AAPM Newsletter September/October 2015 Vol. 40 No. 5

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION of PHYSICISTS IN MEDICINE

AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

AAPM NEWSLETTER Advancing the Science, Education and Professional Practice of Medical Physics

IN THIS ISSUE: ▶ AAPM President-Elect’s Report

▶ IOMP News

▶ William D. Coolidge Award

▶ TG-100 Workshop in Toronto

▶ eBook Synopsis: The Pioneering of e-Learning in Medical Physics and more...

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PHYSICISTS IN MEDICINE

2016 AAPM FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES GRANTS

FELLOWSHIPS

The Research Seed Funding Grant

AAPM Fellowship for the Training of a Doctoral Candidate in the Field of Medical Physics

Three $25,000 grants will be awarded to provide funds to develop exciting investigator-initiated concepts, which will hopefully lead to successful longer term project funding from the NIH or equivalent funding sources. Funding for grant recipients will begin on July 1 of the award year. Research results will be submitted for presentation at future AAPM meetings.

Must be a member of AAPM at time of application (any membership category). Pending membership status not accepted. **No Exceptions**

APPLY: www.aapm.org/education/ GrantsFellowships.asp

The AAPM Fellowship for the training of a doctoral candidate in the field of Medical Physics is awarded for first two years of graduate study leading to a doctoral degree in Medical Physics. Both BSc. and MS holders are eligible to apply. A stipend of $13,000 per year, plus tuition support not exceeding $5,000 per year will be assigned to the recipient. Graduate study must be undertaken in a Medical Physics Doctoral Degree program accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Physics Education Programs, Inc, (CAMPEP).

Summer Undergraduate Fellowship Program The American Association of Physicists in Medicine Summer Undergraduate Fellowship Program is designed to provide opportunities for undergraduate university students to gain experience in medical physics by performing research in a medical physics laboratory or assisting with clinical service at a clinical facility. In this program, AAPM serves as a

clearinghouse to match exceptional students with exceptional medical physicists, many who are faculty at leading research centers. Students participating in the program are placed into summer positions that are consistent with their interest.

Students are selected for the program on a competitive basis to be an AAPM summer fellow. Each summer fellow receives a $5,000 stipend from AAPM.

Diversity Recruitment through Education and Mentoring Program (DREAM) The American Association of Physicists in Medicine Diversity Recruitment through Education and Mentoring Program (DREAM) is a 10 week summer program designed to increase the number of underrepresented groups in medical physics by creating new opportunities, outreach and mentoring geared towards diversity recruitment of undergraduate students in the field of medical physics. Students participating in the program are placed into summer positions that are consistent with their interest. Students are selected for the program on a competitive basis to be a DREAM fellow. Each DREAM fellow receives a $5,000 stipend from AAPM.

ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE 5 7 11 13 15 19 22 23 27 29 31 35 39 41 42 43

AAPM President-Elect’s Report Executive Director’s Column From the Editor’s Desk Professional Council Report Science Council Report Education Council Report William D. Coolidge Award Introduction William D. Coolidge Award Acceptance Speech Website Editor’s Report ACR Accreditation: FAQs For Medical Physicists Legislative & Regulatory Affairs Report Health Policy & Economic Issues IOMP News TG-100 Workshop in Toronto eBook Synopsis AAPM HQ Team...At Your Service

AAPM NEWSLETTER AAPM NEWSLETTER is published by the American Association of Physicists in Medicine on a bi-monthly schedule. AAPM is located at One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740-3846

EDITORIAL BOARD Editor Mahadevappa Mahesh, MS, PhD Johns Hopkins University E-mail: mmahesh@jhmi.edu Phone: 410-955-5115 John M. Boone, PhD Robert Jeraj, PhD George C. Kagadis, PhD E. Ishmael Parsai, PhD Charles R. Wilson, PhD

EVENTS/ANNOUNCEMENTS 2 4 10 12 14 18 18 34

AAPM Funding Opportunities AAPM 2015 Award Winners RSNA 2015 Academy of Radiology Research 2015 Distinguished Investigator Award Winners AAPM Awards Call for Nominations AAPM Spring Clinical Meeting 2016 AAPM Summer School 2016 AAPM E&R Fund Donors’ Lounge

SUBMISSION INFORMATION Please send submissions (with pictures when possible) to: E-mail: nvazquez@aapm.org AAPM Headquarters Attn: Nancy Vazquez One Physics Ellipse College Park, MD 20740 Phone: (301) 209-3390

NAVIGATION HELP Previous/Next Article

PUBLISHING SCHEDULE The AAPM Newsletter is produced bi-monthly.

Next issue: November/December Submission Deadline: October 12, 2015 Posted Online: Week of November 1, 2015

Tap the arrows at the bottom of the page to go to the next or previous page.

EDITOR’S NOTE I welcome all readers to send me any suggestions or comments on any of the articles or new features to make this a more effective and engaging publication and to enhance the overall readership experience. Thank you.

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CONTENTS

AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION of PHYSICISTS IN MEDICINE

2015Award Winners

•

The John R. Cameron Young Investigators Symposium A competition for new investigators within a special symposium in honor of Dr. John Cameron.

Congratulations go to: 1st place: Jacqueline Andreozzi of Dartmouth College for her abstract: “Rapid Treatment Field Uniformity Optimization for Total Skin Electron Beam Therapy Using Cherenkov Imaging” 2nd place: Gage Redler of Rush University Medical Center for his abstract: “A Novel Scatter Imaging Modality for Real-Time Image Guidance During Lung SBRT” 3rd place: Joost Verburg of Massachusetts General Hospital for his abstract: “Prompt Gamma-Ray Spectroscopy for Range Verification of Clinical Proton Beams”

•

Innovation in Medical Physics Education The Education Council of the AAPM sponsors a session during the Annual Meeting to honor and publicize Innovation in Medical Physics Education. The abstracts can be scientific research, novel teaching strategies – team teaching or adult learning efforts, novel educational materials – lectures, websites, or other innovations.

Congratulations goes to: Joseph Perl of Stanford Linear Accelerator Center Scientific Computing for his presentation: “A Window Into the Stochastic World Through the TOPAS Tool for Particle Simulation”

AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

AAPM PRESIDENT-ELECT’S REPORT Bruce H. Curran, Richmond, VA

I

t’s mid-August here in Richmond, a sunny and not so humid day, somewhat unusual here. That’s good, as the movers are coming today to reunite me with my furniture, some of which I haven’t seen in 6 years.

The last month has been extremely busy with our Annual Meeting, an ACR Intersociety Summer Conference, and a combined meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee on Unifying Publication Platforms and the Executive Committee. Add to that closing on a home here in Richmond, moving and, oh yes, a Treatment Management System upgrade this evening.

For those who missed the President’s Symposium at the Annual Meeting, there were three outstanding talks organized by President John Boone. Rod Pettigrew, MD, PhD, Director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Engineering (NIBIB), opened the session with some incredible images from a “billion frames/second” camera system (search for “billion frames/second camera” to find a number of articles and video segments on this technology). I, among many, was completely blown away by movie loops of light quanta reflecting and refracting off surfaces. His talk was followed by talks by Cedric Yu and Ed Jackson on innovative efforts in radiation oncology and quantitative imaging.A new aspect of the Annual Meeting, also initiated by John Boone, was the MRgRT Certificate Course (see the Annual Meeting Program for more details). The course was very well attended and considered a great success by both program faculty and attendees. A new certificate course will be offered in 2016; several therapy topics

AAPM 2015 President Symposium Speakers Rod Pettigrew, MD, PhD, John Boone, Cedric Yu and Ed Jackson.

are under consideration.

As always there were lots of great courses, symposia, posters, and proffered papers available at the meeting.

My thanks for the hard work of the Meeting Coordination Committee, the Scientific, Education, and Professional Program Subcommittees and the Track Directors. For those who missed a session (as did the Executive Committee), most of the content will be available in the Virtual Library shortly.

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AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

President-Elect, cont.

Although the draft minutes are not yet out, I would be remiss not to spend a few lines recounting initiatives proposed by the Strategic Planning Committee and discussed at the Board of Directors Meeting. These included: • Continuing to support the Radiation Oncology Incident Learning System (in conjunction with ASTRO) for another year while requesting better evidence of its acceptance, improvements, and data analysis.

• In response to the Ad Hoc Committee on Corporate Relations Report, creating a staff position at HQ to develop and improve our Corporate Partnership Program.

• Embarking on a multi-year effort to assess AAPM’s Governance structure to determine how to more effectively and efficiently manage our resources and efforts. A review and assessment of our Strategic Plan, now five years old, was also approved.

• In partnership with SNMMI, funding two new Nuclear Medicine Physics residency programs. The programs, to be funded 50% by AAPM and SNMMI, and 50% by the institutions, will address a need to develop additional Nuclear Medicine physicists in the coming years.

The ACR Summer meeting focused on Driving Innovation in Radiology. There were a number of excellent sessions, but the content that impressed me the most focused on Innovation in Education, led by Petra Lewis, MB, BS of Dartmouth College and Drs. Kondo and Restauri from the University of Colorado. They illustrated a number of interactive tools and course resources that I will definitely adopt in my teaching. A little searching will bring up a number of publications and demonstrations of their efforts, which I highly recommend to you.

Last Thursday–Sunday was spent in productive meetings with the Ad Hoc Committee on Unifying Publication Platforms (AHUPP), chaired by John Hazle, and the Executive Committee. The AHUPP meeting discussed a broad range of topics centered around the implications of finding a single platform for reviewing and publishing both Medical Physics and the Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics. The committee’s charge includes the development of an RFP to solicit and then evaluate bids from several publishers who have expressed interest in the combined publishing of our journals. EXCOM met Friday–Sunday, discussing many of the topics listed above from the Board and how to move forward. In particular, there was an extended discussion on the Governance Assessment effort, refining the charge of an ad hoc committee for oversight of the effort, the selection of the committee, and reviewing the timeline.

In closing, I want to thank George Starkschall for arranging, and Walter Grant and Jeff Masten as cospeakers for a session during the Annual Meeting, on having one’s position terminated. Walter and I have been through this in the past two years and the session was one that both of us spent emotionally re-living.

That said, I know that many in the audience found the session helpful and I appreciate the opportunity to increase the “positive” aspects of the experience.

I hope all have had a great summer and I look forward to seeing many of you at AAPM chapter meetings this fall.

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AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S COLUMN Angela Keyser, College Park, MD

Prince Street in Progress — Your New AAPM Headquarters

The purchase of 1631 Prince Street in Alexandria, Virginia diversifies and strengthens AAPM’s investment portfolio and better positions the organization to support both AAPM’s vision and mission. One floor of the 12,364 square foot, four-story building will be devoted to meeting space, with the technology and in-house HQ team needed to service the growing number of AAPM council and committee meetings. The new HQ building offers room for growth should AAPM require additional staff support in the future, with work areas for 41 team members and five additional areas that can easily convert from group to individual work spaces. With much of the design and planning work behind us, I am pleased to report that the remodeling began in earnest at the end of July. While there have been some permitting delays and some long lead times for the furniture items, the plan is to move in November.

Construction is well underway at AAPM’s new Headquarters space in Alexandria, VA. View from the second floor.

Other benefits to the Alexandria location: • Proximity to Airports § DCA/Washington Reagan Airport — four miles or two stops on the Metro § IAD/Dulles — 33 miles • Public Transportation § Two Metro stations, Amtrak, DASH and Metro buses

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AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

Executive Director, cont.

• Amenities § Numerous hotels within walking distance § Many restaurants and shops within walking distance • Fourth largest concentration of associations and nonprofits in the US § More than 400 within five miles • Federal Government Agencies § US Patent & Trademark Office; 2.5 million sq. ft. campus, 9,000 employees and growing § National Science Foundation; new 667,000 sq. ft. facility to be constructed and occupied by the end of 2016

3rd International Day of Medical Physics on November 7 The International Organization of Medical Physics (IOMP) is once again promoting activities to raise awareness about the role of medical physics through the International Day of Medical Physics (IDMP). The 2015 IDMP is scheduled for November 7, the birthdate in 1867 of Marie SklodowskaCurie. The theme of IDMP 2015 is “Better Medical Physics = Better Cancer Care in Radiation Oncology.” This is an AAPM’s new HQ at 1631 Prince Street, Alexandria, VA. excellent opportunity to promote the role of medical physicists. Visit the IOMP website for more information and promotional resources.

Reminders October 15 is the deadline for nominations for the 2016 William D. Coolidge Award, Marvin M.D. Williams Award, Edith H. Quimby Lifetime Achievement Award, John S. Laughlin Young Scientist Award and AAPM Fellows.

Make sure to register for the RSNA 2015 by November 6 to receive the complimentary registration provided to all AAPM members. Remember, AAPM’s Headquarters Hotel is now The Hyatt Regency Chicago, 151 E. Upper Wacker Drive. AAPM meetings and annual reception will be held at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.

The AAPM Reception will be held on Tuesday, December 1 from 6:00–8:00 PM.

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AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

Executive Director, cont.

Mark your calendars for the 2016 AAPM Spring Clinical Meeting to be held March 5–8 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The 2016 AAPM Summer School, The Medical Physics Leadership Academy, will be held June 12–16 at the Westfields Marriott Conference Center in Chantilly, Virginia.

Washington, DC is the host of the 2016 AAPM Annual Meeting scheduled for July 31–August 4.

AAPM Transparency Ever want to know more about the operations and governance of AAPM? AAPM’s volunteer leadership continues to provide a wealth of information about the management of the organization to members via the web. I applaud current and past leaders for seeking to provide a high level of transparency. Won’t you take a few moments to review the information?

Members will find: • Audited financial reports dating back to 1992; • AAPM’s current budget; • Budget history; • Minutes from AAPM Board meetings and background; • Minutes from past Annual Business Meetings; • Notes from Town Hall meetings; and, • Reports from all the Headquarters Site Visit Committees, a group of volunteers that reviews HQ operations every three years.

Should you ever have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

2016 AAPM Dues Renewals Dues renewal notices for 2016 will be sent out in early October. I encourage you to pay your dues via the AAPM website. Remember, many of the regional chapters are partnering with HQ on the dues process, so make sure to check the invoice to see if you can pay your national and chapter dues with one transaction.

Be mindful, though, that some chapters have a membership application process. Please only remit dues for chapters of which you are an official member.

Staff News

Jennifer Hudson and her fiancé Matt welcomed a baby boy, Logan James Richardson, on June 25th. Mother and son are doing well and his two older sisters, Natalie and Krista, are in love with their baby brother. Jen will return to the office in late-September. In the meantime, a temporary employee is covering Jen’s membership duties.

Nick Wingreen joined the AAPM HQ team in August as the Office Services Assistant. See more details in “AAPM HQ Team…At Your Service!” in this issue. www.aapm.org | 9

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PLANNING TO ATTEND

RSNA 2015?

Be Sure to Book Your Room at the AAPM Headquarters Hotel:

The Hyatt Regency Chicago 151 E. Wacker Drive AAPM Meetings and Annual Reception will be held at the Hyatt Regency Chicago RSNA 101st Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting November 29 – December 4, 2015 Chicago, IL Deadline for discounted registration and hotel reservations: November 6

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PHYSICISTS IN MEDICINE | WWW.AAPM.ORG

AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK Mahadevappa Mahesh, Baltimore, MD

W

elcome to the post Annual Meeting issue of the AAPM Newsletter.

This issue contains several post-meeting reports and regular columns plus articles on health policy and economic issues, IOMP news, and an update on the new AAPM headquarters building. I would like to draw your attention to the President-Elect’s column summarizing the EXCOM meeting, held in early August, to discuss the Governance Assessment effort and the ad-hoc Committee meeting on Unifying Publication Platforms for Both Medical Physics and JACMP. Also of interest, the Executive Director’s report has an update on the new AAPM headquarters, including some recent photos of the building, which is currently undergoing renovations. It is expected that the entire office will be moved to the new space by November of this year.

Keeping up with tradition, included in this issue are the William D. Coolidge Award introductory, given by Dr. John M. Boone, and acceptance speech by Dr. Maryellen Giger.

Finally, I would like to congratulate John Boone and other AAPM members that received the Academy of Radiology Research Distinguished Investigator Award this year for their accomplishments in the field of medical imaging.

AAPM Southern California Chapter Midwinter Workshop Sheraton Universal Hotel • Friday, January 29 • 8:00 am–5:00 pm Speakers include: President Elect Designate Melissa Martin, Wayne Beckham, Sonja Dieterich and Kristy Brock A total of approximately 8 hours of CAMPEP, ASRT and MDCB credits will be sought

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Congratulations to AAPM Members who received the

Academy of Radiology Research 2015 Distinguished Investigator Award John M. Boone, PhD, University of California, Davis, Sacramento, CA Maryellen L. Giger, PhD, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL Yulei Jiang, PhD, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL Charles A. Mistretta, PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI Xiaochuan Pan, PhD, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL Yi Wang, PhD, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY

This prestigious honor recognizes individuals for their accomplishments in the field of medical imaging.

AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

PROFESSIONAL COUNCIL REPORT James Goodwin, Burlington, VT

Physics Reimbursement and the Use of Medical Physicist Assistants

T

he use of Medical Physicist Assistants (MPAs) in the clinic is a topic that will require careful consideration in terms of their responsibilities, supervision, and training. A Medical Physics Practice Guideline (MPPG #7) concerning this topic is currently being drafted.

An additional consideration in the use of MPAs is the effect that their incorporation into the clinic workflow could have on reimbursement by Medicare and other payers. Based on comments that I have heard in venues such as the recent Town Hall Meeting at the Annual Meeting in Anaheim, I thought that a few words of background and clarification might be beneficial to the membership as we consider this topic.

Medical providers use a collection of codes called Current Procedural Terminology (CPTÂŽ) codes to describe and bill for their services. These codes are owned and maintained by the American Medical Association.

There are thousands of codes; the manual that lists and describes them is the size of a small city phone book.

Seventy or so of the codes cover Radiation Oncology. Each code is valued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) with input from the Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC) and specialty societies such as ASTRO and ACR. The valuation process analyzes components of each CPT code including physician work, malpractice expense, and practice expense. Each of these components is given a relative value. These values are summed, modified by a geographical cost adjustment, and multiplied by a conversion factor to determine the amount of reimbursement in dollars that a particular code will receive for a particular year.

Of particular interest is the practice expense component that includes non-physician staff, equipment, supply, and overhead costs for delivering a particular service. The staff costs are determined, to the penny, with specialty society input as to who performs each component task and how long a task takes to complete.

These times are then multiplied by standard salary figures for the appropriate category of non-physician worker (e.g. nurse, physicist, dosimetrist, therapist) to determine total staff costs. It is easy to see that who does the work has a direct impact on practice expense and affects the overall reimbursement for a particular code. The replacement of physicist minutes by those of a lower paid staff type would decrease the practice expense and lessen the calculated reimbursement for the code.

It is important to note that the above discussion describes reimbursement calculation under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS), which covers physicians and payment to free-standing centers.

Reimbursement under the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (HOPPS), which covers outpatient departments, differs in that reimbursements are based on actual hospital cost and billing data. One would expect, however, that changes in the type of staff performing tasks would have similar effects on payment.

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AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

Professional Council, cont.

When looking at the total effect that the use of MPAs might have on reimbursement, a number of things need to be considered: 1. Not all of the Radiation Therapy CPT codes have physics time in them; 2. Codes such as our Continuing Medical Physics Consultation (77336) and Special Physics Consultation (77370) have only physicist time and must be performed by a medical physicist to qualify for reimbursement; 3. Not all of the work that an MPA might do in the clinic would be covered by a CPT code, and 4. The practice expense inputs that CMS utilizes for a particular code would not change until there was a widespread and significant change in clinic workflow throughout the country.

I hope that I have shed some light on the mechanisms by which reimbursements are calculated and how they can be affected by changes in staffing. This will be important information as we consider the most costeffective and efficacious way to utilize our physics and allied health manpower resources.

Call for Nominations Nominations are now being accepted for the following AAPM Awards: William D. Coolidge Award • Marvin M.D. Williams Award Edith H. Quimby Lifetime Achievement Award John S. Laughlin Young Scientist Award • AAPM Fellows All nominations are due by October 15, 2015 and are to be done through the online nomination system. Applicants will be notified of decisions by May 1, 2016. Recipients will be honored at the AAPM Awards and Honors Ceremony and Reception during the 58th Annual Meeting in Washington, DC in the year 2016.

www.aapm.org/org/callfornominations.asp

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AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

SCIENCE COUNCIL REPORT Jeffrey H. Siewerdsen, Baltimore, MD

Science Council: Investing in Early-Career Scientists Among the initiatives underway in the AAPM Science Council are programs that invest in early-career AAPM scientists. Through research grants, fellowships, and travel awards, such investments build a vibrant future for the Association by strengthening its scientific foundation, engaging researchers within the fabric of AAPM activities, and expanding the horizons of medical physics. Two programs deserve special note as they get underway for a busy year ahead: the 2015 Research Seed Funding Awards and the 2015 Science Council Associates Mentorship Program (SCAMP).

The 2015 AAPM Research Seed Funding Awards The Research Seed Funding grants provide $25,000 in support of innovative investigator-initiated concepts with the potential to attract longer term support from the NIH or equivalent funding sources. This year, three grants were awarded on topics that reflect the breadth and depth of cutting edge science underway in the AAPM: John G Eley, PhD (Assistant Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Maryland School of Medicine) is developing new methods for treating CNS tumors in his project entitled, “Microbeam Therapy with Light Ions.” By controlling an array of parallel light-ion microbeams (e.g., protons, He-4, or Li-7) in tissue, Dr. Eley’s work investigates the advantages to normal CNS tissue sparing and develops a biophysical treatment planning system based on micron-scale dose distributions. “We expect that these studies will confirm the tissue sparing potential of light-ion microbeam therapy,” says Dr. Eley, “and provide compelling evidence to begin preclinical testing.” Such wor/k could benefit cancer patients by reducing side effects in shallow tissue and permitting dose escalation and/ or hypofractionation studies to improve tumor control.

Ke Li, PhD (Assistant Professor, Department of Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin) is investigating new 3D image reconstruction methods for improved image quality in low-dose CT in his project entitled, “High

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AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

Professional Council, cont.

Quality and Sub-mSv Cerebral CT Perfusion Imaging.” Dr. Li notes that a key element in treating stroke is perfusion imaging, which helps to differentiate between patients likely to benefit from reperfusion treatment and those for whom treatment is both futile and carries risk of further injury. His research aims to bring innovations in imaging physics modeling and 3D image reconstruction techniques to cerebral CT perfusion (CTP) to improve image quality and quantitative accuracy. “An important aspect of the work,” says Dr. Li, “is to obtain accurate parametric CTP maps while reducing radiation dose to the sub-millisievert (mSv) level.”

Guided by an imaging science framework for image quality in combination with novel CTP acquisition, reconstruction, and postprocessing methods, the seed funding will support Dr. Li’s work in a series of simulation and preclinical studies aimed to advance these techniques to future clinical studies.

Stephen Yip, PhD (Research Fellow, Department of Radiation Oncology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA) is addressing a topic of major interest in radiomics / imaging genomics in his project entitled, “Association between PET Radiomic Features and Genetic Mutations in NSCLC.” His work posits that initiation and progression of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are often driven by genetic mutation patterns that can be measured and quantified from medical imaging features in PET. “While molecular testing is commonly used for mutation identification,” says Dr. Yip, “its clinical feasibility is limited by multiple factors, such as delays in initiating treatment, insufficient tissue acquisition, and high cost.” Radiomic analysis of PET features may improve treatment outcome prediction and prognosis, subsequently personalizing cancer therapy. While PET radiomic features may provide further information for detecting tumor mutation status, the interaction of tumor imaging and genetic features remains unclear. To this end, Dr. Yip’s project investigates the association between PET radiomic features and genetic mutational status in NSCLC patients.

Congratulations to the Seed Funding Awardees! We look forward to seeing their work presented at the AAPM Annual Meeting in Washington DC, July 31 – August 4, 2016.

The 2015 Science Council Associates Mentorship Program (SCAMP) This year marks the launch of the Science Council Associates Mentorship Program (SCAMP), established to recognize and cultivate outstanding early-career researchers, with the goal of promoting a long-term commitment to scientific activity within AAPM. Each “SCAMP” awardee is awarded up to $4000 to attend two consecutive AAPM Annual Meetings, where they will not only engage in the regular conference program but also gain exposure to AAPM organizational activities, including meetings among Task Groups, Working Groups, Committees, etc. Each “SCAMP” is paired with a seasoned AAPM “Mentor” active within the Research, Imaging Physics, Therapy Physics, and/or Technology Assessment Committees or in Science Council directly. The Mentor not only engages the SCAMP in Task Group meetings and the like at the Annual Meeting but also in a year-round mentorship experience in relation to AAPM science.

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AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

Professional Council, cont.

This year, 8 SCAMP awards were earned among more than 50 applicants: Stephen R. Bowen, PhD (University of Washington) paired with Jeff Siewerdsen, PhD (Johns Hopkins University) Grace Jianan Gang, PhD (Johns Hopkins University) paired with Michael McNitt-Gray, PhD (UCLA) Yuting Lin, PhD (Harvard Medical School) paired with Tim Zhu, PhD (University of Pennsylvania) Kyle McMillan (UCLA) paired with Cynthia McCollough, PhD (Mayo Clinic) Bryan Muir, PhD (National Research Council of Canada) paired with Moyed Miften, PhD (University of Colorado) Chris Peeler (UT MD Anderson) paired with Robert Jeraj, PhD (University of Wisconsin) Sara St. James, PhD (University of Washington) paired with Jean Moran, PhD (University of Michigan) Rayan Zaman, PhD (Stanford University) paired with Kristy Brock, PhD (University of Michigan) The inaugural group of SCAMPs met at the AAPM Annual Meeting in Anaheim, where they shadowed Mentors in the ~12hour marathon of Saturday and Sunday meetings as well as the Awards Reception, Leadership Reception, and special symposia on topics of cutting edge science. Some reactions are paraphrased below. Congratulations to the awardees, thanks to the volunteer Mentors, and best of luck for a productive year.

Finally, a word of thanks to the members of Science Council as well as the IPC, TPC, RC, and TAC helping to spearhead these and other activities that benefit early-career scientists and advance the scientific mission of AAPM. Particular thanks are owed to Dr. Rebecca Fahrig as she rotates out as Chair of the Research Committee. In her time as Chair, Dr. Fahrig carried the banner of AAPM research proudly and tirelessly, rallying new scientists to become active in the Association, developing new opportunities for medical physics fellowships, and helping to build new electronic tools in support of medical physics research. www.aapm.org | 17

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SAVE THE DATE!

Save the Date!

Medical Physics Leadership Academy June 12 –16, 2016 | Chantilly, VA www.aapm.org/meetings/2016SS/

AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

EDUCATION COUNCIL REPORT George Starkschall, Houston, TX

A

lthough the Students and Trainees Subcommittee (STSC) was originally formed primarily as a networking and social organization for medical physics students and trainees, the STSC, chaired by Anna Rodrigues, has taken on several key responsibilities for providing students and trainees with information directly related to their professional growth. Many attendees of the 2015 AAPM Annual Meeting are likely aware of the success of the Residency Fair, held at the meeting, in which over 100 students had the opportunity to engage with representatives of 48 residency programs, but the STSC has been involved in several other projects as well. I have asked Anna to write this month’s Education Council Report on the activities of the STSC. Thanks go to Anna and her Subcommittee.

George Starkschall, PhD Chair, AAPM Education Council

The Students and Trainees Subcommittee Report Anna Rodrigues, Durham, NC

The Students and Trainees Subcommittee (STSC) is focused on engaging students and trainees in AAPM. We strive to disseminate timely information for current and prospective students and trainees in the field of Medical Physics with the ultimate goal of empowering them in their education and careers be it a clinical or a non-clinical pathway. To that end, we have on-going initiatives throughout the year, culminating in key events at the AAPM Annual Meeting.

Over the past two years, the STSC has sought to bring topics outside the “clinical Medical Physics box” to the annual Student and Trainee Meeting: From Michelle Svatos and Robert Pizzutiello in 2014 exploring opportunities for Medical Physicists in industry and entrepreneurship to Terry Wu and Maryann Abogunde in 2015 speaking about radiation oncology billing and regulatory work, the annual meeting strives to inform students and trainees on the multitude of career pathways a Medical Physics graduate degree or training can attain. These informative sessions are meant to spur students and trainees to consider additional skills and competencies they can acquire now that will make them flexible in their job search.

In terms of professional development, events like the annual Student Night Out and the mock interview workshop held in 2014, put an emphasis on practicing communication skills and networking. The annual Student Night Out serves as the main casual event of the year for students to connect with their peers — from

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AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

Educational Council, cont.

a cruise on the Colorado River in Austin to bowling in Anaheim, the STSC wants to give students and trainees an opportunity to network while also enjoying the conference location. The interview workshop helped students and trainees practice interviewing for residencies as well as for clinical, academic and industry jobs.

We hope to hold an interview workshop at the upcoming AAPM meeting as well.

With the dawn of the MedPhys Match Program, we strived to capture the applicant’s experience through a series of interviews published on our blog throughout the residency interviewing process. One of our main initiatives this past year was to better prepare students for the residency application process. In an effort to help applicants better “get to know” programs a priori and thus determine which residency programs are a good fit for them (and vice versa), the STSC with support from the Society of Directors of Academic Medical Physics Programs (SDAMPP) held a successful residency fair at the AAPM Annual Meeting in Anaheim. There were 43 radiation therapy and five imaging residencies with over 100 attendees present. We plan to increase the number of attending residencies for the next year. Additionally, we are considering hosting an industry job fair at next year’s AAPM meeting.

Another major goal of our Subcommittee is to serve as the voice and advocate of students and trainees within AAPM. This is becoming more important as there have been, and continue to be, many changes in the training requirements for new physicists. We are increasing collaboration with the Work Group on Coordination of Medical Physics Residency Programs (WGCMPR) and the Medical Physics Residency Training

The first ever Residency Fair was a great success with over 100 prospective residents engaging with 48 residency programs at the AAPM Annual Meeting. This STSC-organized effort was spearheaded by members John Ready and Jessie Huang and supported by SDAMPP.

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AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

Educational Council, cont.

and Promotion Subcommittee (MPRTP) to better advertise changes in the residency match process. We are also trying to advocate for the expansion of the Junior membership category to include trainees who failed to match, but are still actively pursuing careers in medical physics. If passed, this would allow those trainees access to AAPM resources, but at a more affordable price.

One of the Subcommittee’s newest charges is to inform prospective and current students and trainees about non-clinical career pathways: the Working Group to Promote Non-Clinical Career Paths for Medical Physicists (WGNCMP) has been working to increase the connections between our group and the Working Group on Student and Trainee Research (WGSTR), Working Group on Medical Physics Graduate Education Program Curriculum (WGMPGEPC), the Society of Directors of Academic Medical Physics Programs (SDAMPP), and several industry and regulatory entities. By collaborating with these groups we hope to be able to best evaluate and recommend changes with regards to education and training for non-clinical careers.

At the Annual Meeting in Anaheim, the WGNCMP presented a poster summarizing the results found in a series of surveys about non-clinical careers given to students and trainees, new physicists, and education program directors. Our next step is to write and publish a white paper that discusses the needs for a wider knowledge of non-clinical careers, the current place of non-clinical careers in our field, and how best to train for non-clinical careers.

STSC and WGNCMP are both working to promote various ways for students to increase their participation at meetings and awareness of various career opportunities. A part of these efforts was initiated this year at the Annual Meeting with the Partners for the Future Program. This effort was intended to increase student participation at the exhibitor booths, as vendors set aside designated timeslots for demonstrations and presentations to students. Fourteen vendors participated this year, and we are looking to expand this number at the 2016 meeting in Washington, DC.Another new initiative is to promote industry internships using a centralized resource. Increasing the number of internships and the general awareness of these opportunities are the primary goals. While still in the early stages, several industry partners are expressing interest in fostering stronger connections with skilled trainees who are looking to transition into their chosen career path.

If you are a student or trainee, our Subcommittee is here to serve YOU! Contact us and stay updated on the latest developments by visiting: • Our AAPM homepage • Facebook • Twitter • Blog

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AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

WILLIAM D. COOLIDGE AWARD INTRODUCTION John M. Boone, Sacramento, CA

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t is my distinct privilege to introduce this year’s Coolidge award winner, Dr. Maryellen Giger. Dr. Giger was a graduate of Illinois Benedictine College with a triple major in physics, mathematics, and health science. She spent a year at the University of Exeter in England, where she received a master’s degree in physics. She went on to earn her PhD in medical physics at the University of Chicago, and she is currently professor of radiology at the University of Chicago. Dr. Giger is the only named professor in her department, the AN Pritzker Professor of Radiology.

Dr. Giger is one of the icons in the field of computer aided detection and diagnosis, and over the years she has had $25 million in research funding to support her research. She has mentored over 100 students and trainees, including a number of undergraduates and interns. Maryellen has 200 peer-reviewed papers and 39 patents. The technology developed with her colleagues has been commercialized and is installed on mammography reading stations around the world — including at my own institution.

Dr. Giger’s contribution to AAPM and to the field of medical physics has been impressive. She served as AAPM treasurer from 2004 to 2007, and became AAPM president in 2009. She is currently a member of Science Council and Chair of the Technology Assessment Committee. She has also been very active in the leadership of the Society of Photo-optical and Instrumentation Engineers, and currently she is Editor of the Journal of Medical Imaging for SPIE. Dr. Giger was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2010, actually in the same entering class as Dr. Pettigrew, our keynote speaker at the Presidential Symposium this morning. Dr. Giger is only the second woman to be awarded the Coolidge Award, following Edith Quimby a generation ago.

I have known Maryellen Giger since the graduate school days, and we received our PhDs from different institutions in the same year, 1985. Since then, we have worked together on many projects over the years, including grant funded research as well as many AAPM committees and SPIE endeavors. Maryellen is one of the most delightful colleagues that I have had the honor of knowing and working with for the past 30 years, and it is a genuine pleasure to introduce her to you as the 2015 Coolidge award recipient.

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AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

WILLIAM D. COOLIDGE AWARD ACCEPTANCE SPEECH Maryellen Giger, Chicago, IL

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irst, I would like to thank John Boone for that lovely introduction and all those who nominated me for this William D. Coolidge Award; AAPM and the Awards and Honors Committee. I am greatly humbled and honored.

I would like to thank my parents and my brothers Dennis, Larry, Tom, and Dave. My parents, Margaret and Frank Lissak, instilled a love of learning and the importance of education; they also instilled an outstanding work ethic. So I owe them a lot.

I want to thank some people from my undergraduate years. I learned about medical physics before I even knew the field existed! This was through my time at Illinois Benedictine College (IBC) and my summers at Fermi Lab. I conducted undergraduate research with Professor John Spokas, who was instrumental in translating the Shonka tissue-equivalent ion chambers. I thank Professor Rose Carney, who was my mathematics professor at IBC and one my mentors in college; she made many opportunities available to me. One of the points I want to make is that I am so grateful to them and that it is so important to get to young people early in the STEM fields to make opportunities available. Dr. Carney gave me the opportunity to spend my summers at Fermi Lab, where I learned from Drs. Mike Shea and Miguel Awschalom on beam diagnostics and the neutron therapy facility. I was learning more and more about medical physics. And I thank my lifelong friends that I have made from IBC: Jeanine, Carol, Justine, Marie, Nancy, Pat, and Vicki. Jeanine Williams is here tonight with her husband to celebrate with us. And my friend and colleague, Mary Martel from undergrad ­— who would have known that we would go from IBC to AAPM? In fact, we were on EXCOM together.

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AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

William D. Coolidge Award, cont.

I had the opportunity to go to the University of Exeter in England for my Masters degree in physics. I thank Professor Vernon Wynn, my advisor, who taught me the fun of research, noting that research is 99.9% frustration but that it is that 0.1% when you find or realize an advancement that makes all that hard work worthwhile.

Then I went to the University of Chicago. I thank Professor Kunio Doi, my PhD advisor, who taught me how to conduct research and how to become an independent investigator. And I thank Chin-Tu Chen, my graduate school classmate and now colleague for being a sounding board. We learned about the signal to noise ratio and this gave a solid foundation and transition to computer-aided detection.

I also want to thank Charles Metz and Franca Kuchnir, two early and constant influences and role models in my life. Both unfortunately are no longer with us. “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” [Confucius] And I can say that about my job. Franca also taught me how to balance family and work. She once told me her entire post doc salary went towards childcare towards the importance of achieving that balance. And Charlie Metz taught me the importance of finding your passion, and delving into the problem, finding the solution, and communicating it effectively. He used to tell me, “And to think they pay us to do this.” Research is a great career.

I’d like to go back to Kunio Doi and the field of CAD. Those were wonderful first days of CAD at the University of Chicago, with us establishing the field and working hard to translate developments to clinical use. Our

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AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

William D. Coolidge Award, cont.

team effort included Kunio Doi, Charles E. Metz, Heang-Ping Chan, Heber MacMahon, Carl Vyborny, Robert Schmidt, Robert Nishikawa and me— as well as many others. We worked on CAD on lung nodules on chest radiographs. Topics and concerns about large datasets, limited computer power and storage, are occurring again in the conversion to, what is now called, radiomics. However, now instead of taking one hour to digitize and four hours to process a planar chest radiograph, most are done in a matter of seconds.

However, we were successful and continue to translate our research to clinical practice. At the University of Chicago, my lab discovers new ways to use computers to enrich the information obtained from medical images so that radiologists can better find and diagnose disease (such as breast cancer). My life of research and teaching became my passion — not just a job, not just a career. And the research just keeps “evolving.”

I would like to thank the many people I have interacted with, discussed with, and learned from, because of my involvement with AAPM and the field of medical physics and medical imaging, such as Bill Hendee, Bob Wagner, and Chuck Mistretta, who have served to give me a bar for which I continue to strive to reach. And others have also opened doors for me at AAPM — such as Larry Lanzl, Gary Barnes, Mary Martel, John Boone, and others. Larry Lanzl got me involved in my first AAPM activity, which was as a member of the AAPM’s Commission on Accreditation of Medical Physics Programs, and now I serve on the CAMPEP Board.

I thank all the EXCOM members with whom I have worked — I have learned much from you. I also want to thank the AAPM staff especially Cecilia, Angela, Lisa, Michael, Karen, Nancy, Jackie, Corbi, Farhana, Penny, and others. I have learned so much from you all, and you have enthusiastically supported and enabled so many initiatives in a very professional way.

I thank my colleagues at UChicago and collaborators — I have been surrounded with very creative and intelligent people my entire life. Here are some current and former lab members (some, such as Hui Li and Karen Drukker, have been working with me for over a decade). And the graduate students who have conducted their dissertation research in my lab have been outstanding. The best reward is when my student becomes my colleague, and now I have “grand-students” as colleagues! For example, Sam Armato, Fang Fang Yin, and Matt Kupinski are just a few of my students who now have successful graduate students of their own. Here are some photos of my lab taken during the summer when I have 4-6 summer students. I am very passionate about giving students an opportunity in a STEM field.

And, last but not least, I especially thank my family — My husband Chuck Giger who I met at IBC during my undergraduate years and we have been married for over 30 years, and our four grown children: Megan, Jenny, Charlie, and Eric (all of them are here TODAY — thank you). Our children grew up at AAPM. Now, I usually have at least two family members at each AAPM meeting. This year they all came to AAPM and I really appreciate that. My family has survived my many travels and long hours. However, I think you know my passion, and how important family is to me. I am so proud of you all.

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I did not know in the 1970’s, shown here with Goofy, that I would return again to Anaheim in 2009 as President of AAPM and in 2015 as the Coolidge Awardee.

AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

William D. Coolidge Award, cont.

So now that I am done thanking everyone, I am not going to push for more research or more clinical, or if we need more therapy or more diagnostic medical physicists in AAPM, but rather note that all are important, and that we all need to work together. At the University of Chicago, medical physics has always been ONE group — therapy and diagnostic meet together, run the graduate program together — all since the 1950’s. So that is how I see medical physics.

In the early 2000’s, it was becoming obvious that the clinical training of medical physicists in clinical practice needed to be standardized and seamlessly available. And so AAPM supported multiple 2012/2014 Summits.

Today we have rigorous graduate education programs and appropriate clinical training residencies. We all worked together to achieve that success. And now, I am extremely delighted with the AAPM push to enhance and integrate research in medical physics. We owe it to the field to demand excellence in all aspects of the AAPM Mission.

I will end with three requests of you all: 1. Identify your passion in medical physics, whether it be research, education, and/or clinical, and make a difference. We are one group; so work together — we need to make sure that there is a strong link from research to clinical, and clinical to research.

2. Meet someone new at this meeting — a junior person — and open a door for them in AAPM (pay it forward). And then get more involved yourself.

3. Bring a member of your family next year to AAPM so they can understand what you do and see your passion.

Thank you for this wonderful honor of receiving the William D. Coolidge Award. I hope to continue to give many more years to this great field and to this great organization, AAPM. Thank you.

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AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

WEBSITE EDITOR’S REPORT George C. Kagadis, Rion, Greece

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his issue of the Newsletter is being published just after AAPM’s fantastic 57th Annual Meeting & Exhibition which took place July 12-16, 2015 in Anaheim, CA. During the meeting, our Website Editorial Board convened to discuss quite a few interesting agenda items, including enhancements to our society’s web presence. The next faceto-face meeting will take place during the RSNA Annual Meeting.

I would like to take this opportunity to provide you with a brief overview of our society’s social media. AAPM is currently on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Flickr.

Our Twitter regularly highlights our job listings from Career Services, articles from Medical Physics and Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics, as well as our website’s What’s New items. These postings have been automated. In addition, we intervene to tweet or retweet (RT) posts from other groups we consider to be relevant to our membership. These posts are screened in order to ensure that they are worthwhile.

AAPM Information Services (IS) staff once again implemented the use of a hashtag (#AAPM2015) for the Annual Meeting. By creating a distinct hashtag each year, we facilitate searching for all tweets that relate to the Annual Meeting. View this year’s Annual Meeting Twitter posts. For the months of June and July our tweets earned 338.0K impressions. (Impressions are the number of times users saw the tweet on Twitter.)

Impressions spiked as meeting-related Medical Physics articles/abstracts were posted. Certain JACMP articles garnered attention, as well as various #AAPM2015 postings including Day 1 tweets, John Boone’s Imaging Technology News (ITN), and Future Trends in Medical Physics video. As of August 10, 2015 we have 4,129 followers on Twitter.

It should be noted that we have created hashtags for our Spring Clinical Meeting (#AAPMSCM), Summer School (#AAPMSS), and Speciality Meetings (#AAPMILS, #AAPMSBRT) in order to generate the same type of traffic on Twitter.

Although our Facebook page is not automated and requires user intervention from our AAPM IS staff, it does not have the character limitations of Twitter. This is advantageous in that we are able to post with more detail and visual material. Regular posts include the monthly covers of Medical Physics and JACMP, new AAPM Reports, meeting information, as well as other information of note. Our June and July Facebook posts reached 99,011 people. (Post reach is the number of people who saw our posts.) As of August 10, 2015 we have 3,459 likes on Facebook.

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Website Editor, cont.

LinkedIn is used to post more professional items such as new member benefits, meeting press releases, etc.

As of August 10, 2015 we have 8,214 members on our LinkedIn group.

AAPM’s Flickr account is a gallery of meeting photos, which include the Annual Meeting, Spring Clinical Meeting, Summer School, Specialty Meetings and RSNA. As of August 10, 2015 we have 39,612 images on our Flickr.

The figures below provide a glimpse of our Twitter and Facebook stats for June and July.

I hope you find the AAPM website useful, visit it often and send me your feedback or contact me directly at george@aapm.org.

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AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

ACR ACCREDITATION: FAQS FOR MEDICAL PHYSICISTS Priscilla F. Butler, MS, Senior Director and Medical Physicist ACR Quality and Safety

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oes your facility need help on applying for accreditation? In each issue of this newsletter, I’ll present frequently asked questions (FAQs) of particular importance for medical physicists. You may also check out the ACR’s accreditation website portal (click “Accreditation”) for more FAQs, accreditation applications, and QC forms.

The following questions are for the ACR Computed Tomography Accreditation Program. Please feel free to contact us if you have questions about CT accreditation.

Q. The CT Accreditation Testing Instructions were updated on 7/27/15. What has changed in this updated release?

A. In an effort to streamline and simplify CT Accreditation, all instructions and guidance for accreditation testing (Clinical Testing Instructions, Clinical Image Quality Guide, CT Phantom Testing Instructions, Submitting, Labeling and Mailing Instructions) are now located in one document (“CT Accreditation Program Testing Instructions”). The instructions were reviewed and edited for clarity and a table of contents was added to assist in navigation. Any future revisions will be clearly delineated on the “Revisions” page. In addition, the CT Accreditation Committee reviewed the requirements for accreditation and made several changes to further streamline the program. The changes are outlined below: • Sites no longer have to submit a specialty study.

• Intravenous (IV) contrast is no longer required for adult head examination submissions.

• ROIs are no longer required for the renal mass examination submission.

• The slice thickness requirement for the pulmonary emboli examination submission is ≤ 3 mm.

• Examination names have been changed to be less descriptive (e.g., “adult abdomen for metastasis or lymphoma” is now “adult abdomen”).

• The clinical image quality guide has been simplified to only describe the minimum requirements for submission.

Q. We are a low volume imaging center and are concerned about meeting our deadline for accreditation testing material submission. Are there options for extensions?

A. The testing material due date is generally 45 days from the date the application is processed. Extensions are granted on a case-by-case basis. Please call the Accreditation hotline (800-770-0145) to see if your site can receive an extension and for general guidance on your submission.

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AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

LEGISLATIVE & REGULATORY AFFAIRS REPORT Richard Martin, College Park, MD

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s you know, the AAPM Government Relations Office follows legislative activities that may impact the practice of medical physicists in both the U.S. Congress as well as state legislatures.

Few bills are passed in the same form in which they are introduced.

Accordingly, we look for opportunities to advance the important role medical physicists play in patient and worker safety by shaping proposed laws as they move through the legislative process. Moreover, we look for trends across state lines in the bills that legislatures are considering.

Many of the bills we are following were introduced at the beginning of the year — the beginning of new lawmaking sessions for state legislatures. After a bill is introduced, it is assigned to a committee or committees for consideration. Before a bill becomes law, however, both legislative chambers must agree upon bill provisions, and the bill must be presented to the governor. The enacted legislation is then implemented through rulemaking. A number of the bills we have been following are now law; others remain pending in committees.

Some of the key issues we have been following this year in state legislatures are:

Licensing/Credentialing of Medical Physicists and Other Radiation Medicine Professionals A number of states have considered bills impacting medical physicist licensure. Texas recently passed legislation (SB 202) that sunset the Texas Medical Physics Licensure Board and creates an advisory committee for medical physicists under the Texas Board of Medicine.

Upon June 17, the effective date of this bill, the existing Texas Medical Physics Licensure Board sunsets and medical physicist licensure will be moved to the Texas Board of Medicine as an Advisory Committee.

Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania are now considering bills to license medical physicists.

A key legislative proposal is the licensing of Medical Physicists in Massachusetts. House Bill 1894 was introduced last year, and Rep. Garballey (DEM) reintroduced it this year as House Bill 2197, later designated House Bill 189.

Rep. Mark Cusak (DEM-MA) introduced HB 171 that included AAPM’s modification of the text of last year’s bill to include a definition for “Qualified Medical Physicist.” In addition, the language describing the make-up of the State Board for Medical Physics was modified to include nine members, instead of the eight proposed in last year’s bill. The updated bill provides that the board will include five licensed medical physicists, including one from diagnostic radiological physics, two from therapeutic radiological or radiation oncology physics, one from medical nuclear physics and one from medical health physics. In addition, board members will include three licensed physicians represented by one from diagnostic radiology, one from radiation therapy or radiation oncology, and one from nuclear medicine, and a representative of the public at large. www.aapm.org | 31

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Legislative & Regulatory Affairs, cont.

On March 10, both bills were referred to the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure. A hearing date of July 21 was set, but later cancelled when the Senate Chairman of the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure passed away. We are waiting for the hearing to be rescheduled schedule.

Despite this uncertainty, we are moving ahead with preparations. Edward Brennan, AAPM’s Massachusetts lobbyist met with AAPM members, Martin Fraser, Per Halvorsen and Fred Fahey to prepare for the hearing.

Pennsylvania has a bill pending. The bill was reintroduced in the House from a prior session (HB358) and it remains in the House Professional Licensure Committee.

In addition, a number of states are considering bills that would license or certify other medical radiation professionals.

Alaska Rep. Tuck (DEM) introduced House Bill 29, which provides qualifications for licensing of radiologic technologists and limited radiologic imagers. That bill remains in committee.

North Dakota Sen. Lee (REP) and Rep. Porter (REP) introduced Senate Bill 2236 for the regulation and licensure of medical imaging and radiation therapy personnel. The bill establishes a five-member board of examiners that includes one medical physicist to establish licensure standards for nuclear medicine technologists, radiation therapists, radiographers, radiologist assistants, and sonographers. The bill was filed with the Secretary of State on March 23, 2015.

The Texas legislature is considering certification of medical radiologic technologists. Rep. Four Price (REP) introduced House Bill 550. Sen. Charles Schwertner (REP) introduced the corresponding Senate Bill 219, which has become law

Breast Density Notification/Mandated Insurance Coverage for Alternate Breast Cancer Screening A number of states have introduced bills that require providers to notify women undergoing mammography, who are found to have dense breast tissue, and advise them about ramifications for diagnosis of breast cancer. Some bills require insurers to provide coverage for alternate breast cancer screening procedures for women who have dense breast tissue.

Connecticut Rep. Klarides (REP) introduced House Bill 5832 that would provide insurance coverage for tomosynthesis for patients with dense breast tissue. That bill remains under consideration by committee.

In Texas, Rep. Hernandez-Luna (DEM) introduced House Bill 694 to provide for insurance coverage for supplemental breast cancer screening, a favorable committee report has been sent to calendars. In New York, Rep. Ryan (DEM) introduced AB 354 to provide for coverage of follow-up screening. This bill remains under consideration by committee. Illinois Senate Bill 54 [introduced by Sen. Mulroe (DEM) with co-sponsor Sen.

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AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

Legislative & Regulatory Affairs, cont.

Haine (DEM)] that expands coverage for breast screening includes tomosynthesis in the definition of low-dose mammography was sent to the Governor on June 29.

In addition, lawmakers in a number of other states, including Iowa [SF 80 introduced by Sen. Jochum (DEM)], Oklahoma [HB 1695 introduced by Rep. Denney (REP)], South Carolina [S 339 introduced by Sen. Lourie (DEM)], and Washington [SB 5040 introduced by Sen. O’Ban (REP)], are considering patient notification bills.

Certificate of Need (CON) Laws.

Some states are proposing new CON laws or seeking modification of existing laws. These laws seek to restrain health care facility costs through mandating coordinated planning schemes. We review CON legislation for provisions that may limit or adversely impact medical physicist practices, or radiation therapy/diagnostic facilities or services.

In South Carolina, Rep. Smith (REP) introduced House Bill 3250 that would amend the state’s CON law to include new and emerging technology for consideration of need. This amendment could be significant for radiation therapy and diagnostic serves because of the rapidly technology environment. The bill was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, which released a favorable report in early June. The bill remains pending.

Another state, Mississippi, considered a bill that would use CON law to enact a moratorium on low energy radiation therapy. That bill, SB 2163(introduced by Sen. Kirby {Rep.}), however, died in committee.

Proton Therapy Insurance Coverage At the beginning of the year, Oklahoma Rep. Cooksey (REP) introduced a somewhat novel bill, House Bill 1515, that would prohibit insurance plans from holding proton therapy to a higher standard of care than other therapies in making coverage decisions. The Governor approved the bill in April. It will be interesting to see if more states consider similar bills.

View a summary of information regarding the pending state legislation that may impact the practice of medical physics. If you have any questions on these or other state legislative or regulatory issues, please contact Richard Martin, AAPM’s Government Relations Specialist at richard@aapm.org.

MEDICAL PHYSICS PUBLISHING (MPP) is celebrating its 30th anniversary this October. MPP was founded in 1985 by John Cameron, a past president of the AAPM and founding chairperson of the medical physics department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Cameron’s vision was to provide affordable, useful information for the medical physics field and the public written by engaging authors who are directly involved in our profession. Today MPP continues to publish important works by the field’s leading figures on a broad range of medical physics topics.

MPP is the official publisher of AAPM’s monographs and task group reports. In addition, MPP publishes the popular Raphex Exams in cooperation with RAMPS, the New York chapter of the AAPM.

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A New Way to View QA.

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AAPM E&R FUND DONORS’ LOUNGE AT AAPM 2015 the trip home, charge up their electronic devices, and charge up themselves for the rest of a busy day.

Please give serious consideration to making a donation to this Fund, which supports the development of our great profession via the provision of seed money for research, fellowships for PhD students, and support for clinical residencies. To learn more or to make a contribution, please visit: www.aapm.org/education/edfundintro.asp

AAPM members who have generously

donated to our Education & Research Fund relaxed and caught up with colleagues in the Donors‘ Lounge at this year’s Annual Meeting.

Open to members who have contributed $100 or more, access to the Lounge allowed them enjoy light refreshments while conversing with friends and colleagues, print out boarding passes for

AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

HEALTH POLICY & ECONOMIC ISSUES Wendy Smith Fuss, MPH, AAPM Health Policy Consultant

2016 Proposed Rule Reduces Treatment Delivery Payments to Freestanding Cancer Centers

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MS recently released the 2016 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) proposed rule. The final rule will be published by November 1, with an effective date of January 1, 2016. The MPFS specifies payment rates to physicians and other providers, including freestanding radiation therapy centers. It does not apply to hospital-based facilities.

Facility payment to hospital outpatient departments is covered under a separate rule and those changes are described in a separate article below.

As proposed, the rule would significantly decrease payments for several treatment delivery codes in 2016.

The proposed cuts involve the combined implementation of several policy changes: 1. Setting values for newly created and revised radiation treatment delivery codes; 2. Increasing the assumed equipment utilization rate for linear accelerators used in cancer treatment; and

3. Removing the costs associated with several essential direct practice expense inputs, most notably on-board imaging.

While the radiation oncology community anticipated payment reductions as a result of the new code values, the additional impact of both the equipment utilization rate change and the removal of direct practice expense inputs would have a detrimental effect on the ability of many freestanding radiation therapy centers to remain viable.

Specifically, CMS proposes to change the equipment utilization rate for linear accelerators from 50% to 70%.

CMS is proposing to implement this change over two years. Radiation oncology treatment delivery codes affected by this CMS proposal include: IMRT planning code 77301, conventional external beam delivery codes 77402, 77407, 77412, IMRT delivery codes 77385, 77386 and image guidance code 77387.

In addition, CMS states that the invoices used to price the new linear accelerator include “onboard imaging,” therefore CMS did not include the cost of onboard imaging as a separate item in the practice expense inputs of conventional external beam codes 77402, 77407, 77412, IMRT delivery codes 77386, 77386 and image guidance code 77387.

The proposed changes used to calculate practice expense RVUs yields a negative impact of 3% for radiation oncology and 9% for freestanding radiation therapy centers. The proposed cuts follow on more than 25% cuts to freestanding centers over the last six years.

AAPM opposes the CMS proposals and will provide written comments to CMS by the September 8 deadline.

In addition, AAPM is working with ASTRO and other stakeholders to have Members of Congress weigh-in on the proposal. Given that a number of radiation treatment delivery codes are slated for change and revaluation www.aapm.org | 35

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AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

Health Policy, cont.

effective January 1, 2016, and the impact will not be known until later this year, Congress may request that CMS delay or extend the proposed 2-year phase-in period for the implementation of the equipment utilization rate change and restore the image guidance direct practice expense inputs in the final Medicare physician fee schedule rule for 2016.

Other 2016 proposals that impact radiation oncology payment include: • Maintaining the costs associated with a radiation treatment vault and a HDR brachytherapy treatment vault in 2016, which increases the practice expense RVUs for services that utilize a vault.

• CMS has identified 3 radiation oncology codes as being “potentially misvalued” under the high expenditure services screen. The RUC may review and revalue the complex radiation treatment planning code 77263, complex treatment device code 77334 and special radiation treatment procedure code 77470 in 2016.

• Updating the cost associated with a PACS workstation from $2,501 to $5,557, which increases practice expense RVUs for several radiation oncology codes 77280, 77285, 77290, 77301, 77370, 77372, 77417, 77422, 77423.

• Updating the cost of equipment for superficial radiation treatment delivery code 77401 from $140,000 to $216,000, yielding a proposed payment increase of 21%.

• Revaluing services that include moderate sedation, which include the Cobalt-60 SRS code 77371 and hyperthermia treatment codes 77600-77615.

• Implementing five new HDR remote afterloading brachytherapy codes 7778A, 7778B, 7778C, 7778D, 7778E effective January 1, 2016.

• CMS seeks comment on the appropriate work time and the contradiction of the technical component billing of image guidance code 77387.

• CMS plans to collect data in 2017 and revalue the post-operative bundles of surgical services with 90-day global periods by 2019. The global surgical package includes all necessary services normally furnished by a surgeon before, during, and after a procedure for a specified period of time. This proposal impacts the low dose rate brachytherapy codes 77761-77763, 77778 and infusion of radioelement solution code 77750 with a 90-day global period.

Read a complete summary of the proposed rule and to review impact tables here.

CMS Proposes Restructured Radiation Oncology APCs The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released the 2016 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (HOPPS) proposed rule. AAPM will submit comments to CMS by the August 31 deadline. The final rule will be published by November 1, with an effective date of January 1, 2016.

CMS conducted a comprehensive review of all of the HOPPS clinical ambulatory payment classifications (APCs) and proposes to restructure, reorganize, and consolidate many APCs, resulting in fewer APCs overall.

CMS proposes to delete APC 303 Treatment Device Construction (CPT 77332, 77333, 77334), APC 312 36 | www.aapm.org

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AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

Health Policy, cont.

Radioelement Applications (CPT 77761, 77762, 77763, 77799) and APC 651 Complex Interstitial Radiation Source Application (CPT 77778). In addition, CMS proposes to create a new APC 5612 Level 2 Therapeutic Radiation Treatment Preparation. Significant increases and decreases in 2016 payments are due to APC restructuring and reassignment of procedures to different clinical APCs from 2015 to 2016 (see table below).

For 2016, CMS maintains the comprehensive APC payment policy, which applies to intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT), breast brachytherapy catheter placement, and single session cranial stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) procedures. Under this policy, CMS designates each service described by a HCPCS code assigned to a comprehensive APC (C-APC) as the primary service and, with few exceptions, considers all other services reported on a hospital claim to be related to the delivery of the primary service. CMS calculates a single payment, defined by a single claim, regardless of the date of service span.

CMS proposes to revise payment for comprehensive APC 5631 Single Session Cranial SRS by removing planning and preparation services from C-APC geometric mean calculation for 2016 and 2017. According to CMS, 2014 claims data analysis indicates different billing patterns between SRS procedures delivered using Cobalt-60 based and LINAC based technologies. CMS claims data analysis indicated that SRS delivered

by Cobalt-60 typically included treatment planning services (imaging studies, radiation treatment aids, and treatment planning) and the actual SRS treatment on the same date of services and reported on the same claim. Additional analysis revealed that SRS delivered by LINAC based technologies frequently included services related to SRS treatment that were provided and reported on different dates of service and billed on separate claims.

CMS proposes removing the following planning and preparation services from C-APC 5631 for 2016 and 2017: • CT localization (CPT codes 77011 and 77014) • MRI imaging (CPT codes 70551, 70552, and 70553) • Clinical treatment planning (CPT codes 77280, 77285, 77290 and 77295) • Physics consultation (CPT code 77336) CMS would make separate payment for these services during 2016 and 2017. CMS is proposing to collect data through the use of a HCPCS modifier on all services related to a C-APC primary procedure that are reported on a separate claim. The purpose of this data collection is to assess the costs of all adjunctive services related to C-APC services, even when they are reported on a separate claim.

The 2016 HOPPS payment rule also proposes to: • Implement five new HDR remote afterloading brachytherapy codes (7778A, 7778B, 7778C, 7778D, 7778E) and two electronic HDR codes (01XXT, 02XXT) effective January 1, 2016.

• Reassign the three treatment device codes to different APCs, which results in significant payment decreases for the simple and intermediate treatment device codes 77332 and 77333 and a payment increase for complex treatment device code 77334. www.aapm.org | 37

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AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

Health Policy, cont.

• Reassign LDR intracavitary code 77762 to a lower paying APC than simple and complex codes 77761 and 77763 because CMS has no outpatient claims data resulting in a 50% payment reduction to 77762. LDR intracavitary codes 77761 and 77763 result in a proposed payment increase of 31% based on their APC reassignment.

A complete summary of the proposed rule and impact tables is on the AAPM website.

SUMMARY OF PROPOSED 2016 RADIATION ONCOLOGY HOPPS PAYMENTS APC

Description

CPT Codes

2015 Payment

5093*

19296,19298, 77424, Level 3 Breast/ Lymphatic Surgery 77425 & other breast $7,464.32 and Related Procedures surgery codes

5611

Level 1 Therapeutic Radiation Treatment Preparation

77299, 77300, 77306, 77307, 77316, 77331, 77332, 77336, 77399

5612

Level 2 Therapeutic Radiation Treatment Preparation

5613

2016 Proposed Payment

Payment Change 2015-2016

Percentage Change 2015-2016

$7,480.39

$16.07

0.2%

$113.17

$109.98

($3.19)

-2.8%

77280, 77333, 77370

n/a

$169.37

n/a

n/a

Level 3 Therapeutic Radiation Treatment Preparation

77285, 77290, 77317, 77318, 77321, 77334, 77338

$314.55

$297.70

($16.85)

-5.4%

5614

Level 4 Therapeutic Radiation Treatment Preparation

32553, 49411, 55876, 77295, 77301, C9728

$1,038.53

$1,053.30

$14.77

1.4%

5621

Level 1 Radiation Therapy

77401, 77402, 77407, 77799

$100.13

$104.23

$4.10

4.1%

Level 2 Radiation Therapy

77412, 77422, 77423, 77600, 77750, 77762, $193.24 77789, 7778A, 7778B, 01XXT

$197.20

$3.96

2.0%

5623

Level 3 Radiation Therapy

77385, 77386, 77470, 77520, 77605, 77610, 77615, 77620, 77761, 77763

$507.55

$518.74

$10.99

2.2%

5624

Level 4 Radiation Therapy

77522, 77523, 77525

$1,072.37

$1,152.44

$80.07

7.5%

5625

Level 5 Radiation Therapy

77373 & other nonradiation oncology codes

$1,903.22

$1,698.64

($204.58)

-10.7%

5631*

Single Session Cranial SRS

77371, 77372

$9,769.22

$7,347.35

($2,421.87)

-24.8%

5641

Brachytherapy

77778, 7778C, 7778D, 7778E, 02XXT

$729.68

$697.05

($32.63)

-4.5%

8001

LDR Prostate Brachytherapy Composite

55875+77778

$3,609.85

$3,603.77

($6.08)

-0.2%

5622

APC reassignments for 2016 are highlighted in bold. *Comprehensive APC in 2016

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AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

IOMP NEWS Magdalena Stoeva, Editor of Medical Physics World

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he International Organization for Medical Physics (IOMP) was founded in 1963 by four of the largest medical physics organizations of that time in the UK, USA, Canada and Sweden. IOMP is charged with a mission to advance medical physics practice worldwide by disseminating scientific and technical information, fostering the educational and professional development of medical physics, and promoting the highest quality medical services for patients. Over the years, IOMP has supported the formation of many medical physics organizations throughout the world and currently has about 20,000 members in 82 countries. IOMP also formed six Regional Organization– Federations of societies from specific geographical regions. The history of the IOMP is described in its Journal, Medical Physics International.

During 2012, IOMP arranged with the International Labour Organization (ILO, Geneva) for the professional occupation “medical physicist” to be officially included in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-08) — an activity of special importance for colleagues from developing countries. IOMP is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and in 2015 was accepted as a NGO to the World Health Organization (WHO).

In the past 20 years, IOMP has organized nearly 80 educational workshops, courses, and symposia with attendees from 85 countries. About half of those activities have been in collaboration with AAPM. The IOMP website includes information about the organization’s international activities.

The ultimate authority of IOMP is the Council, which includes representatives from every Medical Physics Organizations in the world. The Council elects an Executive Committee which performs the operational business of the Organization, normally for three years (in the period between two World Congresses). The new Executive Committee of IOMP took office at the World Congress of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering in Toronto (June 6-12, 2015) with the following members: President: Dr. Slavik Tabakov (UK) Vice President: Dr. Madan Rehani (USA, formerly IAEA) Secretary General: Dr. Virginia Tsapaki (Greece) Treasurer: Dr. Anchali Krisanachinda (Thailand) Past President: Dr. K. Y. Cheung (Hong Kong, PR China) Chair Scientific Com: Prof. Geoffrey Ibbott (USA) Chair Professional Com: Dr. Yakov Pipman (USA) Chair Education and Training Com: Prof. John Damilakis (Greece) Chair Awards and Honours Com: Dr. Simone Kudlulovic Renha (Brazil) Chair Publication Com: Prof. Tae Suk Suh (South Korea) Chair Medical Physics World Board: Dr. Magdalena Stoeva (Bulgaria) During the World Congress in Toronto, IOMP led a large Workshop entitled “Building Medical Physics Capacity in Developing Countries.” This activity follows the similar Workshop “Medical Physics in Africa – www.aapm.org | 39

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AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

IOMP, cont.

Status and Way Forward” organized by IOMP at the International Conference on Medical Physics in Brighton, UK (ICMP 2013). Both activities were also supported by the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) and form part of the large IOMP project for supporting professional growth in developing countries.

Also during the World Congress, IOMP formed an International Coordination Board, which includes the Presidents of all IOMP Regional Organizations. The Board agreed to include regular submissions regarding IOMP activities to the newsletters of the large medical physics societies. This activity will be handled by the IOMP Newsletter Medical Physics World.

One important recent IOMP activity was the establishment of the International Day of Medical Physics (IDMP) – an activity aiming to increase visibility of the profession. IDMP is celebrated on November 7 — the birthday of Maria Sklodowska Curie — an event which already spanned over many countries, attracting thousands of medical physicists. The theme of IDMP 2015 is “Better Medical Physics = Better Cancer Care in Radiation Oncology.” We would like to encourage all colleagues to take part in the celebrations of the achievements of our professionvc and its prominent place in 1contemporary healthcare.

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40 | www.aapm.org

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sales@radcal.com www.radcal.com

AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

TG-100 WORKSHOP IN TORONTO Jean-Pierre Bissonnette, Peter Dunscombe, Saiful Huq, and Ellen Yorke

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he World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering was held in Toronto June 7-12, 2015. It was a packed, multi-track program which catered to 2250 registrants from all over the world and which included several thought- provoking plenary sessions on a broad variety of topics relevant to healthcare now and into the future.

On Sunday, June 6, prior to the meeting proper, we, on behalf of the AAPM hosted a one-day workshop entitled, “The Use of AAPM Task Group 100 Recommended Risk Assessment Approach to Develop a Risk Based Quality Management Program in Radiation Therapy.” The workshop was modeled to a large degree on the very successful 2013 AAPM Summer School by including exercises for participants throughout the program. To provide a common theme during the day, and acknowledge the host country, the program was based around a national Canadian Incident Learning System, which is in the final stages of development, and two videos portraying near miss events in the clinic. Talks and exercises on incident reporting, process mapping, fault tree analysis, and quality management were all woven into this common theme. Additionally, there were talks on Systems and Culture and Change Management.

Although Failure Modes and Effects Analysis is a central component of TG-100, it was covered in some depth later in the Congress and not included in the Toronto workshop.

Informal feedback from participants on the program as a whole was very positive and we also received some good suggestions for tweaking the presentations should we run it again. Due to travel schedules, other logistical issues, and limited awareness of the topical content and novel structure of the workshop, attendance was 30-40 people. We had expected more. However, those who did attend were clearly engaged throughout the day. They worked on the exercises with people they had just met and contributed to the post-exercise discussions. Although numbers were small, the workshop was considered a success by faculty and participants alike.

A draft version of the TG-100 Report is available on the AAPM website with the final, peer reviewed version hopefully being published in Medical Physics before too long. Of course, reading a report and implementing the TG-100 tools are quite different things. The Ad Hoc Committee for the Implementation of the TG-100 Report, under the chairmanship of Dan Low, is actively working on a roll-out plan for this new approach to quality management in radiotherapy. Workshops of the type we delivered in Toronto, which was primarily intended to introduce these new tools and develop a level of comfort with their use, are likely to be presented at many venues across North America in the coming months.

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AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

e-BOOK SYNOPSIS Slavik Tabakov, FIPEM, FIOMP President, International Organization for Medical Physics

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he new PDF e-book The Pioneering of e-Learning in Medical Physics (The Development of e-Books, Image Databases, Dictionary and Encyclopaedia) ISBN 978-0-9552108-4-6 (2015) describes a chronology of seven EU-funded international educational projects (1994-2014) which are among the first to develop and introduce original e-learning in the teaching process.

The book describes the process of developing and introducing e-learning in one profession (medical physics) and the significant global impact of this process on the profession. The authors describe the development of the ideas/concepts; their implementation into practice (in medical physics); and the challenges and successes of the international project team. The book also includes a description of the methodology used by the team to develop a Multilingual Dictionary and develop/organize an Encyclopaedia. The description of the practical experience and path of development of these original e-learning materials can be of use to a broad range of specialists.

The first described project, developed before the existence of the terms e-learning and e-books, created some of the world’s first ISBN-numbered electronic Image Databases (on CD-ROM) and e-books. The projects also developed the first Medical Physics Multilingual e-Dictionary of Terms (translated in 29 languages) and a professional e-Encyclopaedia — both supported by the International Organization for Medical Physics (IOMP) and currently used by thousands of specialists worldwide through a web portal. The success and global impact of these projects led to the inaugural award for education of the European Union — the Leonardo da Vinci Award, which the project team received in 2004.

The book consists of about 200 pages with some 130 images, diagrams, and consortium photos. While it has not been intended as a scientific book on e-learning, it gives sufficient information of the methods used by the team.

The book underlines the success of the projects, based mainly on the excellent collaboration of many colleagues from different countries. This has boosted the dissemination of the projects’ results (now used in almost 100 countries) and has contributed to the increased visibility of medical physics in the public media. The book also includes extensive feedback on the application of e-learning in the educational process (specifically in medical physics), and based on this, the views of the authors for its further development.

The initial intention of this book was simply to be used by the project contributors (all listed in the book) as a chronicle of their international collaboration. However, the book has obviously triggered external interest -- during the first three months of its existence (May-July 2015) the e-book The Pioneering of e-Learning in Medical Physics had approximately 25,000 downloads.

The e-book can be downloaded for free from here. The previous two e-books dedicated to medical physics education and training can also be accessed from the same website.

Roberts C., Tabakov S., Lewis C. - editors, (1995) “Medical Radiation Physics - A European Perspective”, London, King’s College London, ISBN 1 870722 02 7 Tabakov S, Sprawls P, Krisanachinda A, Lewis C, (2011), Medical Physics and Engineering Education and Training – part I, ISBN 92-95003-44-6, ICTP, Trieste, Italy

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AAPM Newsletter • Volume 40 No. 5 SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2015

AAPM HQ TEAM...AT YOUR SERVICE Angela Keyser, College Park, MD Lisa (Giove) Schober joined the AAPM team in 2005 as the Receptionist. Her hard work and dedication was apparent right away, and she now serves as Senior Executive Assistant and the Executive Director’s right-hand and office manager! Lisa supports the Executive Committee and Board on governance-related projects, maintains the AAPM Policy Manual, handles elections, and manages the headquarters office at various AAPM association meetings. She is also the HQ liaison to the Administrative Council and AAPM chapters.

Viv Dennis joined the team back in 2010 as the Customer Service Representative and was promoted to Administrative Assistant in 2014. Viv provides support to the Editors of Medical Physics and is the point person at HQ for AAPM’s Career Services and the Medical Physics Residency Application Process (MP-RAP).

Shayna (Wise) Knazik came on board in 2014 and was recently promoted from Customer Service Representative to Programs Manager. In this role, Shayna’s main focus is providing staff support to Science Council and its 140+ subgroups. Shayna also manages AAPM’s History and Heritage process and assists with editing the Newsletter.

Nick Wingreen is the newest member of the team, joining AAPM HQ in mid-August as the Office Services Assistant. Nick is the first line of defense on the AAPM main phone line and assists volunteers with the everincreasing number of AAPM conference calls. He is responsible for AAPM mail processing, responding to general inquiries and providing administrative support.

AAPM staff members (left to right) Viv Dennis, Lisa Schober, Shayna Knazik, and Nick Wingreen.

www.aapm.org | 43

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UPCOMING AAPM MEETINGS: September 18–20, 2015 SRT/SBRT: Safe and Accurate Delivery of Hypofractionated Radiation Therapy Detroit, MI March 5–8, 2016 AAPM Spring Clinical Meeting Salt Lake City, UT June 12–16, 2016 AAPM Summer School Medical Physics Leadership Academy Chantilly, VA July 31–August 4, 2016 AAPM 58th Annual Meeting & Exhibition Washington, DC

AAPM | One Physics Ellipse | College Park, MD 20740 | 301-209-3350 | www.aapm.org