National Physical Laboratory, UK The value of independent dosimetry audit is now better recognised and has become well documented. From the excellent work of the IAEA and national standards labs in reference dosimetry audit through to end-to-end measurements which follow the commissioning of a new advanced radiotherapy technique, there is no doubt that the quality of radiotherapy has improved over recent decades, and that audit has played a role in this. These independent audits increase the confidence in delivery as well as creating the data which allow centres to benchmark themselves against others and thus know whether they have got the best out of a system. This process also improves standards by identifying outliers and providing support to help them improve. However the impact of dosimetry audit also extends further. A survey in the UK on quality assurance procedures for IMRT, suggested that audit increases confidence and therefore helps to support the reduction of measurement based QA which is done on a per patient basis. There is also increasing evidence that dosimetry audit has an impact on improving clinical outcomes. Additionally the robust approach of external beam audit has been taken up in brachytherapy and an increasing number of dosimetry audits are now taking place for source based therapy. Furthermore the experience in therapy audit is helping to guide the development of quality assurance in pre-clinical work, thus ensuring true end to end dosimetry verification from the laboratory to the clinic. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmp.2016.07.288
REDUCING TOTAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING TIME WITHOUT LOSS OF QUALITY: THE EDUCATION AND TRAINING MODEL IN MALTA Carmel J. Caruana. Medical Physics Department, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Malta, Malta The number of Medical Physicists in Malta was until recently much lower than that recommended by the European Guidelines on the Medical Physics Expert. This was impacting the extent,