Australiasian College of Physical Scientists and Engineers in Medicine

Please see below is a letter from the Director of Radiation Oncology Section of the Department of Health and Ageing, Mr Abel MacDonald, regarding changes to the Medicare items for radiation oncology treatment verification from 1 May 2010.

Read the full article Changes to the Medicare items for radiation oncology treatment verification

APSIG is seeking Expressions of Interest (EoI) from ROMPs willing to mentor supervisors of residents (registrars) enrolled in the RCA/IAEA ROMP clinical training program in the Philippines. The workload should be quite minor with communication with the Philippine supervisors being by email.

If willing to participate then please forward your EoI by 7 May to Brian Thomas ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) indicating number of years of experience as a ROMP, current position, experience as a supervisor of TEAP registrars and any other TEAP involvement.

(23rd May, 2010)

Since our journal is now available online, it has also been added to the HINARI database. This database, set up by WHO together with major publishers, enables eligible developing countries to gain access to a large of biomedical and health literature. For further information, see

http://www.who.int/hinari/en/

For a list of eligible countries, see

http://www.who.int/hinari/eligibility/en/
(23rd April, 2010)

Cancer Australia established the Regional Multi-site Clinical Trials Capacity Building Network in 2009. The purpose of this initiative is to increase the capacity of regional centres to activate and recruit to trials conducted by the Multi-site Collaborative National Cancer Clinical Trials Groups, and thereby increasing access to high-quality trials to patients in regional Australia.

Applications are now open for new regional centres to join the Regional Multi-site Clinical Trials Capacity Building Network in 2010.

Together with the Victorian Cancer Agency, Cancer Australia is calling for applications from regional centres to join this initiative. Funding will be available to provide the person support required for the conduct of, and recruitment to, cancer clinical trials nominated by the Multi-site Collaborative National Cancer Clinical Trials Groups.

More information can be found at: http://www.canceraustralia.gov.au/cancer-australia/research-and-clinical-trials/support-clinical-trials#6 

Kind regards

Janelle

Dr. Janelle Nunan
Program Manager
Research and Clinical Trials
Cancer Australia

ACPSEM is seeking member engagement to determine the wording, which will comprise the definition of a ACPSEM Clinical Medical Physicist.


Please provide your input within this process by articulating the wording, which best describes and represents the scope and the duties carried out by a clinical medical physicist.

To have your say go to our facebook discussion group.

We recently advertised for a volunteer radiation oncology medical physicist to support the centre's development and to provide training to treatment and technical staff. This post has not yet been filled, and is still available as a great opportunity for physicists of any level. See attached Expression of Interest for further details.

(2nd April, 2010)

The ARPANSA publication RPS14, Code of Practice for Radiation Protection in the Medical Applications of Ionizing Radiation (2008), usually referred to as the Medical Code, has been added to Schedule 11 of RPS6, the National Directory for Radiation Protection. All Codes and Standards referenced in Schedule 11 must be adopted within the regulatory framework of each State and Territory in Australia.

Edition 1 of the National Directory for Radiation Protection was developed by the Radiation Health Committee and published in August 2004. It was subsequently endorsed by the Australian Health Ministers' Conference (AHMC) as the uniform national framework for radiation protection in Australia.

Following publication of Edition 1, the Radiation Health Committee agreed that further progression of the Directory would be by individual amendments, and that the consolidated version of the Directory would be maintained as an electronic document via ARPANSA's website.  The current Directory includes the first three amendments since Edition 1, which were agreed by the Radiation Health Committee during 2008 and were endorsed by Ministers in December 2009.  

The current consolidated version is available for download at, http://www.arpansa.gov.au/Publications/codes/rps6.cfm as well as the individual amendments.

ACPSEM is committed to making it easier for its members to keep up to date with the latest announcements, education opportunities and job information. With this in mind ACPSEM can now be found on both Facebook and Twitter. This allows members to network with each other, share experiences on the discussion boards and upload photos and video. Please take a moment have a look at these new ways to stay connected and feel free to contribute to our online community.

Click here to join us on Facebook

Click here to follow us on Twitter

The Australian Government has requested a detailed review of diagnostic imaging funding arrangements to ensure that the Government is paying the right amount to support access for patients to quality diagnostic imaging services.  As part of the review the Department of Health and Ageing will be seeking to gather information about how current arrangements operate in practice and to invite stakeholders to propose options for the future sustainability for diagnostic imaging services.

The ACPSEM is seeking comments as part of a planned ACPSEM submission to the Medical Benefits Reviews Task Group as part of their Diagnostic Imaging Review.  

If you are interested in participating then please forward your comments to either the Nuclear Medicine Specialty Chair - Richard Smart This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or the Radiology Specialty Chair - Luke Wilkinson This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it by 31 March so that we can collate and prepare a submission.

Members can obviously make an individual submission if they so wish. Submissions need to be in to DoHA by 30 April.

The relevant documents are  DI Review Discussion Paper and DI Review Terms of Reference

The aim of the discussion paper is to guide consultation and discussion by providing an overview of some of the issues identified in respect of the current funding arrangements and to help identify possible alternative options for consideration.  Stakeholders are invited to provide written submissions in response to the paper by 30 April 2010.  Submissions received will be made publicly available unless confidentiality is specifically requested and justified.  Stakeholders are welcome to address all, or selected, issues raised in this discussion paper.  Submissions made to the 2008 strategic review of diagnostic imaging will be taken into consideration.  Submissions should be addressed to:

Diagnostic Imaging Review

Medical Benefits Reviews Task Group

Department of Health and Ageing

MDP 153

GPO Box 9848

CANBERRA ACT 2601

The first discussion paper along with the full terms of reference for the review can also be found on the Medical Benefits Reviews Taskgroup Website: http://www.health.gov.au/mbrtg

Should you have any queries on this review please contact the Medical Benefits Reviews Task Group via email at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

For those attending the RANZCR/AIR/FRO/ACPSEM Combined Scientific Meeting next week (Brisbane, 22nd-25th October, 2009), don’t miss the session entitled, “Supporting Radiation Oncology in South East Asia” from 10:30-12:30 on Friday 23rd October. The program for the session is as follows:

Supporting Radiation Oncology in South East Asia: An Overview; Graeme Morgan
IAEA activities in the development of clinical medical physicist training for Radiation Oncology in South East Asia; Donald McLean
Educational and Clinical Training of Medical Physicists in Vietnam; Brian Thomas
ACPSEM Asia Pacific Special Interest Group; Tomas Kron and Catherine Lawford
Up and Running: Radiotherapy Commissioning in Lae, Papua New Guinea; Simon Downes
Supporting Radiotherapy in SE Asia – Training the Trainers; Mary Coffey
Supporting Radiation Oncology in South East Asia: Radiation Therapy Technologist (RTT) Training in Vietnam; Jennifer Cox
Back to the Future: Radiation Therapy in Papua New Guinea – A Radiation Therapists Prospective; Christopher Walsh
Distance Learning in the Applied Sciences of Oncology; Michael Barton
Discussion

 (15th October, 2009)

For those who missed it in late 2008, Tomas Kron et al. published a paper entitled, “Medical physics aspects of cancer care in the Asia Pacific Region”. The paper reports on a questionnaire sent out to 20 medical physics departments in the region, to determine the education, role and status of medical physicists in the Asia-Pacific region. The results provide useful data for workforce planning and training development for medical physicists in the region. The paper is published in a special focus issue of the freely available Biomedical Imaging and Intervention Journal, entitled “Frontiers of Cancer Care in Asia-Pacific Region”.

See T Kron et al. Biomed Imaging Interv J 2008; 4(3):e33

(16th August, 2009)

Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome…

Welcome to the new webpage of the Australasian College of Physical Scientists and Engineers in Medicine. It has been a long time coming and the process has highlighted the increasing complexity of our organization with branches, specialties, committees, TEAP, CPD, not to mention all the
databases of members, accreditations and registrations. There is a need for public access to some information and members access to more.

I would like to invite you to explore the page for yourself and please provide us with feedback at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   Nothing is perfect. The webpage ain’t cabaret, but hopefully will be informative, useful and possibly even a bit entertaining.

Many happy returns

Tomas Kron

President ACPSEM 

Support for People Living with Cancer

From July 1 2009people living with cancer in Australia will be better able to access a range of treatments, medicines and support. The Hon. Nicola Roxon MP, the Australian Minister for Health and Ageing, announced today that a new Medicare rebate was available for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans. She also announce better access to the drug bevacizumab, new PET services and over $6 million (over three years) to support the training of radiation oncology medical physicist registrars. Medical physics is a specialised field and these professionals are responsible for the set up, maintenance and calibration of linear accelerators, the machines used to provide radiation treatment for cancer patients. One aspect of this funding is to enable the Australasian College of Physical Scientists and Engineers in Medicine (ACPSEM) to provide oncology centres with education resources and conduct extra accreditation examinations. For more details see the full press release as follows: Support for People with Cancer full article (PDF)

I am delighted to inform all members that the ACPSEM has been successful in attracting funding from the Australian Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA) for another three years for the Radiation Oncology Training Education and Accreditation Program (TEAP). Just in time for the end of the financial year we have signed the contract!
This is an exciting development with the acronym RO - STAMP (Radiation Oncology - Strengthening Australian Medical Physics).

The project has four components:

There is a lot of additional background information that we will try to disseminate over the next couple of weeks. We have to develop a detailed project plan over the next 5 to 6 weeks and submit it to DoHA. I am hoping to have a session at the upcoming EPSM conference where we can discuss the implications of this contract for all ACPSEM members.
I would like to finish by thanking Steve Howlett and Carol James who have spent a lot of time putting together the proposal and staff of DoHA for their support and willingness to discuss the project with us over the last weeks.

Best wishes (and we are working on more STAMPs, STNZMPs, STBMs) Tomas

Tomas Kron
President ACPSEM

It is with great pleasure that the ACPSEM Council announces that Associate Professor Natalka Suchowerska has been admitted as a Fellow of the College.  This makes Natalka the first female Fellow for the ACPSEM.  Well Done Natalka!

Natalka joined the College as an Associate Member in 1984 and has been an Ordinary Member since 2002.  She has been an Associate Professor in the School of Physics, University of Sydney since 2003.  Her contributions to the ACPSEM include NSW Branch Chair (1999-2001), ACPSEM Education Committee Chair (2001- 2003) and Chair of the Accreditation Working Party (1998-2001).

NZPEM 2013

The NZ Branch conference for 2013 has been tentatively set for 19-20 Nov 2013 in Wellington

Congratulations to Howell Round on becoming a Fellow of IPENZ

Dr Howell Round has been elected a Fellow of IPENZ for his contribution to the advancement of engineering knowledge and technological education. IPENZ recognised his role in developing the professional community of biomedical engineers and medical physicists and in developing technology education programmes to equip graduates to meet employment needs. His work as a pioneering medical physics researcher, his advice to health regulators, and the increasingly professional standards being adopted in the industry around Australasia and Asia are all part of his contributions being recognized. Well done Howell!

The 2013 EPSM conference will be held in Perth from 3rd to 7th November

http://www.promaco.com.au/events/EPSM/

Dear Members,

QLD Health is currently reviewing it's policy document on Clinical Services Capability Framework for Public and Licensed Private Health Facilities.

This document includes substantial sections on Medical Imaging Services, Nuclear Medicine Services and Radiation Oncology Services, with specific reference to the role of physicists in each of these.  A draft version is publicly available for industry review as per below:

In December 2009, the Clinical Services Capability Framework (CSCF) Executive Steering Committee (ESC) endorsed further CSCF modules resulting in 28 of the 31 revised and/or new modules being available for industry critique.  Please visit http://www.health.qld.gov.au/cscf/ to view the draft Framework v3.0.  All comments on the draft Framework should be directed to the CSCF Team via This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

It has been suggested by members that the ACPSEM QLD branch should be represented in the industry review phase and submit a response based upon feedback from the membership.  I believe this would be appropriate and would like to invite all branch members to review and comment, in particular with regard to:

1. Workforce issues raised
2. Validity of technical and Scientific statements
3. Validity of references to legislation regarding to the use of radiation in these services.

Comments for Medical Imaging Services and Nuclear Medicine Services are being co-ordinated by Daniel Schick.  Please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Comments for Radiation Oncology Services are being co-ordinated by Paul Charles.  Please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Please submit all comments by no later than COB Tuesday 26th January.

Regards,

John Kenny

Chairman ACPSEM QLD Branch

Benjamin Keir is the branch web manager so if there is any news for the branch website please contact me by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   and I will post it up on this web page.  Please indicate if you only want ACPSEM members to view the news item or everyone who may visit the website.