European Congress of Medical Physics goes virtual!
Publication Date: Jun 16th, 2021 13:55, Category: EFOMP Announcements
The current situation of the pandemic prevented ECMP from being a face-to-face meeting. It will now be a fully virtual event over the same dates; June 16-19, 2021.
Excitingly, this means we will cover our planned scientific, educational and professional programme without borders and hope that even more medical physicists can join the congress.
For more information & news on the congress, please see: www.ecmp2020.org/
Mika Kortesniemi. ECMP President welcome message
Paddy Gilligan, EFOMP President welcome speech
Good evening physicists,
Welcome Prof Stasi, President AIFM, Prof Rehan, President of IOMP and Prof Kortesenemi, President of ECMP and Turin Councillor Sacco. My name is Paddy Gilligan. I am the President of the European organisations for medical physics, EFOMP. It is an honour for me to open the third European congress of medical physics. The mission of EFOMP is to benefit the patient and staff through the application of medical physics. Some of the ways we achieve this is through communication , integration and education. The congress gives us a chance to present and develop new techniques, present new ideas and research , adapt and learn from each other. Most importantly it gives us the chance to grow both individually and as a community through this shared experience. The congress has grown from strength to strength and this year we nearly have 1000 delegates registered who will attend the 33 pages in the program of invited lectures , three online schools , companies lectures, and joint sessions with aligned organisations . This makes this congress the premier event for medical physics in Europe .The most important thing is it will also give voice to another generation of physicists many presenting for the first time as either one of the approximately 350 scientific presentations or 350 electronic posters.
These numbers are remarkable given the fact that we have had to postpone the congress for one year and go fully online. It is also remarkable that these wonderful lectures and talks , many given by volunteers have also been curated and organised by volunteers. As a medical physics community we battled and adapted to provide health care during covid times, no where more so in Europe than in
northern Italy and the physicists of the AIFM. The congress also represents the determination to not only keep going but to advance in order to benefit patients and the profession. It is a reflection of our ability to adapt as a community.
The work of Mika Kortesenemi, Alberto Torresin , Marco Brambilla, Michele Stasi, the scientific, congress planning and local organizing committees, the EFOMP officers, committees, working groups and the AIFM in putting together this significant event, cannot be under stated. This has been backed up by the commitment from Symposium and the city of Torino, who we missed the wonderful opportunity to visit in person even though we will see some of the treats the city has to offer online. Like the music that will follow these introductions you truly will keep us Evergreen.
In EFOMP we have many voices, such as the journal, the website, the social media and many education events and but the congress has become the crescendo, the melting pot of over ten percent of our
members from 36 countries. The events of the past year have also shown us that we should not take the ability for our community to come together for granted. These events also show that the scientific view is not always heard by all elements of society so we need to communicate the important work we do as a profession.
So please enjoy the next three days, listen to the lectures , even try to go outside your comfort zone of diagnostic , radiotherapy, nuclear medicine and learn from aspects of the other areas where medical
physicists work . Feel strong to give your voice at discussions. I ask particularly younger physicists or those from countries not well represented give voice to your opinions and ideas, even if they are different.
Tell us what you want for medical physics on both a scientific, professional and personal level.
Engage with the lecturers, vendors and other delegates.
Be inspired by the volunteers who give so much for the profession through their hard work on all levels. They are radiation superheroes too.
Use the conference as a time to reflect on the words of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant: What might we know? What should we do? What may we hope?
Take some time to speak, learn and reflect until we can bring back a physical presence to the physics in Dublin August 2022.