Program Information
Science, Educational and Professional Program
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Interactive Sessions
SAMs Symposia
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Society Oriented Sessions - Make Plans to Attend
- New Member Symposium
- Society of Directors of Academic Medical Physics Programs (Annual Meeting and Business Meeting)
- Annual Business and Town Hall Meeting
Program Information
New for the 2012 Program:
- Supporting Documents will be limited to figures and captions and number of pages allowed have changed for the following submissions: Young Investigator Supporting Document - 2 pages; Junior Investigator Supporting Document - 2 pages; John S. Laughlin – Science Council Research Suppporting Document - 2 pages; and Proffered Supporting Document - 1 page
- Expanded SAMS offerings.
- New session formats, including debates and panel discussions.
- Increased dawn-to-dusk content in scientific and educational tracks.
- Expanded scientific content in imaging (all modalities), image-guided therapy (radiation therapy and minimally invasive interventions), and therapy physics (including novel arc therapies, proton therapy, and targeted radionuclides).
The following topics will be offered during the meeting:
Imaging Track
The 2012 Imaging Track will explore several excellent topics that explore near and far term future directions of medical physics research and innovation. Scientific symposia will include the following general topics: State of the Art In Quantitative Imaging (involving CT, PET and MRI); Assessment of Image Quality in CT – present and future; Computer-Aided Diagnosis: Performance Evaluation, User Training and QA issues; Approaches for significant dose reduction in Fluoroscopy, Recent Advances in Molecular Imaging and others.
Therapy Track
The 2012 Therapy Track will showcase the current hot topics in therapy but all show potential future directions of medical physics research and innovation. Symposia will include thefollowing general topics: recent advances in outcome modeling, proton therapy, biophysical modeling, new concepts in treatment planning, image-guided andadaptive radiotherapy,imaging for treatment assessment and others.
Joint Imaging-Therapy Track
The 2012 Joint Imaging-Therapy Track will feature exciting topics highlighting the collaborative efforts between imaging and therapy medical physics. This track will include the following topics: a lively debate on the future of adaptive radiation therapy, risks and realities of radiation in imaging, treatment assessment using MR, advances in image guided therapy, and advances in molecular imaging.
Educational Course - Imaging Track
There will be 36 hours of imaging education offeredat AAPM 2012, including8 hours of SAMS. The scheduling of the imaging education sessions has beenrearranged to minimize the number of overlapping lectures, with educational content available both morning and afternoon onMonday - Thursday. An emphasis will be placed on practical content to support the needs of the clinical diagnostic medical physicist. CE credits will be available in CT, MR, Nuclear Medicine, and Mammography to meet accreditation requirements. Sessions will cover newer clinicaltechnology such as tomosynthesis, and last year's popularsession on medical radiation risk will be repeated with the latest information.
Educational Course - Therapy Track
The Therapy Physics CE series will feature a total of 31 hours of educational lectures.This year our goal is toincrease interactivity and quality of the education programs: most educational courses will use audio response systems (ARS) for audience feedback.The emphasis of the program will be on safe and effective use of new technologies addressing the current issues in clinical practice. The programis designed to address the broad educational needs of our membership and will include topics in SRS, SBRT, IGRT, IMRT, VMAT, QA and safety, brachytherapy, electron and proton therapies as well as radiobiology. The program will feature five SAM sessions and several new courses including 'unsettled issues in the radiobiology of hypofractionation and PET-guided treatment planning', "electron therapy: past, present and future", and "the emerging role of image guidance for breast radiotherapy". The 4D IMRT and the role of image guidance, review of radiobiological principles, the use and QA of biologically related models for treatment planning,inclusion of imaging dose in radiation therapy planning, initiating an IGRT program, safety issues in radiation therapy physics, radiation related second cancers, and the dosimetry of HDR; present status and future direction are few examples of the courses that the therapy educational program will feature this year.
Practical Medical Physics Track
To be provided.
Professional Track
The Professional Track continues to grow in depth and breadth to keep our members abreast of the latest professionally-related developments. Topics this year cover both clinical and research aspects of our profession. To be included in the track are: news on ABR 2014 requirements, a session on preparing for therapy ACR accreditation, PQI, Practice Guidelines, Ethics, Publishing, Journal Article Review, Economics of Light Ion Teletherapy and two symposia on international medical physics.
John S. Laughlin Science Council Research Symposium
Topic: Imaging for Therapy Assessment – Understanding response to therapy is a cornerstone in optimizing patient therapy to achieve optimal clinical outcome. Determining response during the course of therapy provides means for treatment adaptation. In addition, searching for new therapies is growing more complex with the availability of patient-specific genetic information and extensive incorporation of various biomarkers. Furthermore, with novel molecular targeted therapies the response to therapy may not be observed at the same magnitude or speed on radiographic images as it used to be. A clear need exists to develop and qualify more sensitive and specific quantitative imaging techniques as surrogate biomarkers for ever-growing numbers of clinical trials and routine clinical practice.
Innovations in Medical Physics Education
The Education Council of the AAPM will be sponsoring the Innovations in Medical Physics Education symposium to honor and publicize innovations in Medical Physics Education. AAPM members are invited to submit a one page description of innovative medical physics educational activities for radiology residents, radiation oncology residents, medical physicists, technologists or others. The projects can be scientific research, novel teaching strategies – team teaching or adult learning efforts, novel educational materials – lectures, websites, or other innovations.
The top six submissions will be invited to present their projects at the symposium during the 2012 AAPM annual meeting in Charlotte, NC. Each speaker will be allocated 15 minutes.
The top project will be presented a plaque and a prize of $2,000. Additional honorable mention plaques may be awarded. Unfortunately no travel support is available. The deadline for submissions is March 1, 2012. Selected submissions will be notified by April 16, 2012.
How the Meeting is Organized
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How the Sessions are Defined
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Special Recognitions & Acknowledgements
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