Australiasian College of Physical Scientists and Engineers in Medicine

Ongoing issues

1. Continued good collaboration with Department of Health and Aging in Radiation Oncology – discussions about continued support for TEAP
2. Discussions with DoHA Radiol/NucMed ongoing regarding initial funding for consolidation of TEAP in two specialties
3. NucMed and Radiol registrars employed in Victoria – A Perkins organized a very useful workshop for supervisors (including ROMP)
4. Register of medical physicists in Australia operational – interest from other professional bodies (AIP)
5. ACPSEM special interest group on medical physics in the Asia Pacific Region (APSIG) had first meetings of steering group. Initial issues: assess other activities in the field (eg IAEA)
6. Clinical trials interest group set-up; acting chair Annette Haworth
7. Annual conference in 2009 in Canberra MoU signed with Engineers Australia.
8. Face to face meeting in March a success – new strategic plan developed and distributed to members via list server
9. Work towards CPD appellation for ACPSEM/TEAP near complete

Reportable items

1. Radiobiology course endorsed by the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ESTRO) held in Sydney March 22-27 a great success – excellent feedback for one of our members Jim Hagekyriakou got highest score in end-exam -congratulations
2. IOMP elections complete – new officers for 2009 -2012 will be: President: Prof. Dr. Fridtjof Nüsslin; Vice President: Dr. KY Cheung; Immediate Past President. Prof. Barry Allen; Secretary-General. Dr. Madan Rehani; Treasurer: Dr. Slavik Tabakov.
3. Memorandum of Understanding with AMPI to be signed at EPSM 2009 – sponsorship by Elekta gratefully acknowledged
4. AFOMP may collect their own fees (0.5 that of IOMP) – still no clear arrangements
5. Quality Program in Radiation Oncology: federal government funded consultancy about national dosimetry centre; standards to be prepared for pilot
6. Ed Scull, one of our members, made OAM - congratulations
7. Radiation Oncology tripartite meeting July, 2, 2009 in Sydney
8. TK to visit Queensland branch August 2009
9. kV 09 to be held in Sydney (thanks to Brendan Healy, Robin Hill and Clive Baldock)
10. NSW Cancer Council report on “Improving radiotherapy: where to from here?” published in May 2005 mentions ROMP staffing number recommendation of 1 per linac. This is in contrast to ACPSEM recommendation and a letter was sent by TK to the Cancer Council to note our concern.

Important challenges 2009

1. Continue improved corporate governance for ACPSEM: risk management and OH&S
2. Radiation Oncology QA position paper needed
3. Need to acknowledge members with research impact (e.g. NHMRC panels)
4. Two upcoming major events with ACPSEM participation
5. Engineering and Physical Sciences in Medicine (EPSM) Conference 2009: To be held in Canberra together with the Australian Biomedical Engineering Conference (ABEC). EPSM-ABEC 2009 will be held November 8-12, 2009. There will be an emphasis on practical aspects; workshops and the conference will cater for all professionals represented in ACPSEM. Summer School (2 days on IMRT) in planning.
6. “Combined Scientific Meeting”: ACPSEM has joined the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists (RANZCR) and the Australian Institute of Radiography (AIR) for a combined scientific meeting in Brisbane, October 22-25, 2009. ACPSEM invited speaker Colin Orton has cancelled due to the personal reasons. New invited speaker(s) approached.
7. Planning for EPSM conference 2010 in Melbourne – collocation with AIP conference seems likely
8. External relations committee to meet

Conferences of Interest to Members:

Our recent member survey produced some interesting feedback.........