MPWB webinar series 2025

Medical Physics for World Benefit (MPWB) is pleased to invite you to our upcoming MPWB Webinar Series 2025 session:

Tuesday, 8th April
⏰ 09:00 ET | 13:00 GMT | 15:00 CET
Topic: Quality Assurance for Imaging in Radiotherapy
Speaker: Dr. Ramiro Pino (USA)
Moderators: Sarah Ashmeg & Arjit Baghwala

Register here: MPWB Webinar Registration

Dr. Ramiro Pino is a Chief Radiation Physicist, Director of the Medical Physics Residency Program, Houston Methodist Hospital, Texas. Associate Professor of Medical Physics at the Academic Institute, Houston Methodist Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College, New York.

He has contributed to the development of new technologies in Radiation Oncology, particularly in radiation dose calculations, authoring two patents, one of them implemented in a commercial product. He has clinical and research experience in areas of Therapeutic Medical Physics such as cranial and extracranial stereotactic radiosurgery, as well as high and low dose rate brachytherapy and in commissioning radiation treatment machines and treatment planning systems.

A new study published in the Journal of Medical Physics: "Virtual Mentoring for Medical Physicists: Results From an International Pilot Program Between AAPM and SAMP." This innovative pilot, launched in 2022 by the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) and the Southeastern AAPM (SAMP), explored how virtual mentoring can bridge gaps for medical physicists worldwide.

The findings? Virtual mentorship works! Early-career physicists reported enhanced professional growth, stronger networks, and increased confidence— all through accessible, online guidance from seasoned experts. This program not only fosters global collaboration but also paves the way for a more connected and supported medical physics community.

Read the full study here: Link to Paper

2025 Global Medical Physics Continuing Education Course This course is designed to empower practicing medical physicists by refreshing didactic knowledge and enhancing fundamental expertise in medical physics. Course Highlights: ·         Endorsed by: AAPM, FAMPO, and IOMP ·         Co-organized by: The Global Medical Physics Education and Training Committee (GMPETC) of the AAPM, FAMPO, GSMP, and NAMP ·         Format: Following the award-winning education format of previous medical physics continuing education courses Registration Details: ·         Registration Opens: March 18th, 2025 ·         Registration Closes: April 1st, 2025   To register and learn more about the course, visit https://www.ghcuniversity.org/physics

Dear Colleagues,

Medical Physics for World Benefit (MPWB) is pleased to invite you to our upcoming MPWB Webinar Series 2025 session:

Tuesday, March 18, 2025
⏰ 09:00 ET | 13:00 GMT | 15:00 CET
Topic: Quality Assurance for Imaging in Radiotherapy
Speaker: Dr. Ramiro Pino (USA)
Moderators: Sarah Ashmeg & Arjit Baghwala

Register here: MPWB Webinar Registration

Dr. Ramiro Pino is a Chief Radiation Physicist, Director of the Medical Physics Residency Program, Houston Methodist Hospital, Texas. Associate Professor of Medical Physics at the Academic Institute, Houston Methodist Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College, New York.

He has contributed to the development of new technologies in Radiation Oncology, particularly in radiation dose calculations, authoring two patents, one of them implemented in a commercial product. He has clinical and research experience in areas of Therapeutic Medical Physics such as cranial and extracranial stereotactic radiosurgery, as well as high and low dose rate brachytherapy and in commissioning radiation treatment machines and treatment planning systems.

Don't miss this opportunity to gain valuable insights into imaging quality assurance in radiotherapy.

We look forward to your participation!

Best regards,
MPWB Webinar Team

Dear members and friends of MPWB, 

Thanks a lot to those who have attended one of our two Annual General Meetings (AGMs). I hope you found it informative and we would love to get feedback in particular regarding things we can improve. 

This is my last message as MPWB president and I am delighted to hand over to Afua Yorke who is a great person coming with new ideas while knowing the organisation well and building on present strengths. MPWB will enter 2025 with a new structure involving a management committee and a few other working groups which will allow more members to get involved in activities. Also, the work involving more regular communications as per the schedule shared at the AGM and particularly the update of our webpage is on our agenda. The first communication will be a newsletter in January 2025 and I would like to encourage you to submit a contribution. We would be particularly interested in publishing thoughts about the medical physics profession in your country. 

Given the success of our IDMP poetry competition I am aiming to establish a poetry corner on the webpage and hope all contributors are happy to see their work on our webpage. We will contact authors about it. 

Stepping down from the presidency will allow me to devote more time to actual projects and I have a few things in mind. Setting up clinical training programs is one of my interests and I will have an opportunity to contribute to an IAEA workshop with this topic in Hanoi early January. I also hope to get more involved with mentorship and support John Schreiner in building on the results of our survey a few years back (https://journals.lww.com/jomp/fulltext/2024/10000/virtual_mentoring_for_medical_physicists__results.23.aspx). This is an important topic and I wonder how much practical work could be facilitated in this way using for example life video communication. 

Two years of chairing MPWB meetings at early hours in the morning taught me the importance of time zones. In this context, I would like to explore if there is enough interest to establish a MPWB chapter in the Asia Pacific region. How this can work and how it can actually add to the number of excellent medical physics organisations in the region is something to be explored.  

I would love to hear from you regarding these thoughts. 

Finally, my sincere thanks to all MPWB members and supporters for giving me the opportunity to contribute to the organisation. I should particularly thank my fellow board members for their support and a number of previous board members who continue to carry the organisation forward. 

Best wishes and all the best for 2025 

Tomas 

(Tomas.Kron@petermac.org)  

News Brief: Friday, December 23, 2024 Thank you to everyone who participated in the International Day of Medical Physics Poem Competition this year! We received 9 inspiring entries that celebrated the field of medical physics. We are excited to announce the winners of this year’s competition, as announced during the AGM. Each of the following winners will receive a pair of MPWB socks as a token of our appreciation for their outstanding submissions: Malamati Gkaravela Alberto Pérez Rozos Andrew Zwaniga Congratulations to the winners! Your contributions have highlighted the beauty and impact of medical physics in a unique and artistic way. Stay tuned for more events and opportunities to engage with the medical physics community! Thoughts under the beam Inside the treatment room, there is much light It feels so cold, even though it is bright A few sessions and you will be all right Many have passed, but you still wonder why Another prescription, couple of "Grays" Then you will feel better, if that is true You would be grateful, I know that for sure Already a month away from your home It must be hard going through it alone Memories of a life simple, yet sweet You could do anything to relive it Another day, getting closer to death Missing your dear ones, but still hanging on Guess this may be it; where everything ends Malamati Gk. Precise beams align, Healing depths unseen by eyes— Physics saves the soul. Beams of hope unite, Physics leads a joyful fight, Love and life take flight. Best regards, Alberto Pérez Rozos Cascade Aid The emptiness In my inner orbit What lived there just To my unstable core did lust. I relaxed A cascade stacked And my clouded cover Left my sphere like thunder. The nanometer Gave my effect a theatre To stage my damage And the cancer manage. To deliver The killing dose I must on DNA close Or my electrons wither: So give me transport Thru the nuclear port Or on the membrane Plaster me plain. Andrew Zwaniga Sincerely, The MPWB Team MPWBs vision is a world with access to effective and safe applications of physics and technology in medicine. Our mission is to support activities which will yield effective and safe use of physics and technologies in medicine through advising, training, demonstrating, and/or participating in medical physics-related activities, especially in low to middle income countries. Please visit our website www.mpwb.org for more details.

Medical Physics for World Benefit (MPWB) Canada & MPWB USA invite all members to attend the upcoming Annual General Meeting. Two identical sessions will be offered to accommodate our global membership.

Date: Thursday, December 5, 2024
Times: 6:00 am ET (11AM GMT) and 3:00 pm ET (8PM GMT)
Platform: Zoom

Purpose:
Join us as we discuss the past year's accomplishments, current projects, and strategic priorities for the future. Your input and engagement are vital to our continued success.

AGM Agenda

1. Welcome and Review of Agenda (Tomas Kron)
2. Review and Approval of AGM Records
   • Minutes from December 23, 2023 (attached)
3. Reports (20 min)
   • President’s Report (Tomas Kron)
   • Secretary and Treasurer’s Report (Monique van Prooijen)
   • Communication Manager’s Report (Navid Khaledi)
4. Membership Fees and Other Income Streams
5. Major Projects Update (10 min)
   • Open Syllabus (Parminder Basran)
   • Mentorship (John Schreiner)
   • Webinars (Eduard Gershkevitsh)
6. IDMP Competition (Tomas Kron)
7. Membership Discussion
   • Strategic Priorities
   • Growth
   • Engagement
8. Questions

Please let us know if you would like anything else discussed as part of the agenda.

Register:

To celebrate International Day of Medical Physics (IDMP), November 7, Medical Physics for World Benefits (MPWB) is holding a competition for medical physicists all over the world. We are launching a Poem competition. Poems should have some relation to medical physics and consist of no more than 14 lines, which fits anything from Haikus to Sonnets. Contributions can be in any language – if in a language other than English please attempt to provide also an English translation and more importantly an audio recording of the Poem to allow the judges to appreciate rhythm and sound. Anyone can contribute up to two poems with a deadline of November 30, 2024 (UTC – 11hours time zone)*. The board of MPWB will decide on a shortlist of winners to be presented at the Annual General Meeting of MPWB in December. The three contributions judged to be best by the panel will receive a pair of unique MPWB socks as ultimate fashion accessory. To get into the mood, here is a Haiku example:   Socks are like Physics Often unseen, always on Quality comfort         Tomas Kron, PhD on behalf of the MPWB Board     * Send your poems to medphyswb@gmail.com with the subject line “IDMP Poem”

Dear colleagues and friends,

Volunteer organisations such as MPWB are an interesting lot. I had the privilege to be involved with a few medical physics ones and find some common features which are both challenging and encouraging:

1.       Working with colleagues who share similar expertise, experiences and aspirations is a privilege and pleasure.
2.       Most of us have daytime jobs – I am always aware that there is so much more I could do for MPWB (alas, there are risks to control, people to manage, QA to be organised and time sheets to be signed at the home front)
3.       Volunteer organisations rely on their members. There is no shortage of good will by everyone, but practicalities make involvement of members often difficult in particular in an organisation that is truly international. Time zones, cultural differences and the complexity of some tasks call for patience.
4.       Medical Physics is much more important than most people think. In most health care systems, there is appreciation of the importance of technology and computing; however, awareness of medical physics as the key profession in this space is often lacking. Therefore, medical physics is often an afterthought and not part of the initial planning.
5.       Keeping all this in mind we have tried to hit the refresh button in MPWB to:
a.       Introduce a management committee
b.       Try to be more active and regular in terms of communication
c.       Create a new logo
d.       Upgrade/update the webpage
e.       Launch a Poem competition for IDMP (more to be announced on IDMP)

Give us a bit of time and watch this space – we are committed to make this happen. Most importantly, we would like to get all members involved: if you have any ideas or would like to support a particular initiative, please get in touch.

Tomas

Tomas Kron, PhD, FIOMP

President MPWB

Director of Physical Sciences

Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia

Tomas.Kron@petermac.org

Speaker:

Dr. Samantha Simiele (USA)

Moderators:

Sarah Ashmeg and Arjit Baghwala

Date: Tuesday, 24 th September

Time: 09:00 ET (15:00 CET)

The registration link for the webinar is here:

https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_pnZl3_xBSSa6NO7PFXpICA

Dr. Samantha Simiele is the Chief of Brachytherapy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is an active member of the American Brachytherapy Society and the American Association of Physicists in Medicine. She is a member of the AAPM’s Working Group on Medical Errors in Brachytherapy and has co-authored multiple medical physics practice guidelines and task groups focused on brachytherapy.