International Day of Medical Physics (November 7, 2020)
Medical Physicist as a Health Professional
IDMP 2020 Message
Dear Medical Physics Colleagues across the Globe,
It is my pleasure to announce to you the theme of this year to mark the celebrations of the International Day of Medical Physics (IDMP 2020): “Medical Physicist as a Health Professional”
As we all may know this year has brought remarkable challenges to healthcare systems around the world. As healthcare workers, Medical Physicists as well as many others were in the frontline in dealing with COVID-19 patients and they also deserve recognition and appreciation for their efforts. Many countries still don’t recognize medical physicists as healthcare professionals, hoping that this year’s theme is expected to bring awareness and shed light on the importance of our profession in the healthcare field and that the medical physicist is an essential key element not only to help in diagnosis and treatment of many diseases but also to ensure radiation safety for patients, professionals, and staff.
I hope this year’s difficulties don’t stand in the way of celebrating this day to honor our profession. Taking social distancing measures into consideration, this day can still be celebrated through online meetings, gatherings, contests, and parties.
I wish all my colleagues around the World a Happy Medical Physics Day. Enjoy the celebrations of this day even from your home or behind a screen in your office to show our pride of being a Medical Physicist!
Ibrahim Duhaini
IOMP Treasurer
IDMP Coordinator
To celebrate the day an IOMP-IDMP Webinar: Medical physicist as a health professional took place on the 7th of November, 2020 12:00 PM.
Official Web Page of IDMP
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International Day of Medical Physics (IDMP) - http://www.iomp.org/idmp/
IDMP 2020 in Europe
Due to the COVID19 pandemic Medical Physics societies celebrated the IDMP2020 virtually. Photos, videos, articles, professional stories were prepared and shared via the social media and gave visibility to medical physics during the COVID19 crisis.
Belgium
The Belgian Society of Medical Physics has promoted the #IDMP2020 and all virtual activities which took place worldwide through the digital channels of the society.
Bulgaria
To celebrate the 8th IDMP on 7th November 2020, the Bulgarian Society of Biomedical Physics and Engineering organised the XIIIth National Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering Conference 2020 with international participation. The virtual event will consist of series of webinars, presented by invited lecturers on the 2nd -13th of November 2020. All scientific sessions can be accessed via Zoom through the following link
Simona Avramova-Cholakova, President of the Bulgarian Society of Biomedical Physics and Engineering (BSBPE)
Germany
A Virtual International Day of Medical Physics 2020 will be organised at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). The talks of the experts are aimed at a general audience and will cover aspects of radiation therapy, such as Imaging for Radiotherapy or Machine Learning. The event will take place virtually on the 7th of November 2020 from 3 - 5pm (UTC+1) and is hosted via zoom.
Mark Ladd, President of the German Association of Medical Physicists (DGMP)
Greece
The Hellenic Association of Medical Physicists (HAMP) is celebrating the 2020 IDMP by organising a virtual event on the 6th of November on the role of the Medical Physicist as a healthcare professional in the past, present and future with the contribution of young members of the society. The topics presented cover professional rights and educational aspects of the Medical Physics job and the discussions are focused on planned future actions.
Thomas Maris, President of the Hellenic Association of Medical Physicists (HAMP)
Ireland
The Irish Association of Physicists in Medicine will host a virtual conference the week beginning 9th November. The Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) and AI Workshop were originally to be held in March in County Galway but had to be postponed due to COVID. The virtual edition of the meeting now coincides with IDMP. Invited speakers (Prof Tufve Nyholm, Dr Ger O’Connor, Dr. Jim O Doherty & Prof. Jim Malone) will give live talks during the week while other content will be pre-recorded and released throughout the week. More information can be found on the IAPM website.
Emer Kenny, President of the Irish Association of Physicists in Medicine (IAPM)
Italy
AIFM - the Italian Association of Medical Physics - is celebrating the 2020 IDMP with a symposium dedicated to the recent italian transposition of the 2013/59 EURATOM Directive. General views presented by the presidents of the main scientific societies in the radiological area will alternate with more practically-oriented interventions held by leading medical physicists in each area.
AIFM feels that the theme of the 2020 IDMP - Medical Physicist as a Health Professional - perfectly fits with an event dedicated to the important innovations brought by the new legislation.
Michele Stasi, President of the Italian Association of Medical Physicists (AIFM)
Malta
The IDMP2020 was celebrated in Malta during an online course "Data Analysis with Python for Medical Physicists" organised by the Association of Medical Physics on 5-7 November 2020.
Sam Agius, President of Malta Association of Medical Physics (MAMP)
Netherlands
Videos and tweets have been prepared and shared via Social media to promote the day and the role of the Medical Physicist in different areas within the hospital.
View the article: NVKF website
Romania
The Romanian College of Medical Physicists is organising the "8th Romanian Conference of Medical Physics" which will take place exclusively online on November. The society celebrates 140 years of Medical Physics in Romania, which began in 1880 with the support of prof. phys. Ioan G. Stravolca of the first medical physics course taught to students from first academic year at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Iasi, under the name of “Fizica Medicală”, “Fisica Medicală” or under the phrase “Physica Medicală”. On the occasion of the event we celebrate for the 8th consecutive year the "International Day of Medical Physics" with the theme "Medical Physicist as a Health Professional" and for the 6th year the "International Day of Radiology" dedicated to "Radiologists and radiographers supporting patients during COVID-19". The Romanian medical physics community meeting is organized by the Romanian College of Medical Physicists. The conference will be preceded by a session dedicated to the Annual General Assembly of the members of the Romanian College of Medical Physicists (06.11.2020, 14:00-18:00). EFOMP President, Marco Brambilla will participate in a round table on Education and Training.
Loredana Gabriela Marcu, President of the Romanian College of Medical Physicists
Spain
The Spanish Society of Medical Physics (SEFM) will celebrate the International Day of Medical Physics (IDMP2020) developing a work to disseminate the activities of medical physicists as health professionals, in accordance with the theme established by the IOMP for this year 2020. To do so, through its website and social networks, we will ask questions about the work of medical physicists and the history of Medical Physics in Spain. People's responses will allow us to collect information on the way in which citizens perceive our profession, at the same time that we inform about the details of our work in hospitals. SEFM webpage
Damián Guirado, President of Spanish Association of Medical Physics (SEFM)
United Kingdom
In these strange times there are sadly no public events to celebrate but ready made tweets were put together to acknowledge the amazing work of medical physics staff.
IAEA events
A webinar is organized to celebrate International Day of Medical Physics, which is observed on 7 November by the International Organization for Medical Physics (IOMP) to raise awareness for the profession and is also an occasion to commemorate the research on radioactivity conducted by Marie Sklodowska-Curie, who was born on that day in 1867. "The role of medical physicists in quality, patient safety and error reduction in the era of modern radiotherapy", 5th of November 2020, 3 pm CET.
Virtual Special Issue of Physica Medica
November 7th 2017 has marked the 150 th anniversary of the birth of Marie Sklodowska Curie. The European Journal of Medical Physics celebrated the occasion by publishing a special Virtual Issue which looks back at her remarkable career and the impacts she has had on modern science.