Euroconference EMIT on Medical Physics Training

Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste
October 9-12, 2003

The Euroconference on Medical Physics Training, supported by the EU Leonardo project EMIT (European Medical Imaging Technology), was organised at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, with the aim of discussing the results of the development of new training materials for professionals working in clinical environment who deal with ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging equipment. These materials, prepared in the frame of project EMIT), are to be published on CDs after revision based on the comments of the attendees of this conference.

This was the second international conference on the subject, which followed the 1st Euroconference on training in medical physics (organised also in the ICTP in 1998). This first conference on the subject (supported by the EU project EMERALD) dealt with the development of original training programs and materials for medical equipment using ionising radiation. The result of this project was a set of three CDs containing the structured training exercises in the fields - Physics of: 1. X-ray Diagnostic Radiology; 2. Physics of Nuclear Medicine; 3. Physics of Radiotherapy.

The 2nd Conference (EMIT) extended its scope to asses the suitability of the new e-learning materials for the training in biomedical engineering. Due to this reason the conference delegates were not only medical physicists, but also biomedical engineers. This conference showed the need for close collaboration of scientists, lecturers and professionals in these fields and the members of international and european organisations present at the meeting agreed to build up common projects and programs.

The conference was opened by the host, Prof. L. Bertoochi from the ICTP. He described the International Medical Physics College (a four-week course), which has been run on a biannual basis for more than 15 years. The College is organised primarily for participants from developing countries and are additionally aimed to foster the development of science in these countries. More than 700 participants have attended the Centre from its establishment. In the last year alone there were medical physics workers from 42 countries attending the College. Participants from developing countries have the chance to get the status of associate members, which enables them to spend three months of research in the centre three times in six years. Prof. Bertoochi also recalled the words of late Abdus Salam, saying that scientists are very happy people because their job is also their hobby.

Dr. Slavik Tabakov (Coordinator of both EU projects - EMERALD and EMIT) spoke on behalf of the organisers, the EMIT Consortium, and on behalf of the IOMP Education and Training Committee. He explained the differences and similarities between the university education and professional training (organised in a clinical environment after the graduation). Education and training courses in medical physics have a long tradition and were held in different European countries. In order to establish the status and to harmonise their development a group from King's College London has organised in Budapest (November 1994) the first international conference on medical physics education and training. The Budapest Conference resulted in with a book (C. Robins, S. Tabakov, C. Lewis: Medical Radiation Physics - A European Perspective, London, ISBN 1 870722 02 7) which analysed the strength and the weakness of medical physics education and training. The book included programs from 30 European countries and was pivotal for the development of many new MSc programs in Europe and the world.

The development of medical physics education and training had been underpinned by the EU Directive 97/43, Article 7, which refers to training of engineering employees in clinical environment, i.e. addresses adequate theoretical and practical training, appropriate curricula and recognition of diplomas. These questions are further explained in the Policy statement 9 of the European Federation of Organisations for Medical Physics. An EFOMP survey shows that the number of trained medical physicists in Europe nowadays reaches (per million inhabitants) 6 in radiation physics, 5 in nuclear medicine and 4 in diagnostics. A good guide for training schemes in medical physics and clinical engineering is published by the UK Institute for Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM).

The EMERALD project (European Medical Radiation Learning Development) develops the above recommendations into practical training schemes (including training syllabi, practical tasks, image databases, etc.), while its successor EMERALD II introduces these original materials as a new e-Learning tools suitable for use through Internet. Now these training materials are used not only for training, but also for lecturing in various universities and institutions in 65 countries. The new EMIT project follows the experience of EMERALD.

Dr. Inger - Lena Lamm spoke on EFOMP activities in fields of ionising radiation, radiation protection and reduction of radiation exposure. Better standardisation in the field will help the whole profession. She sees the implementation of EU directives in the ten European countries that will enter the Union in spring 2004 as one of the most important issues of EFOMP in the forthcoming years.

Among the distinguished speakers was also Prof. Perry Sprawls, the holder of the 2004 IOPM Harold Jones medal. He was awarded with this medal for his pioneering work in training of medical physicists in Northern America. Read more on www.sprawls.org/NAmedphyedu/. In his speech, he addressed Life Long Learning as a continuation of the medical physics training after graduation and directed experience achieved through a two-year training process in a clinical facility. In the USA, there are both, accredited and non-accredited medical physics programs. Often, the fact that a program is not accredited does not reflect the quality of the program, but just the fact that the responsible persons had chosen not to go through the accreditation process. The accreditation is performed by the CAMPEP (Committee for Accreditation of Medical Physics Education Programs).

Prof. Colin Roberts from King's College, London, the Contractor of EMIT, spoke on the experience the Consortium achieved through the development of the training materials for magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound. These modalities of imaging and the instrumentation beyond them have a very rapid development, which had been a challenge for the developers of educational and training materials. The EMERALD project proposes a four month condensed training in a international training centre followed by further one to two months of in-house training in a national clinical centre. The training modules incorporate a list of competencies, a student workbook with tasks, teaching guidelines and a CD containing images. Prof. Roberts also introduced the Medical Physics Dictionary, to be available at the consortium web site in May 2004.

During the conference, the beta version of the training materials in MRI and US was presented. A very valuable part included the reports of different participants in the development of the project: from the authors of the texts and other training materials, the professional reviewers, including the medical partners, the trainers and the trainees. However, the consortium members wanted feedback from the conference participants and to exchange viewpoints with them. On both days, round table discussions were organised and the discussions were also continued during the welcome reception on the terrace of the Adriatico Guesthouse of the ICTP.

Detailed information on the EMERALD and EMIT program (plus a demo of the developed training materials) can be found at www.emerald2.net