Sunil Dutt Sharma^1,2
1 President, Association of Medical Physicists of India (AMPI)
2 Co-Chair, Conference Organizing Committee & Scientific Committee, ICMP-2023

I. INTRODUCTION
The 26th International Conference of the IOMP namely the “International Conference on Medical Physics 2023” (ICMP-2023) was jointly organized by Association of Medical Physicists of India (AMPI), International Organization for Medical Physics (IOMP), Asia-Oceania Federation of Organizations for Medical Physics (AFOMP) and South-East Asian Federation of Organizations for Medical Physics (SEAFOMP) during 6 to 9 December 2023 at DAE Convention Centre, Anushaktinagar, Mumbai, India. The theme of the conference was Innovations in Radiation Technology & Medical Physics for Better
Healthcare.

II. OPENING CEREMONY
The opening ceremony of the conference presented the mixture of Indian tradition (lamp lighting, welcome to dignitaries by flower bouquets, felicitation of guests) and global scientific culture. Dr. Sudeep Gupta, a renowned medical oncologist who is currently the Director of Tata Memorial Centre (a premier cancer institution of India), was the chief guest for this function. Figure 1 is the photograph of the opening ceremony of ICMP-2023 showing release of souvenir and book of abstracts of the conference.

III. PARTICIPATION
ICMP-2023 brought together experts, researchers, and professionals from around the world to discuss the latest advancements and breakthroughs in the field of medical physics and associated disciplines. This conference was well attended by more than 1300 participants from 33 countries including 134 delegates/invitees/experts from outside India. The participation of more than 325 medical physics students and about 200 medical physics senior citizens was the testimony of the larger medical physics community of India. We can proudly state that the ICMP-2023 has brought together the medical physics professionals of four generations (4G). Thus, ICMP-2023 was indeed the 4G conference. Figure 2 is a section of the participants.

IV. SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM
The scientific program of the conference was very comprehensive and it included almost all the topics of recent interests for deliberations such as artificial intelligence in medical physics, technology and techniques of radiation oncology, treatment planning, emerging and newer techniques of radiation therapy, imaging in radiation oncology, advanced technologies and techniques of medical imaging, emerging and newer techniques of medical imaging, radiation dosimetry and radiation safety, targeted therapy, radiation biology, modeling and simulation, translational research, education/training and certification in medical physics.

The scientific schedule included 4 plenary sessions (6 talks), 2 joint sessions (IOMP-IAEA and IOMP-IRPA with 4 talks), 6 IOMP schools (including 2 CMPI teaching sessions), 14 special symposiums (46 talks), 36 scientific sessions (36 invited talks plus 102 oral paper presentations), 2 technical sessions (11 technical talks from the exhibitors), 359 poster presentations, 4 poster rapporteur sessions (15 reporters briefing on the poster presented at the conference), and one evening lecture. Scintillating debates (2 sessions), namely “Will AI replace clinical medical physicists?” and “Whether harmonization in certification of medical physicists is required?” and medical physics quiz competition (2 sessions) were the special attractions for many participants. Live telecast of the scientific deliberations was made through YouTube and links for all the deliberations are made available at the conference website www.icmp2023.org. In addition, links of all the presentations have also been communicated to IOMP, AMPI, AFOMP, and SEAFOMP for uploading at their websites.

V. SPECIAL INTERESTS
The inclusion of YOGA session (special thanks to Prof M. Mahesh for the proposal) on the mornings of 2nd, 3rd and 4th day of the conference was of special interests to many and it has been well appreciated. I am hopeful the Yoga session started from ICMP-2023 will be part of many other conferences in the world. The social aspects of the conference were equally attractive and have received wide appreciation from all. Cultural program in the evening of first day and complimentary dinners in the evenings of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd days, along with the arrangements for music and dancing was refreshing for all.

Figure 1: Photograph of the opening ceremony of ICMP-2023 [From left to right: V Subramani, Sunil Dutt Sharma, Eva Bezak, Dinesh Kumar Aswal, Sudeep Gupta, John Damilakis, Balvinder Kaur Sapra, Chai Hong Yeong, Rajesh Kumar]

Figure 2: Section of participants at the ICMP-2023

VI. SUMMARY
The total deliberations of the conference included 233 oral presentations and 359 poster presentations. To cover such a large number of oral presentations, it was inevitable to conduct three parallel sessions (please see the scientific program available at www.icmp2023.org). It is worth mentioning here that IOMP introduced four cash prizes (two for best oral presentations and two for best poster presentations) to encourage and enhance the quality of presentations in addition to quality of scientific work. Thanks to the panel of judges who evaluated the proffered oral and poster presentations which was indeed a herculean
task.

VII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I take this opportunity to thank IOMP, AMPI, AFOMP, SEAFOMP, trade exhibitors/supporters, invitees, experts, delegates, members/chairs/co-chairs of all the committees of ICMP-2023 including members of local organizing committee and all those who have supported me directly/indirectly in making the biggest ever international conference on medical physics (ICMP) of IOMP a satisfying and successful event. In fact, ICMP-2023 was the mega event of medical physics which has created a few records to serve as reference for organizers of future ICMPs.

VIII. REFERENCE