MEFOMP participated in organizing a medical physics day as pre-ICRM2020 workshop. The title of this workshop was “Physicists in Medicine, Qualifications, Standardization and Innovations”. Dr. Meshari AlNuaimi, Vice President of MEFOMP and Mr. AlMazrou Chair of the Education & Training Committee (ETC) of the MEFOMP participated in building this workshop program in addition to ICRM2020 organizers. The program included several lectures given by members of MEFOMP exc. Committee, Dr. AlNuaimi presented a lecture titled “Medical Physics in the Middle East: current status and future directions”. Mr. AlMazrou gave a lecture titled “Medical Physics in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: current status and future directions”. Both lectures gave an overview of the current equipment and staffing available in addition to the different education and training programs available in the area and the Kingdom. Also, they gave their views on the possible solutions to rectify the medical physics profession in the area. Dr. Hanan AlDousari, Chair of Woman in MP Committee of MEFOMP, also gave a lecture titled “Women Medical Physicists in the Region”. She gave a full picture about the current situation of women, showing their participations and involvements in the field
The workshop has an international speaker, Dr Soma Somanesan Senior Principal Radiation Physicist, Department of Nuclear Medicine and PET, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore. Dr. Somanesan has 30 years of experience in Medical Physics, Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging at the Singapore General Hospital. His secondary appointments are Hospital Radiation Safety Officer and Operations & QA Manager, Cyclotron Facility of the Positron Tracers Pte Ltd besides being the chief, Radiation Response Team at Singapore Hospital.
This workshop also discussed the education and qualifications required to certify a clinically qualified medical physicist (CQMP), roles and responsibilities of the CQMP and recent advancements and innovations in the different fields of medical physics. Moreover, it covered training of medical physicists through a Residency programs and shed lights on the North American standards on training, education and certification as an example. This workshop had a very good attendance, it was the highest attended workshop that day of the conference with about more than 80 participants.
ICRM2020 audience included radiologists, oncologists, medical physicists, neurosurgeons, cardiologists, clinical scientists, radiological technologists, radiation safety officers, dentists, nurses, radiochemists, radiation therapists and biomedical engineers. They came from 40 countries from around the world.