Wednesday, August 27, 2014

An Experience From ICMPROI-2014



By Suresh Poudel

2nd International Conference in Medical Physics on Radiation Oncology and Imaging (ICMPROI-2014), held in Dhaka from 20th -22nd August, 2014 was an extraordinary experience for me. This conference was jointly organized by Bangladesh Medical Physics Society (BMPS), Association of Medical Physicists of India (AMPI), and Nepalese Association of Medical Physicists (NAMP). Virtually I was representing all of these three nations- Nepal as my motherland, Bangladesh as my place of study and also as a member of BMPS and India as my prospective place for postgraduate research.

With more than 300 delegates, national and international, it was an exotic event. Speakers were invited from International Atomic Energy Commission (IAEA), Asia-Oceania Federation of Medical Physicists (AFOMP), Secondary Standard Dosimetry Lab (SSDL), foreign Universities and Research Institutes. Delegates came from 23 nations. Mr. Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali, Hon’ble Foreign Minister, MP, Peoples Republic of Bangladesh was the chief guest and Dr. Ferdinand Von Weyhe, German Charge d’ Affairs for Bangladesh was a guest of Honor.

In this 3 days conference, I took an opportunity to host cultural program and other scientific sessions. NAMP president and organizing Vice President Mr. P P Chaurasia delivered a welcome speech and also presented his scientific paper on second day of the conference while Nepalese Oncologist Dr. Samir Sharma, co-chaired a scientific session. Another Nepalese delegate Mr. Shrawan Kumar presented his paper during a scientific session. 

Beside these regular formalities of any conference, this event has been vital for strengthening the relationship among the medical physicists in South Asia. Delegates from Pakistan, Srilanka, India, Bangladesh and Nepal were highlighted the importance of regional co-operation among the Medical Physicists and Medical Physics organization  for better and quality cancer treatment in this region.

This conference has brought together the Cancer experts, Oncologists, medical physicists, technologists, administrators, policy makers etc to engage on a discussion towards quality treatment of cancer in this region and the role of medical physics on it.

Particularly, the meeting between AMPI, BMPS and NAMP has been fruitful towards collaboration in knowledge sharing, accreditation Bangladeshi Medical Physicists by India etc.This conference has been crucial for digging up the issues related to radiation protection, quality assurance in radio diagnosis, radio therapy, nuclear medicine and recent development in biomedical Engineering. 

Participants emphasized the role of medical physicists in quality treatment delivery to the patients. They stressed that with the growing complexity of cancer treatment, the role of medical physicists has been increasing in radio diagnosis, radiotherapy and radiation protection. They informed their respective governments that International Labour Organization has recognized medical physicists are health professional basically involved in quality assurance of imaging and therapy, radiation protection, dosimetry, acceptance and commissioning of machines such as Medical Linacs, Brachytherapy Machines, Co-60 teletherapy machine, CT Scan machine, MRI etc. They are also involved in academics and research. Medical physics is basically the application of physics in medicine.

India is far ahead of its neighbors in Cancer treatment and radiation therapy. It has better infrastructure, advanced machines with large number of Oncologists, medical physicists, technologists and other related professional. It alone has around 1000 medical physicists working in different hospitals, universities, BARC, research institutes etc. Medical physics is taught in 8 different institutes in India. On the other hand, the number of oncologists, medical physicists and other radiation related health professional is very low in Bangladesh and Nepal. Bangladesh has around 30 and Nepal has 8 medical physicists till date.

Only Gono University offers Bsc and Msc Medical physics education in Bangladesh. Government hospitals have not yet  to create the posts for medical physicists in Bangladesh, Gono graduates are getting jobs in private hospitals, medical equipment companies, university and in research. Lately the government has shown interest to create post for medical physicists. Prof. Deen Mohd. Noorul Huq, Directorate general of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh said that the government would keep medical physics education and the role of medical physicists in top priority. It will be a step forward for BMPS in its effort to make Medical Physics a reputed profession in Bangladesh.

As Nepal has only 6 cancer centers with limited number of medical Linacs, Brachy Units, IMRT and other therapy and diagnostic equipment, it has not felt the pressure regarding the need of Medical physicists till date. However, with new cancer centers, modern equipment and necessity of precise radiation dose delivery, radiation protection issues in rise the medical physicists will grow in demand in Nepal. Also medical physics is not recognized as a intensive discipline in Nepal. No university offers intensive learning in medical physics except that it is taught as an optional paper for Msc Physics students in Tribhuvan University.

Under this backdrop, it has been high time for Government of Nepal to formulate national radiation protection law, work out to establish medical physics department in hospitals using radiation particularly in Cancer Centers, run an intensive medical physics program in graduate level, help NAMP to conduct trainings, research, awareness and other programs.

The writer is the member of Bangladesh Medical Physics Society and student of Gono Bishwobidyalay, Savar Dhaka, Bangladesh.