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The Asia Oceania Federation of Organizations for Medical Physics (AFOMP) founded on 20 May 2000 is striving to promote medical physics in the Asia and Oceania by working in close association with national member organizations, International Organization for Medical Physics(IOMP) and other national and international organizations of similar interest. The federation has completed two decades of activities bringing forth new means to face the existing and new challenges in medical physics professional development with 21 national member organizations and a plethora of activities and opportunities for early career and expert medical physics professionals of the region. AFOMP offers a unique meet and chat with professor series where pioneers in medical physics from the region shares their experiences and vision for the profession and in this episode we have Prof Dr Arun Chougule.
Prof Chougule is serving as the Dean and Chief Academic Officer, SwasthyaKalyan Group, Jaipur after completing 38 years of long exemplary career as a medical physics teacher, researcher, mentor and leader in the department of Medical Education, Government of Rajasthan State, India. He is the immediate past President of AFOMP and Chair Education and Training Committee IOMP and Chairman IOMP accreditation board. He is also a member of the IMPCB Board of Directors. He held positions like Dean, Student Welfare, Rajasthan University of Health Sciences (RUHS), Member, Board of Management, RUHS, Member, Academic Council, RUHS, Chairman, Unfair Means Redressal Committee, RUHS, Ex-President, AMPI, Ex-Dean, Faculty of Paramedical Sciences, Ex-Pro-Vice Chancellor, RUHS and active involvement in the institutional administration as a member of the board of management, the clinical trial screening committee, the ethics committee, the research board and so on.
Prof Chougule has started his Medical Physics career in 1984 as an Assistant Professor at the Rabindranath Tagore Medical College, Udaipur. It was the beginning of an exemplary academic and research career with great contributions to the domains of Radiobiology, LQ model and its application to radiotherapy, biochemical tumor markers, and patient and staff radiation dose measurement during radiology, nuclear medicine and radiotherapy procedures and TL dosimetry. Over the last 36 years, Prof. Chougule has contributed immensely to the medical physics education and training, research, professional development and recognition of the profession in the local, regional, national and international rostrums.
Dr. Chougule is the founding and fellow member of over 35 scientific, professional societies and accreditation boards. He is founder member of CMPI and has been awarded fellowship of Indian Society of Radiation Biology (ISRB) for outstanding contribution in the field of Radiobiology. As chair of ETC, IOMP, he has put tremendous efforts 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. As AFOMP President, he worked towards the expansion of the activities of AFOMP, strengthening financial resources and activating NMO’s. During the time of COVID-19 pandemic, he facilitated the release of AFOMP documents for medical physicists.
He is a teacher par excellence with more than 100 publications in reputed peer reviewed national and international journals, more than 300 research presentations around the world, editor, associate editor, advisor and reviewer of many reputed national and international journals, research guide and co-guide to many Ph. D, MD and M.Sc students. He has been the principal investigator for many national and multination research projects. He is the recipient of various fellowships such as ICRETT, UICC, ESTRO, VLIR, ICTP, TWAS-UNESCO, TAWS–CAS, DAAD and regular Associateship of ICTP. He is the recipient of prestigious awards and honors for his outstanding contribution to profession, research and academic contribution, the most recent one being prestigious fellow of National Academy of Medical Sciences FNAMS 2021, AFOMP Outstanding Medical Physicist Award 2020, Outstanding Medical Faculty 2019, IOMP IDMP award 2016, the Prestigious Dr. Farukh Abdulla Sher—e-Kashmir best researcher award for 2011–12 and outstanding radiation safety officer award 2010 are a few from the very long list.
In addition to fulfilling his clinical, academic, research and educational responsibilities he takes care of his social responsibilities very seriously and his contributions toward the betterment of society in terms of cancer awareness, early detection, treatment and rehabilitation are outstanding garnering national and international acknowledgement. He is the co-founder and co-editor in chief of the Hindi magazine on cancer awareness Mrityunjay meaning conquering death published in Hindi. He was instrumental in developing paramedical sciences in the state of Rajasthan.
Dr. Chougule organizes national and international scientific meetings and teaching programmes in medical physics, radiation oncology, diagnostic and therapeutic radiation technology and other medical radiation applications regularly to disseminate basic/ advanced education of international best standards to young professionals in medical physics. 17 international scientific conferences in Jaipur are to his credit as a veteran organizer and the “International Conference on Radiological Emergency Management (ICONRADEM 2019)” and “AOCMP2017” under his chairmanship are the most recent and glittering examples. He organizes IDMP every year and IMPW celebrations at Jaipur to impart awareness about the medical physics profession among healthcare professionals and general public.
Prof Chougule’ personal experiences as a medical physicist, his take on the various professional development activities going on in India, Asia Oceania and across the globe and his continuous work will open new avenues in clinical practice, education and research for medical physicists. This chat could be a pathfinder for many young medical physicists to transcend in their careers by refine and re-mould themselves to better medical physicists and above all compassionate human beings.
Prepared by Associate Prof Dr Mary Joan