MPWB at the AAPM 2022

While it has been some time since the AAPM 2022 conference, we have a few updates to share.

• We are happy to share that MPWB approved applications from 49 medical physicists from developing countries to virtually attend the AAPM conference in Washington in July. We hope to share some of the supportive comments from these virtual attendees in our next newsletter.
• Thank you to everyone who visited our physical booth at the AAPM. We had a great many fruitful conversations and will consider adding a booth to future conferences 

MPWB & IOMP

The Vice-President of MPWB (Dr Tomas Kron) has been appointed as an official MPWB representative on the Professional Relations Committee of the International Organization for Medical Physics. We thank the IOMP for making this connection in hopes to further reduce barriers to knowledge, expertise, and training and educational resources to global medical physics communities.

MPWB & US Department of Energy & National Nuclear Safety Agency

MPWB is participating in a review of the global radiotherapy landscape focusing on the use of radioactive sources in RT, sponsored by the US Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Agency, conducted by a group at Sandia National Laboratory. We will participate in a series of discussions and provide feedback on important matters related to nuclear safety in the context of low and middle income countries.

AAPM Webinar - Global Rising Stars Webinar Series

The AAPM Global Research and Scientific Innovation Committee (GRSIC) is excited to launch the Scientific Excellence and Global Rising Stars (GRS) webinar series. We will be hosting our first webinar “Creating and Fostering Global Collaborations in Medical Physics” on Tuesday, October 11^th at 5-7pm EDT (US).

This free webinar is open to anyone globally to attend. This session will include presentations from an incredible line-up of invited speakers, followed by a panel discussion that is open for attendees to ask questions and engage with the speakers.

We have also included a direct email sign-up list for interested attendees to hear about the latest webinars: bit.ly/GRSIC. Register for the latest webinar here.

International Day of Medical Physics Contest 

Get ready for IDMP 2022 on November 7! To celebrate the theme of sustainability for this year, we are holding a contest for you to share your thoughts on what sustainability in medical physics means to you! Create an Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook post and use the hashtags #IDMP2022 and #MPWB in your post. Or, send us an email with an attachment of a comment, image, video, or any other multimedia which tells us what "Sustainability in Medical Physics" means to you! We will support five free MPWB memberships for the year of 2023 for winners of this contest!

By the way, if you don't already follow us, be sure to follow our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and/or LinkedIn pages.

Next Webinar: May 25, 9:00 AM EST, (15:00 CET)

Please join us for the next webinar 

Modern Radiation Therapy with Co-60

Speaker: Prof. L. John Schreiner

Moderators: Sarah Ashmeg and Arjit Baghwala

Register here!

We are once again pleased to provide an opportunity for those in low to middle income countries to virtually attend the AAPM conference. Please see the following announcement for details. To apply for this award, please email this completed form (open link and save a local copy) with the subject line "AAPM-2022 award - (Last Name - Country)" to medphyswb@gmail.com. Deadline for submissions is 29th of May 2022. Late submissions will not be considered. Awardees will be notified by 8th of June 2022. The meeting starts on July 10, 2022.

We are pleased to announce the next MPWB webinar on 

2021 Wednesday, 17th November at 09:00 EDT (15:00 CET)

Selection of Megavoltage Treatment Technologies for External Beam Radiation Therapy: A Global Perspective

Speaker: Prof. Jake Van Dyk (Canada)

Moderators: Sarah Ashmeg and Arjit Baghwala

Please register here: 

https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_g47J3CbXSTOzRU8wCXOr0w

Happy International Day of Medical Physics! Here is a message from our president! #IDMP2021#medphys

https://youtu.be/J651b4nTWK4

MWPB Webinar Series 

We are extremely pleased to announce our next webinar on Wednesday, 20th October at 09:00 EDT (15:00 CET)

Topic: Cost effective globally deployable radiation therapy: The same but smarter ... and radically different

Speaker: Paul Keall

Moderators: Sarah Ashmeg & Arjit Baghwala

Please register here.

For more information, please see here.

Medical Physics for World Benefit is performing an international survey to investigate whether the Medical Physics community considers virtual mentoring to be of benefit to the community, especially for under-resourced contexts? Questions regarding challenges and successes in the virtual mentoring process will be addressed as a way of optimizing the virtual mentoring experience. All Medical Physicists (clinical, academic, industrial, or governmental) or Medical Physicists in training (graduate students or residents) from both high-income and lower-income countries are invited to participate. The link to the survey can be found here:  https://uwo.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dgtHBEO2gPi2aS9

MPWB 2021 Call for Nominations

• At the end of 2021, two Board members will be finishing their terms of office: Parminder Basran (Director of Communications) and David Wilkins (Secretary/Treasurer).

• On the recommendation from the MPWB Nominating Committee, the Board is recommending that these two members stand to be elected for another 3 year term. 

• According to the MPWB policy and procedures, we are required to post a call for nominations from our membership at least 30 days before an election. Thus, this announcement formalizes the request for further nominations with a deadline of 30 September 2021. If you would like to stand for one of these positions, please contact the Chair of the Nominating Committee, Yakov Pipman.

MPWB Webinar Series:  September 15, 2021

We are please to host the next MPWB webinar:

Technologies, Opportunities and Challenges of Automated Treatment Planning in Radiotherapy

Speaker: Ben Heijmen (Erasmus MC, Netherlands) 

Moderators: Sarah Ashmeg and Arjit Baghwala

Wednesday, 15th September at 09:00 EDT (15:00 CET)

Automated treatment planning is becoming a standard approach in IMRT/VMAT planning of radiotherapy which may reduce planning time, improve plan consistency and quality. The presentation will review different types of automation algorithms and discuss advantages and current challenges and limitations of automated planning.

To register, please complete the information in the following link: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_fepFzJq8R66hCHevof_38g

Thanks to our industry partners MPWB is pleased to announce an attendance award to AAPM 63rd annual meeting 2021. These awards are targeted to medical physicists in low to middle income countries (LMICs) who wish to attend the AAPM ASM. You can find more information about the award, application form and the details how to apply in the following link.

Please submit completed application form to medphyswb@gmail.com (subject line: MPWB-AAPM Attendance Award) no later than June 25, 2021, 24:00(midnight) EST.

MWPB Webinar Series 

We are extremely pleased to announce our first of many webinars on Wednesday, 12th May at 09:00 EDT (15:00 CET)

Topic: Automated Treatment Planning: A resource with potential benefits in both high- and low-income countries

Speaker: Laurence Court

Moderators: Sarah Ashmeg & Arjit Baghwala

Please register here.

For more information, please see here.