Australiasian College of Physical Scientists and Engineers in Medicine

Simon Downes, on behalf of the Colleges’ Asia Pacific Special Interest Group reports on the achievements arising out of the recent fundraising effort Everyday Hero.

Firstly I would like to thank all members who have supported APSIG in raising money for our project to support the Lae Cancer Unit. Your generosity will pay dividends for cancer patients throughout PNG.

It is opportune to provide you with an update on what is happening with the Lae Cancer Unit in Papua New Guinea and the internet connection which money was raised for through the ACPSEM Medical Research Foundation.  A lot has gone on so grab a coffee and please read to the end. 

I recently received some very good news in the form of an email from the Chief Radiation Therapist at the Lae Cancer Unit to say that there wireless internet connection is working!  This might be a surprise since none of the money has yet been sent up there from the funds raised!  This is because NDoH paid for the installation of a wireless connection themselves (stealing our initiative in the process). It is actually very good news as it has meant we can use the money raised to keep the internet connection operational for a very long time to come. I am following up with them to find out the best way that the funds can be used so I'll keep you informed.

Now for the really good news...

As you may or may not know, we have not been able to find a VIDA Medical Physicist for the Lae Cancer Unit since we advertised at the end of last year.  There has been some interest from some but for a few reasons, it has not been possible.  I attended a VIDA (Volunteers for International Development from Australia) function recently and spoke with a few people and by happy coincidence, found out that VIDA is currently allowing short term assignments for 1-2 months (3 months is normally the minimum which has been one of the reasons why we could not get anybody). 

I am very pleased to report that Tony Knittel, a physicist from our centre  (with plenty of leave to use up!) has confirmed that he is willing to go up to Lae for up to 2 months.  Tony is an ideal person for this assignment as he has already been up there and is very experienced in manual LDR brachy and Co-60 units.  Don’t take this to mean that our search for a long term VIDA Medical Physicist is over as the Lae Cancer Unit will require long term support so if you are interested, please contact me or APSIG.

In addition to this, we are to receive a generous donation from a friend of a cancer sufferer in PNG who wishes to make a real difference to the Lae Cancer Unit and its patients.  The donor wishes to support our cause for a physicist to go up to Lae to commission LDR brachytherapy for cervix patients and help set up the remote planning support (external beam and brachy) via the internet connection that money was raised for.  This is fantastic news and will really help this project to consolidate its efforts.

Other good news is the Nuigini Department of Health has just finalised the contract renewal for the Australian Radiation Oncologist, Dr John Niblett to return to Lae after some delay.  This has been a very big hurdle to overcome and is extremely good news.  It will hopefully mean the VIDA Radiation Therapist Trainer position that we helped the AIR to obtain can now go ahead as well. 
Again a big thank you to all members who have helped raise funds for this project. Without your support we would not have been able to achieve much support for Radiation Therapy in PNG. I would be grateful of any further donations and these can be made through the ACPSEM Medical Research Foundation.

Simon Downes

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)

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)

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)

ACPSEM branches are coordinating the collection of suitable medical physics and biomedical engineering text books for the University of Indonesia.  If anyone can help with unwanted, but still useful, text books then please contact your local branch or Brian Thomas at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  The ACPSEM office will assist with postal/freight  fees. See Textbooks request for more information.

(28th May, 2009)