Australiasian College of Physical Scientists and Engineers in Medicine

Please see below is a letter from the Director of Radiation Oncology Section of the Department of Health and Ageing, Mr Abel MacDonald, regarding changes to the Medicare items for radiation oncology treatment verification from 1 May 2010.

Read the full article Changes to the Medicare items for radiation oncology treatment verification

http://www.who.int/hinari/en/

http://www.who.int/hinari/eligibility/en/

(23rd April, 2010)

Cancer Australia established the Regional Multi-site Clinical Trials Capacity Building Network in 2009. The purpose of this initiative is to increase the capacity of regional centres to activate and recruit to trials conducted by the Multi-site Collaborative National Cancer Clinical Trials Groups, and thereby increasing access to high-quality trials to patients in regional Australia.

Applications are now open for new regional centres to join the Regional Multi-site Clinical Trials Capacity Building Network in 2010.

Together with the Victorian Cancer Agency, Cancer Australia is calling for applications from regional centres to join this initiative. Funding will be available to provide the person support required for the conduct of, and recruitment to, cancer clinical trials nominated by the Multi-site Collaborative National Cancer Clinical Trials Groups.

More information can be found at: http://www.canceraustralia.gov.au/cancer-australia/research-and-clinical-trials/support-clinical-trials#6

Kind regards

Janelle

Dr. Janelle Nunan
Program Manager
Research and Clinical Trials
Cancer Australia

ACPSEM is seeking member engagement to determine the wording, which will comprise the definition of a ACPSEM Clinical Medical Physicist.


Please provide your input within this process by articulating the wording, which best describes and represents the scope and the duties carried out by a clinical medical physicist.

To have your say go to our facebook discussion group.

As you may be aware, the Lae Cancer Centre, Papua New Guinea reopened in May 2009 and has been supported by physicists and radiation therapists from Australia. A report has been written updating the situation at the centre. It can be found at www.acpsem.org.au (Home>Governance>Asia Pacific>Documents). You need to be logged in to download this document.

We recently advertised for a volunteer radiation oncology medical physicist to support the centre's development and to provide training to treatment and technical staff. This post has not yet been filled, and is still available as a great opportunity for physicists of any level. See attached Expression of Interest for further details.

(2nd April, 2010)

The ARPANSA publication RPS14, Code of Practice for Radiation Protection in the Medical Applications of Ionizing Radiation (2008), usually referred to as the Medical Code, has been added to Schedule 11 of RPS6, the National Directory for Radiation Protection. All Codes and Standards referenced in Schedule 11 must be adopted within the regulatory framework of each State and Territory in Australia.

Edition 1 of the National Directory for Radiation Protection was developed by the Radiation Health Committee and published in August 2004. It was subsequently endorsed by the Australian Health Ministers' Conference (AHMC) as the uniform national framework for radiation protection in Australia.

Following publication of Edition 1, the Radiation Health Committee agreed that further progression of the Directory would be by individual amendments, and that the consolidated version of the Directory would be maintained as an electronic document via ARPANSA's website. The current Directory includes the first three amendments since Edition 1, which were agreed by the Radiation Health Committee during 2008 and were endorsed by Ministers in December 2009.

The current consolidated version is available for download at, http://www.arpansa.gov.au/Publications/codes/rps6.cfm as well as the individual amendments.

ACPSEM is committed to making it easier for its members to keep up to date with the latest announcements, education opportunities and job information. With this in mind ACPSEM can now be found on both Facebook and Twitter. This allows members to network with each other, share experiences on the discussion boards and upload photos and video. Please take a moment have a look at these new ways to stay connected and feel free to contribute to our online community.

Click here to join us on Facebook

Click here to follow us on Twitter

For those attending the RANZCR/AIR/FRO/ACPSEM Combined Scientific Meeting next week (Brisbane, 22nd-25th October, 2009), don’t miss the session entitled, “Supporting Radiation Oncology in South East Asia” from 10:30-12:30 on Friday 23rd October. The program for the session is as follows:

Supporting Radiation Oncology in South East Asia: An Overview; Graeme Morgan
IAEA activities in the development of clinical medical physicist training for Radiation Oncology in South East Asia; Donald McLean
Educational and Clinical Training of Medical Physicists in Vietnam; Brian Thomas
ACPSEM Asia Pacific Special Interest Group; Tomas Kron and Catherine Lawford
Up and Running: Radiotherapy Commissioning in Lae, Papua New Guinea; Simon Downes
Supporting Radiotherapy in SE Asia – Training the Trainers; Mary Coffey
Supporting Radiation Oncology in South East Asia: Radiation Therapy Technologist (RTT) Training in Vietnam; Jennifer Cox
Back to the Future: Radiation Therapy in Papua New Guinea – A Radiation Therapists Prospective; Christopher Walsh
Distance Learning in the Applied Sciences of Oncology; Michael Barton
Discussion

(15th October, 2009)

For those who missed it in late 2008, Tomas Kron et al. published a paper entitled, “Medical physics aspects of cancer care in the Asia Pacific Region”. The paper reports on a questionnaire sent out to 20 medical physics departments in the region, to determine the education, role and status of medical physicists in the Asia-Pacific region. The results provide useful data for workforce planning and training development for medical physicists in the region. The paper is published in a special focus issue of the freely available Biomedical Imaging and Intervention Journal, entitled “Frontiers of Cancer Care in Asia-Pacific Region”.

See T Kron et al. Biomed Imaging Interv J 2008; 4(3):e33

(16th August, 2009)

Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome…

Welcome to the new webpage of the Australasian College of Physical Scientists and Engineers in Medicine. It has been a long time coming and the process has highlighted the increasing complexity of our organization with branches, specialties, committees, TEAP, CPD, not to mention all the
databases of members, accreditations and registrations. There is a need for public access to some information and members access to more.

I would like to invite you to explore the page for yourself and please provide us with feedback at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Nothing is perfect. The webpage ain’t cabaret, but hopefully will be informative, useful and possibly even a bit entertaining.

Many happy returns

Tomas Kron

President ACPSEM

Support for People Living with Cancer

From July 1 2009people living with cancer in Australia will be better able to access a range of treatments, medicines and support. The Hon. Nicola Roxon MP, the Australian Minister for Health and Ageing, announced today that a new Medicare rebate was available for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans. She also announce better access to the drug bevacizumab, new PET services and over $6 million (over three years) to support the training of radiation oncology medical physicist registrars. Medical physics is a specialised field and these professionals are responsible for the set up, maintenance and calibration of linear accelerators, the machines used to provide radiation treatment for cancer patients. One aspect of this funding is to enable the Australasian College of Physical Scientists and Engineers in Medicine (ACPSEM) to provide oncology centres with education resources and conduct extra accreditation examinations. For more details see the full press release as follows: Support for People with Cancer full article (PDF)

It is with great pleasure that the ACPSEM Council announces that Associate Professor Natalka Suchowerska has been admitted as a Fellow of the College. This makes Natalka the first female Fellow for the ACPSEM. Well Done Natalka!

Natalka joined the College as an Associate Member in 1984 and has been an Ordinary Member since 2002. She has been an Associate Professor in the School of Physics, University of Sydney since 2003. Her contributions to the ACPSEM include NSW Branch Chair (1999-2001), ACPSEM Education Committee Chair (2001- 2003) and Chair of the Accreditation Working Party (1998-2001).

Ed Scull, ACPSEM member for more than 30 years and President from 1991 to 1993 has been awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the general division for service to biomedical engineering and associated professional associations.

Congratulations, Edward R Scull, OAM

ACPSEM branches are coordinating the collection of suitable medical physics and biomedical engineering text books for the University of Indonesia. If anyone can help with unwanted, but still useful, text books then please contact your local branch or Brian Thomas at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . The ACPSEM office will assist with postal/freight fees. See Textbooks request for more information.

(28th May, 2009)

Dear Members,

I am very pleased to announce that the following people have recently gained accreditation in Nuclear Medicine Physics.

Graeme O’Keefe , Dept Of Nuclear Medicine and Centre for PET, Austin Hospital VIC
Seu Seong Som, Dept of Nuclear Medicine and PET, Liverpool Hospital NSW
Chithradevi Sathiakuma, Dept of Nuclear Medicine and PET, Liverpool Hospital NSW

My congratulations to these three people and to the team behind the Nuclear Medicine Physics accreditation program for these achievements.

All the best,

Sean Geoghegan
________________________________________________________________
Sean Geoghegan, PhD Chair Professional Standards Board
Australasian College of Physical Scientists and Engineers in Medicine

Dear Colleagues,

I am delighted to inform members that the following candidate has been awarded with Accreditation in Radiotherapy Equipment Commissioning and Quality Assurance:

Mr Robert Chambers of the Medical Physics Dept, Cancer Care Centre, St George Hospital NSW.

I am also delighted to announce that the following candidates have passed their final examination requirements for Accreditation in Radiation Oncology Medical Physics:

Ms Alison Chapman of the Dept Radiation Oncology, Medical Physics, Andrew Love Cancer Centre, Victoria, and
Mr Michael Currie of the Dept Radiation Oncology, Medical Physics, Wollongong Hospital, NSW.

Congratulations to Robert Chambers, Alison Chapman and Michael Currie on their successes.
Sean Geoghegan
________________________________________________________________
Sean Geoghegan, PhD Chair Professional Standards Board
Australasian College of Physical Scientists and Engineers in Medicine

This is what some shady fellows got up to at the EPSM-ABEC conference in Christchurch. Meetings, meetings, meetings... talking, networking and sharing professional issues with other members.