AAPM 2019’s MedPhys Slam Encourages Science Communication
The 61st American Association of Physicists in Medicine Annual Meeting and Exhibition was held on July 14-18 in San Antonio, Texas, home of the world-famous River Walk.
The meeting program for this year offered scientific, educational and professional symposia, courses and workshops spanning the range of medical physics topics. In addition, the technical exhibit provided the perfect opportunity to connect with vendors, learn about new products and services, and seek technical support.
The theme for the meeting was “Building Bridges, Cultivating Safety, Growing Value.” This year’s meeting was attended by some 3000 delegates. Some of the conference sessions included FLASH radiotherapy and machine learning. Other conference highlights included the MedPhys Slam competition, a research communication competition in which participants – Ph.D. students, medical physics residents and postdoctoral researchers – have just three minutes and three slides to share the significance of their research in an easy to understand manner.
This year’s competition was judged by a panel of four non-medical physicists: sports broadcaster Dan Weiss, education and leadership program coordinator Amanda Gamez, meteorologist Bill Taylor and our very own David Weiss, Dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at UT Health San Antonio.
According to the article by Physics World, “18 competitors took part this year – all winners of their local AAPM regional chapter competitions. The speakers covered a wide range of themes, from Monte Carlo plan optimization to AI and machine learning, motion management to electronic brachytherapy, and even how to use teeth to measure dose exposure after an unplanned radiation event.”
The MedPhys Slam was organized by our very own UT Health San Antonio Radiological Sciences Ph.D. alumna Kristen McConnell who is currently serving as the Student and Trainees subcommittee chair of AAPM and is the second year that the subcommittee has hosted it at the conference.
“This was the second year for the medphys slam. Hosted by the AAPM Student and Trainees Subcommittee, it is one of our most important events, and we are making it a priority to continue,” McConnell said. “We believe the communication of science in a way that everyone can understand allows more of the community to understand the impact and goals of our research. We hope this will empower our young scientists with the tools to be more effective researchers through better communication that leads to better funding.”
Innovative research in medical physics is always on display at the AAPM Annual Meeting. The "Best-in-Physics" session presented at #AAPM2019 highlights such research. Check out this summary of this research by Tami Freeman: https://t.co/Vtg5RUIX7S@PWMedPhys
— aapmstsc (@aapmstsc) August 14, 2019
