The Congress debuted on Sunday 3rd June at the Forum Hall of the Prague Congress Centre – right at the centre of the historic capital city of the Czech Republic – at precisely 14.00 hours with Opening Ceremony / President’s of IFMBE, IOMP, CAMP, CSBMEMD Welcome Addresses and IUPESM, IFMBE, IOMP Presidents’ Plenary speeches. Thereafter Plenary lectures by invited speakers were delivered with Prof. Uwe Oelfke (UK) talking on – Improving Clinical Outcomes of Adaptive Cancer Therapies with Radiation: Strategies, Technologies and Challenges. The second invited speakers plenary lecture by Prof. Russell Ritenour (USA) was on – Physicists and Engineers Interaction with Physicians in Medical Imaging. The IOMP’s Maria Sklodowska-Curie and Harold Johns Medal awards were presented and the opening day was rounded up with a welcome cocktail at the exhibition arena of the congress hall between 18.30 and 19.30 hours.
Dr. T.A. Ige’s engagements at the Congress include amongst other side events – participation in the IOMP Regional Coordination Board (RCB) meeting at lunch time on Monday, June 4 ; the IOMP Council in the morning hours of Tuesday 5th June and later that evening – the IOMP Presidential Reception dinner at the “Let’s Eat Restaurant” of the Corinthia Towers Hotel where he was presented with 2017 IDMP Award for Africa alongside Dr. Abdul Nashirudeen Mumuni – the Young Scientist IUPAP Award among other recipients of several other awards from the different IOMP Federations present. He also presented the “Status of Medical Physics and Activities to Boost the Professional Development in Africa” at one of the specially dedicated IOMP Schools : IOMP/IUPAP Workshop on Medical Physics Partnering with Developing World in the morning hours of Wednesday 6th June chaired by Profs. Fridjtof Nuesslin and Slavik Tabakov. In the evening of Wednesday 6th June at the Special session (SS 29): “Eliminating Global Medical Physics Disparities”, he made a presentation titled: Resuscitating Quality Radiotherapy Service in a Resource Challenge Environment – National Hospital Abuja (NHA – Nigeria) as a Case Study. There were some engagements also with the IMPCB (International Medical Physics Certification Board) and the MPWB (Medical Physics for World Benefit).
Mr. Christoph Trauernicht in the morning hours of Thursday 7th June at the IOMP/IAEA Session on Capacity Building in Medical Physics presented an invited talk titled: Capacity Building in Medical Physics in Africa and later in the afternoon same day – the FAMPO delegates from Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa had a short meeting to review the “happenings” so far at the Congress and briefly talked about the submission made by Prof. Debbie van der Merwe which was a summary of discussion between the IAEA and FAMPO at a recent event in Vienna with a view to taking the discussions further in the coming weeks and months.
Dr. Abdul Nashirudeen Mumuni and Ms. Savanna Nyarko had E-posters titled “Assessment of Brain Water Content in Peripheral Inflammation by an Optimized Single-Voxel MR Spectroscopy Quantitation Technique” and “Design and Dosimetry Consideration for the Fabrication of a Manual Multi-leaf Collimator for Cobalt-60 Teletherapy Machine” respectively and both displays were well received by the conference delegates.
On Friday 8th June, the last IOMP School: “Meet the Editors” were addressed by Profs. M. Stoeva, P. Russo and T. Suk. The delegates proceeded from this session to the Closing ceremony of the WC 2018 at the Forum Hall of the Congress centre which held between 10.45 and 11.45 hours.
In conclusion, the IUPESM World Congress 2018 had participants from 86 Countries, 1535 delegates (466 Females and 1069 Males), 62 exhibitors, 897 BME’s and 638 MP’s. The Scientific programme had 140 Oral sessions, 34 Special sessions, 20 IOMP School sessions, 26 Educational courses – BME, 35 Educational sessions – MP and 80 IUPESM/IFMBE/IOMP Meetings and Sessions with 5 Plenary lectures, 33 Keynote lectures, 969 Oral presentations and 800 E-Poster presentations.
The Next IUPESM World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering has been slated for 30 May – 4 June 2021 at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre, Marina Bay Sands in SINGAPORE (www.iupesm2021.com).
The FAMPO delegates acknowledge the Travel Grants from IOMP and IUPAP amongst other sponsors that have facilitated their attendance at this epoch-making and historical event and wish to convey their individual and collective appreciation for same.
Dr. Taofeeq Abdallah IGE
President – FAMPO
