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Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Welcome to the September issue of the AFOMP PULSE brought to you by the wonderful editorial team led by Dr Subramani. I hope that you will enjoy offerings in the newsletter informing you on medical physics happenings around the region as well as on other interesting scientific discoveries. You may have heard of the recent announcement by the scientists from South Korea about a compound, known as LK-99,that acts as a superconductor at ambient temperatures and pressure. This could potentially have an impact on medical physics and MRI diagnostic technology, perhaps leading to smaller MRI units (and may be even transportable ones (?) that could be used in remote and rural areas).
More and more we hear about ChatGPT (a large language model-based chatbot) and other AI software that can impact on original writing, learning, etc and many universities are discussing how to create “authentic” assessments that would truly examine students’ competencies and knowledge rather than assessing written work/essays prepared with the help of AI. Will this also impact our medical physics education and training? In this space, I am sure that you all might have attended the recently held joint IOMP-IUPESM-ISC (International Science Council) webinar discussed how the most popular tool – ChatGPT – can be used in our everyday work, titled: Practical Deep-Dive on ChatGPT. Please find a recording of the webinar of 29th August on the IOMP website https://www.iomp.org/iomp-school-webinars-2023/.
The ExCom has kept very busy in the first half of the year, holding 3-monthly ExCom meetings, preparing monthly webinars and AFOMP school sessions, running the awards program (with a number of awards to be announced in near future), being involved in the scientific program preparation for ICMP 2023 (abstracts closed on 31 July and the AFOMP Science Committee will work on abstract evaluation). As you can read elsewhere in the newsletter, the ICMP preparations are well under way (https://icmp2023.org/) and we hope to see as many of you as possible in Mumbai, India from 6th to 9th December. Please beware that e-visa will not be accepted for the venue where the congress is organised, and participants will require business hard copy visa to be inserted in their passports – so please kindly plan sufficient time for visa organisation prior to the meeting. Also, please note that AFOMP will be offering travel awards to 5-8 participants from LMI countries. The call for travel ward applications will be sent to NMOs in near future.
The ExCom has also worked on development of policies and procedures and established social media handles. You are very welcome to follow us at: @AFOMP1 (Twitter) and AFOMP (LinkedIn).
Last, but not least, please visit the AFOMP website, the Meet the Expert section to watch the recently uploaded interview with Prof Kwan Hoong Ng from Malaysia (https://afomp.org/category/interviews/) on his recollections on medical physics growth in Malaysia and in the AFOMP region. The AFOMP Meet the Expert Interview Seriesstarted in 2023 and aims to celebrate the contributions of our regional medical physicists.
Enjoy reading the current issue of the AFOMP PULSE
Prof Eva Bezak
President, AFOMP