Winter School 2014

Bess Sutherland

This year for the first time, the ACPSEM QLD Branch will be hosting a “Winter School” in conjunction with the Symposium. The topic of this year’s Winter School will be “Scientific Publication for Clinical Medical Physicists”. As it’s pun name suggests, the general aim of the Winter School will be similar to the ACPSEM Summer school in that it provides an educational workshop. The Winter School will be provided by the ACPSEM QLD Branch free of charge, however it is important to RSVP so that we can arrange numbers. This year we have several experts (local and interstate) who will contributing to the Winter School. We hope as many members as possible can take advantage of this. Following the Winter School there will be an ACSPEM QLD Branch social lunch, followed by the Symposium. See the Winter School 2014 Flyer for more info – we hope to see you there!

 

GCUH Medical Imaging Tour

Scott Crowe

The attendees of the 14th PRIMPS meeting had the opportunity to have a tour of the new medical imaging facilities at the Gold Coast University Hospital (GCUH). If you missed it – here are photos of some of the things we got to see (and the GCUH being constructed).

Gold Coast University Hospital under construction (photo provided by Timothy Ireland)
The view from the Gold Coast University Hospital (photo provided by Timothy Ireland)
Siemens Magnetom Area being installed at the Gold Coast University Hospital (photo provided by Timothy Ireland)
Siemens Biograph mCT at the Gold Coast University Hospital (photo provided by Timothy Ireland)
Siemens Biograph mCT at the Gold Coast University Hospital (photo provided by Timothy Ireland)
Aquilion CT Scanner at the Gold Coast University Hospital (photo provided by Timothy Ireland)
Siemens Mammomat Inspiration at the Gold Coast University Hospital (photo provided by Timothy Ireland)
Siemens Artis Zee at the Gold Coast University Hospital (photo provided by Tim Ireland)
Philips Allura at the Gold Coast University Hospital (photo provided by Timothy Ireland)
Nuclear Medicine Hot Lab at the Gold Coast University Hospital (photo provided by Timothy Ireland)

Thanks to Timothy Ireland for the photos (and the tour).

IUPESM World Congress 2015

Scott Crowe

The 2015 IUPESM World Congress will be hosted in Toronto from June 7th – 12th by the Canadian Medical and Biological Engineering Society and the Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists. The Congress will be co-chaired by David Jaffray (Medical Physics) and Tony Easty (Biomedical Engineering). The event is sponsored by the International Union of Physical & Engineering Sciences in Medicine and its member organizations: the International Organization for Medical Physics and the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering.

World Congress 2015

Abstract submission opens in September 2014 (closing January 2015), and registration in October 2014. See the website for more details.

Bob Fitchew Award 2014

Scott Crowe

Nominations are now invited for the Bob Fitchew Member of the Year Award. This award was introduced last year by the ACPSEM Queensland branch to recognise the achievements of Queensland members of the ACPSEM and to establish an ongoing culture of recognition of outstanding work performed by a Queensland member.

The award was named after Mr Bob Fitchew in recognition of his outstanding career long contribution to the ACPSEM, to radiation oncology, and to cancer care in general. Bob’s contributions to the ACPSEM have been recognised nationally with him being awarded the ACPSEM distinguished service award.

To be eligible for nomination, the nominee must be a financial member of the ACPSEM, must satisfy at least 2 of sections 2 – 5 in the nomination form, and must have made the nominated achievements within the specified period. The period for the 2014 award is January 1st 2013 through to the close of nominations. In the case that the nominee was the award recipient last year, the same nomination items cannot be used again for nomination this year.

To nominate a fellow colleague for the award, please complete their details using the example template located here and send to Bess Sutherland. The closing date for this year is June 30th. The potential winner for 2014 will be announced and awarded at the local symposium in August.

Paul Charles – Editor’s Pick

Scott Crowe

A paper by our branch chairman, Paul Charles, is one of the editor’s picks in Medical Physics this month. This honour suggests the paper is of particular interest and importance to Medical Physics readers, and is a significant achievement for all those involved. “A practical and theoretical definition of very small field size for radiotherapy output factor measurements” is free to download during April from the Medical Physics website here.

It’s great to see this kind of work coming from the Queensland Medical Physics community. Congratulations Charles et al!

PRIMPS 13 in May

Scott Crowe

The next PRIMPS will be held at GCUH on Friday May 2nd. It is the first time the GCUH has been given the chance to host this event and we are very excited for everyone to come down and see the new hospital. All departments are encouraged to present – whether it’s projects you’ve been working on, practicing for an upcoming conference, seeking advice or just an update on what you’ve been up to at your centre. Everyone in the medical physics community is invited to attend and socialise, so please forward this invitation onto your non-member colleagues. An invitation flyer can be found here.

Transport may be arranged to help people travelling down from Brisbane if there is sufficient interest – please RSVP early if you would be interested in this option. The transport would also be arranged to go back to Brisbane after festivities.

Please RSVP to Bess Sutherland for presentations, attendance and interest in transport.