Dear colleagues!
On October 18-19, 2018, the III Ukrainian Medical Physicists Forum was held, organized by the Ukrainian Association of Medical Physicists. The forum was attended by 80 participants from Ukraine and abroad. We want to report on the activities that took place during the Forum.
So, some statistical information:
– 2 days of active work in the format of reports, master classes, excursions, round table.
– 80 participants.
– participants from most regions of Ukraine.
– Representatives of Varian, Elekta, RaySearch, Canberra Packard Ukraine, Biosense, Protech Solutions Ukraine, Accuray.
– Representatives of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine (SNRIU).
– presentations of developments of Ukrainian medical physicists.
III Ukrainian Medical Physicists Forum started with the Report of the President of the Ukrainian Association of Medical Physicists Ruslan Zelinskyi for the first year of UAMP activity.
In particular, the Report included information on:
– organization of UAMP work.
– events in which they took part.
– negotiations with representatives of international organizations.
– cooperation with the SNRIU, including within the Expert Group on Radiation Protection in Medicine.
Developments of the Ukrainian Association of Medical Physicists within the framework of construction of the Concept of development of medical physics in Ukraine are presented, namely:
– qualification requirements for a medical physicist.
– draft requirements for master’s programs in medical physics.
– recommended list of literature for therapeutic medical physicists.
Some of the further goals and directions of work are outlined, which were supplemented by the results of the Round Table on the second day of the Forum, which will be written below.
After the Report, two scientific sections were held, the first of which included reports of Ukrainian medical physicists, and the second – foreign experts from Latvia, Sweden and Switzerland – representatives of Varian (USA), RaySearch (Sweden), Accuray (USA). After the lunch break, representatives of these companies conducted master classes on planning on state-of-the-art radiation therapy planning systems for three hours.
The development of the Ukrainian Association of Medical Physicists was also presented – a mobile android application for correcting the fractionation regime in the presence of an unplanned break during the course of radiation therapy (based on a linear-quadratic model). We hope that it will help Ukrainian specialists to abandon obsolete VDF tables and keep up with foreign specialists using a linear-quadratic model. (download the application)
The second day of the Forum was no less interesting:
– a large number of reports from specialists from leading cancer clinics in Ukraine.
– presentations of own developments of Ukrainian medical physicists, in particular a platform for training medical physicists and a prototype device for quality control of linear accelerators.
– detailed presentation of the draft Recommendations for master’s programs in medical physics with an analysis of existing programs in Ukrainian universities.
– Speeches by representatives of Elekta and Canberra Packard Ukraine.
The culmination of the second day of the Forum was a round table organized by the Ukrainian Association of Medical Physicists with the participation of the SNRIU. For about three hours there was a discussion on the problematic issues of medical physics in Ukraine, on each of which certain decisions were made:
In particular:
– to recognize unsatisfactory level of accuracy of calibration of dosimetric equipment, to study this question and to find ways of increase of accuracy.
– to recommend the developed UAMP list of literature for therapeutic medical physicists, which will help medical physicists at every step of their work to find the necessary information.
– to prepare proposals for amendments to Order №143 of the SNRIU “Procedure for training and testing of knowledge on radiation safety in personnel and officials of the subjects of certain activities in the field of nuclear energy”
– in order to synchronize the process of formation of the specialty “medical physicist” with the reforms of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine to contact the Ministry of Health with proposals developed by the Ukrainian Association of Medical Physicists.
– and many others.
All decisions will be vectors of the Ukrainian Association of Medical Physicists for next year. We are sincerely grateful to the medical physicists of Ukraine for their activity in the discussion, provided suggestions and ideas, expressed opinions.
We also thank the representatives of the SNRIU for their active participation, comprehensive cooperation and interest in further joint work to improve the level of radiation safety in medicine.
See you at the next scientific and practical events!
Sincerely,
Organizational committee
uamedphys@gmail.com
