Current Working Groups
EFOMP Working Groups
“Angiographic and fluoroscopic systems - QC protocol”.
The WG will operate under Scientific Committee from June 2019 to June 2021. Chair of the WG is Annalisa Trianni (IT) and co chair Andy Rodgers (UK).
The rationale of the WG: There is lack of an harmonized procedure to test angiographic and fluorosopic equipment. Some of the tests proposed still used are out-of-date and meaningless. Manufacturers are organizing a joint effort to produce an IEC standard to test the equipment. It is envisioned that this protocol could prevent the proliferation of other testing protocols with diverse methods of measurement and limiting values. New strategies to evaluate clinical image quality will be investigated and eventually included in the protocol.
The guidelines are under final production phase by the members of the WG.
"Role of Medical Physics Expert in clinical trials"
The WG will operate under Scientific Committee from September 2020 to September 2023. Chair of the WG is Natalie Abbott (UK) and co chair Christian Ronn (Denmark).
The rationale of the WG: To develop a consensus guidance document for the work MPEs do in clinical trials across Europe.
“Physiological Measurements and Medical Physicists” - Policy Statement 20
The WG will operate under Professional Matters Committee from January 2023 to December 2024. The chair of the WG is Petro Julkunen (Finland).
The rationale of the WG: Medical physicist's roles include related to ensuring of diagnostic quality in physiological measurements in different medical specialties. They set unique requirements for accurate and safe measurements and each require specially designed measurement tools, artifact rejection/correction, shielding solutions and software. Medical Physicist, working with physiological measurements, specific certification is obtained, with clinical practice required, by taking exams in the physics’ fields of electrocardiography, electroencephalography, magnetoencephalography, electromyography, polysomnography, respiratory diagnostics, intraoperative monitoring, transcranial magnetic stimulation, electrostimulation, electrical safety etc.
"Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy - Breast'
The WG will operate under Science Committee from March 2023 to December 2024. The chair of the WG is Tuomas Koivumäki (Finland).
The rationale of the WG: In many scientific papers, the VMAT technique has shown to improve the target coverage and reduce the unwanted dose to critical organs. The techniques used with VMAT seems to alter from center to center. Still it is unknown how many centers in European level use VMAT in breast radiotherapy treatments.
Joint Working Groups
Joint EANM-EFOMP
"Core curriculum revision for Medical Physics Experts working in Nuclear Medicine".
The WG will operate from April 2022 to April 2024. The rationale of the WG is to update the latest core curriculum.
Read Core Curricula for Medical Physics Experts here: https://www.efomp.org/index.php?r=fc&id=core-curricula
“Quality controls in conventional and solid state detector gamma cameras”
The WG will operate under Science Committee from September 2023 to September 2025. The chair of the WG is Laetitia Imbert (France).
The rationale of the WG: The literature on routine Quality Controls procedures for conventional gamma cameras is out-of-date or no more valid. No quality control guidelines even exists for solid state gamma cameras (both dedicated cardiac cameras and more recently introduced general purpose cameras), which need a specific and dedicated approach in the definition of routine quality control tests. Thus, there is a demanding need for guidelines that identify a set of routine quality controls to perform on both up-to-date conventional and solid state detector gamma cameras. The set of quality controls devised should have the characteristics of being simple and easy to realize. Reference and tolerance values will also be defined. The execution of these QC would guarantee the operation of conventional and solid state detector gamma cameras under optimal conditions ensuring the best performance in routine clinical tasks.
Joint AAPM-EFOMP
AAPM-EFOMP 'Development of a new breast dosimetry phantom" (TG 323).
Chair Ioannis Sechopoulos (AAPM) Vice chair Ruben van Engen (EFOMP)
The rationale of the WG: To develop a new breast phantom that adequately queries the response of the automatic exposure control (AEC) mechanisms of digital mammography, breast tomosynthesis and contrast-enhanced digital mammography systems in a clinically realistic fashion.
AAPM-ESTRO-EFOMP "FLASH (ultra-high dose rate) radiation dosimetry" (TG359).
Chair Dimitris Mihailidis (AAPM) Vice chair Yolanda Prezado (EFOMP)
The WG will review the uncertainty in determining the dose and need for standardization in dosimetry for FLASH beams to be used in experiments, research and potentially in pre-clinical applications.
- Assess the factors that would affect the beam dosimetric characteristics in FLASH mode, compared to standard delivery.
- Assess the suitability of radiation measurement equipment (ion chambers, film, diodes, Faraday cap, etc) for FLASH mode.
- Provide general guidelines on calibration, dosimetry and reporting of beams in FLASH mode.
AAPM-EFOMP "Invasive Cardiovascular X-ray Imaging" (TG 389)
Chair Ken Fetterly (AAPM) Vice chair Hilde Bosmans (EFOMP)
X-ray angiography systems are used to diagnose and treat cardiovascular (CV) disease in adult and pediatric patients. Disease conditions commonly encountered in the invasive CV practice include arrhythmia, atrial fibrillation, chronic and acute coronary artery stenosis, and adult and pediatric structural heart disease. When imaging the vessels and devices within and near the heart, cardiac motion and rapid blood flow contribute to unique X-ray imaging conditions. Further, cardiovascular disease is treated with a variety of devices ranging in size from small to large compared to the spatial resolution properties of the X-ray systems. The purpose of this TG is to generate a Report describing imaging conditions unique to diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease; technical considerations for X-ray angiography and fluoroscopy imaging; and recommendations to optimize relationship between image quality and patient radiation dose.
AAPM-EFOMP " Recommendations for the safe clinical use of respiratory-correlated four-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging in radiotherapy " (TG 391)
Chair Martin Fast (AAPM) Vice chair Christoph Bert (EFOMP)
Define the (minimum) requirements for the use of respiratory-correlated 4D-MRI acquisitions in radiotherapy, including considerations for scanner hardware, sequence parameterization, motion surrogate, and personnel and their roles.
Provide practical clinical implementation guidelines for 4D-MRI, including general and organ-specific protocol optimization and workflow recommendations.
Outline recommended RT-specific acceptance, commissioning, and periodic QA for 4DMRI on MR-sim and MR-linac based on early user experience.
Discuss potential future developments in 4D-MRI and their relevance to the RT workflow.
AAPM-EFOMP "Radiation Oncology Contingency Plan Against Cyberattacks " (TG 393)
Chair : Baoshe Zhang (AAPM) Vice chair Brendan McClean (EFOMP)
The charges support the implementation of contingency plan for a radiation therapy clinic to resume patient treatments within a reasonable timeframe, following a cyberattack that leaves institutional computing and network services compromised and/or unavailable.
Composition