Newsletter
A M ERIC A N ASSOCIATION OF PHY SICISTS IN ME DI CI NE VOLUME 33 NO. 1
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008
AAPM President’s Column
I
Gerald A. White Colorado Springs, CO
recently had the occasion to travel to Las Vegas for a meeting of the Alliance for Quality Imaging to work on strategy for the CARE Bill. Before the junket alarm goes off, be advised that I flew in after work, arriving at about midnight, and left the next evening just as the meeting ended. The only thing that “stayed in Vegas” was my MacDuff tartan wool tie that I unfortunately left in the room. (Certainly the next occupant was thrilled to add that to his Las Vegas wardrobe). Let me say that I am not a gambler in the Las Vegas sense. By way of reference I describe an event at my computer literacy training at the hospital. When the enterprise servers went up, everyone, no exceptions, was required to take a class to introduce them to the computer world prior to getting a login and password. The Mordac of our deployment was not impressed with the fact that we in Oncology had pulled cables and installed our own network years before there was an IT department in the hospital. The instruction was, as
one might expect, silly, error ridden and frustrating to an important character such as me who had so many other things waiting to be done. I was humbled, however, at the Mouse function exercise. We were asked – yes forced – to play the Microsoft Solitaire on our screens in full view of other classmates. I did not know how to play Solitaire and so failed my Mouse test miserably. (I did get my login, but still do not know how to play the game.) As I walked through the casino on my way to the CARE meeting, I passed the craps tables. They are, to the non-initiate, quite complex, and far more puzzling than Solitaire. There are 40 plus regions, some with multiple texts and perhaps subregions with their own meanings. I suspect, however, that they all have a function and to those with the appropriate knowledge and motivation they can each be used to gain success or failure depending on chance, strategy and which side of the enterprise you sit on. As I sat in the CARE Bill meeting amidst talk of education and training I thought about the many pathways we have in Medical Physics for entry into the profession. They are quite complex, with multiple disciplines and sub disciplines, different degrees and different education and training offerings associated with degrees from various Departments and Universities. Fortunately, success or failure in the broad endeavor is not dictated so much by chance but rather by vision, planning, and
execution. We are now at a point where vision, planning and execution of training programs for clinical Medical Physicists will change the way we prepare ourselves for the profession. The ABR has adopted a close variant of the AAPM consensus position on requirements for entry into the profession. Beginning in 2012, examinees will need to be enrolled in or have completed a CAMPEP accredited degree program or residency, and beginning in 2014 a CAMPEP approved residency will be required. This will require a large scale up of both degree programs and residencies, and more fundamentally, a review of our conceptions of the necessary components of both. We are firmly planted in the related and non-exclusive worlds of Science TABLE OF CONTENTS Chair of the Board Column Executive Director’s Column Editor’s Column Science Council Report Education Council Report New Board Members ACR Accreditation FAQS Professional Council Report 50th Anniversary News Treasurer’s Report Website Editor’s Report Health Policy/Economics Chapter News Ethic’s Committee Update Joint Licensure Subcommittee Rad Onc Safety Info System Persons in the News
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