IPEM at ESTRO Congress
09/05/2024
GLASGOW played host to the ESTRO 2024 Conference and Exhibition over the Bank Holiday weekend and IPEM was there to represent members’ interests.
The theme of this year’s congress was “Radiation Oncology: Bridging the Care Gap”, which was a comprehensive look at where radiotherapy is today and where it is going, as well as focussing on where gaps in the provision of optimal radiotherapy can be bridged.
IPEM had a stand in the National Societies pavilion and Sally Hawking, Head of Commercial Engagement, and Catherine Toon, Events & Conferences Manager, were supported on the stand by Patrick Downes, a member of the Radiotherapy Special Interest Group (RT SIG), with Dr Jemimah Eve, IPEM’s Director of Policy & Impact, representing IPEM on the Radiotherapy Board stand.
The four-day event was attended by delegates from across Europe and further afield, with more than 100 companies exhibiting in the three main exhibition halls.
Networking
Sally and Catherine caught up with a host of IPEM members including Dr Mark Cowen, Head of Radiotherapy Physics at Northampton General Hospital and Chair of RT SIG, Jonathan Lane, Head of Radiotherapy Physics at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Mark Ashburner, an IPEM member and radiotherapy physicist over from Waikato Hospital in New Zealand. Professor Andrew Reilly, IPEM’s Vice President Scotland and IPEM Fellow Professor Carl Rowbottom, Director of IPEM’s Professional and Standards Council, also popped by the stand.
Carol Clark, from the Institute of Physics Publishing, IPEM’s publishing partner for the international peer reviewed journals Physics in Medicine & Biology and Physiological Measurement, caught up with Catherine and Sally to discuss forthcoming events, and Catherine Clark, from the National Physical Laboratory, also caught up with Catherine to discuss the 3D in RT event they are hosting on behalf of IPEM in a couple of weeks’ time.
In addition to meeting radiotherapy members, Catherine and Sally also caught up with several of IPEM’s company members and wider network, which led to some engaging conversations of how we can work more together to benefit both members and the wider medical physics and clinical engineering community.
Dr Eve presented at a session on ‘Harnessing data to shape Radiotherapy Physicist training’ which looked at the current vacancy rate in the field.
Dr Eve said: ‘It is important that IPEM attends events such as this to represent our members, catch up with partners and exhibitors and also network with colleagues across the whole healthcare science spectrum.’