Program Information

Science, Educational and Professional Program

Society Oriented Sessions - Make Plans to Attend

• Student and Trainee Events
• New Member Symposium
• Society of Directors of Academic Medical Physics Programs (Annual Meeting and Business Meeting)
• Annual Business and Town Hall Meeting

Program Information

New and exciting for the 2016 Program:

• ePoster Theater
• NEW! General ePoster Discussions - General ePosters include a select group of high-scoring posters on a specific theme identified by the Program Directors to be of special interest to attendees of the scientific program. These General ePoster presentations will occur in the ePoster Theater Area integrated with the poster presentation area in a format promoting lively discussion and scientific exchange.
• NEW! Expanding Horizons - The Expanding Horizons travel grant program provides opportunity for students and trainees to broaden the scope of scientific meetings they attend and gain insight from research outside traditional domains of medical physics. Through participation in such conferences, early-career researchers are introduced to new topics with relevance to medical physics research as a means to expand the scientific horizons of our discipline. This year, 21 Expanding Horizons travel grants were awarded, granting travel to 17 conferences, including: Radiomics, the World Molecular Imaging Society (WMIS), the 3D Printing Conference and Expo, the GPU Technology Conference, the SIAM Imaging Science Conference, the Human Brain Mapping Conference, the OSA Conference on Clinical and Translational Biophotonics, the Society for Neuroscience, the AACR Conference on Tumor Microenvironment, and the Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining.
  
  The Expanding Horizons ePoster session on Tuesday, 9:30 - 11:00 am, gives a venue for AAPM conference attendees to meet and discuss with awardees, learn the hot topics and emerging research areas presented at these conferences, and understand the relevance to future medical physics research.

• PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE - In the spirit of the meeting being held in Washington DC during an election year, the AAPM will host its own Presidential Debate! Since AAPM is currently not close to an election, we will bring back a panel of past presidents to have a lively debate about issues facing the administrative, professional, educational, and scientific aspects of physics in medicine. Make sure to come and cast your vote!

• NEW submission types:
• Science Council Junior Investigator Award - An award recognizing outstanding scientific research by Junior Investigators has been established by the AAPM Science Council. The award is based on abstracts submitted to the Scientific Program of the AAPM Annual Meeting, judged according to criteria of significance, innovation, and the potential for major scientific impact in an area of cutting edge interest in medical physics. The award carries a monetary prize and is announced at the Awards & Honors Ceremony at the Annual Meeting. Select Junior Investigator Submission.
• SPS Undergraduate Research & Outreach - The Society of Physics Students (SPS) Undergraduate Research & Outreach poster session highlights the work of undergraduate students with an interest in medical physics.  The first author (and presenter) of all posters in this session must be an undergraduate at the time of submission.  Posters should reflect either research related to medical physics or outreach to promote the importance of and relationship between physics in medicine. All joint SPS-AAPM undergraduate members are invited to submit.

• Distinguished Lectureships:
• Zagzebski/Carson Distinguished Lectureship – In the spirit of education and science, this year’s session will feature an overview of shear wave imaging utilizing ultrasound and an update on the progress being made by the RSNA Quantitative Biomarkers Alliance ultrasound committee on the use of Shear Wave Speed.
• Session in Memory of Donald Herbert: The Anne and Donald Herbert Distinguished Lectureship in Modern Statistical Modeling – This session will feature an overview of statistical modeling techniques used for analyzing the many types of research data and an exploration of recent advances in new statistical modeling methodologies.
  
• 4-hour HAZMAT Training for the Medical Physicist. Required training for individuals performing hazmat duties. Instructor: Roy Parker, PhD, Radiation Physics Consultant to FedEx Express. Pre-registration required.
• Joint scientific symposium with the World Molecular Imaging Society – Metabolic Imaging of Cancer
• Joint scientific symposium with ESTRO – Advances in Experimental Medical Physics
• NEW! Exhibit Hall Guided Tour: Join a guided tour of vendors offering either microdosimeters for therapy applications or dosimeters for diagnostic imaging quality control.  Tours will be lead by AAPM members and will include a short introduction.  SAMS credit will be offered.  Pre-registration required.

TG100 Certificate of Completion Course:
Application of Risk Analysis Methods to Radiotherapy Quality Management
(includes 5 SAM Sessions)

The course will consist of an all-day program on Wednesday followed by a workshop on Thursday, which provides further hands-on experience with tools of risk analysis and safety improvement. The course will run in Ballroom C concurrently with other AAPM program content. Upon fulfilling the requirements, participants will receive a certificate of completion. This mini-track, open to all registrants, will focus on describing a structured methodology of TG100 for analyzing clinical processes and for developing clinic - and site - specific quality management programs that more effectively and efficiently address work practices in individual clinics. The mini-track will consist of 6 sessions (including educational and scientific sessions, and proffered papers) which provide basic education as well as a survey of emerging and advanced concepts. The topics will be of interest to those working in diagnostic radiology as well as therapy physics.

The mini-track will also serve as the certificate course at this year’s meeting, which provides an in-depth review of a particular topic with verification of learning objectives through online homework. Attendees may enroll in the certificate program for an additional fee. Enrollment in the program entitles participants to dedicated seating in the mini-track sessions as well as additional online materials. Following the meeting, certificate program participants will be required to take an online examination which covers the material presented throughout the day-long mini-track. Enrollees who demonstrate satisfactory attendance at the course and successful completion of the online examination (available after the meeting) will receive a framed certificate of completion for this course.

Please note: 5 of the sessions comprising the TG100 Certificate of Completion Course will be Self Assessment Modules (SAMs) sessions. Registrants in the Course will be provided a COMPLIMENTARY PD to be used in any SAMs sessions throughout the week or single day of course.

Partners in Solutions

Partners in Solutions continues to offer a unique way for physicists to interact with and learn from our vendors, with vendors providing physics-level applications training classes in a special-purpose lecture room located on the exhibit floor. These are not sales pitches, but practical information for the clinical physicist from the people who know their systems in depth. Topics for this year are:

• Imaging: Digital Breast Tomosynthesis.  The three PinS sessions will cover the manufacturer- and model-specific features and requirements of the DBT systems currently approved by FDA. Together with other sessions offered during the Annual Meeting program, these will allow attendees to meet the FDA initial training requirements for DBT (8 hours of training including manufacturer-specific features of each approved system).
• Therapy: MR Simulation. MRI techniques are becoming increasingly used in treatment planning, image-guided radiation therapy, and treatment evaluation, and it is important that medical physicists understand the underlying processes of the systems they are using.  Presentations from three manufacturers will feature details of their fast MR imaging techniques, functional MR imaging techniques, and MRI distortion correction and quality assurance techniques, including their pros and cons.  An increased awareness of how MRI simulation tools work will allow attendees to better understand and apply their results.

Look for the Partners In Solutions sessions on the meeting program. CE credit will be offered. Come learn with us!

The following topics will be offered during the meeting:

Special 2-Day Program on Radiomics

“Radiomics” is the name given to the growing effort to extract and utilize the data inherent in medical images in order to quantify medically relevant characteristics (e.g., phenotypes of cancerous tumors.) The field continues to evolve, building upon quantitative image analysis methods from computer-aided diagnosis and machine learning.  Various radiomic studies are attempting to further understand the biology of cancer (for example, druggable mutations), as well as the role of tumor heterogeneity in metastatic disease.  Medical physicists have taken a leading role in radiomics and thus, this  track will include proffered and invited talks over several days addressing multiple key areas of radiomics, including quantitative imaging foundations and best practices, new applications and results across modalities, new software tools and processes, and driving biological questions.  Important challenges, such as the dependence of radiomic features on databases, technology, and methodology, will be examined in detail to help point a way forward in this exciting area.

Imaging Track

The 2016 Imaging Track highlights ongoing research and advances in Imaging in Medical Physics.  In addition to proffered sessions, this track will include scientific symposia on Imaging-Radiomics Joint session on the Low Dose CT Grand Challenge, radiation and cancer, model observer design and its validation for digital breast tomosynthesis, quantitative performance assessment of CT systems employing iterative reconstruction algorithms, advances in image-guided neurointerventions, advances in dedicated breast CT, and advances in preclinical imaging.  Several of the scientific symposia are expected to offer SAM credits.  The scientific symposia and the proffered scientific sessions will explore the state of the art and also new frontiers in imaging.

Therapy Track

The 2016 Therapy Track will showcase several current hot topics in therapy physics including emerging fields that present unique opportunities for medical physicists. Invited symposia will be presented on thefollowing topics: radioimmunotherapy, real-time 3D dosimetry, radiation countermeasures, computational biology, advances in experimental medical physics, digital linear accelerators, and motion management and RBE prediction in particle therapy. At this year’s meeting several symposia will be presented in coordination with the educational program. That is, back-to-back invited sessions which first present the well-established aspects of a topic (education) followed by new emerging advancements (science). As usual, this year’s scientific program will also include fantastic cutting edge research presented in more than 27 proffered sessions in the therapy scientific track alone.

Joint Imaging-Therapy Track

The 2016 Joint Imaging-Therapy Track will feature exciting topics highlighting the latest science incorporating imaging for improving therapeutic interventions. In addition to over 30 hours of proffered sessions, this track will include invited symposia covering the following topics: the joint symposium with World Molecular Imaging Society on the metabolism of cancer, image-guided interventions; advances in image-guided brachytherapy; deformable registration; CT ventilation; dual-energy CT; new applications of electronic portal imaging; medical physics advances for low-resource settings; and a debate on the future of the ITV.  As in all of the other tracks, several of the scientific symposia are expected to offer SAM credits for those participating in the ABR’s MOC program who don’t want to miss out on hearing the latest science in imaging and therapy.

Educational Course - Imaging Track

The 2016 Imaging Education Track will feature a total of seventeen educational sessions, including over 22 hours of CME with most being SAM sessions. The program will be focused on meeting the continuing education requirements of our membership at various stages of professional development, with several sessions featuring coupled “basics-to-advanced” topics, including nuclear medicine and MR. CT, Ultrasound,  and Informatics.  Several cross-modality sessions will be offered, including pediatric imaging, body tomosynthesis, and radiation dose monitoring. Special attention this year was given to coordinating educational requirements with the scientific program and the Partners in Solutions to meet FDA requirements for digital breast tomosynthesis including cross training from the vendors of approved systems on features specific to their machines while obtaining the additional DBT hours of training in the two tracks.

Educational Course - Therapy Track

The 2016 Therapy Education track will feature a total of 35 hours of educational sessions designed to meet the diverse interests of our membership, with the majority of sessions being SAM sessions. The program will include topics in SRS/SBRT, IGRT, brachytherapy, proton therapy, quality assurance, motion management, and safety. Highlighted topics for this year include a series of SBRT Case Study Panel Discussions of different treatment sites (lung, liver, and spine), two sessions on Statistical Considerations for RT, and a session on Big Data in Rad Onc. A few sessions on the updates of AAPM TG reports (TG-167, TG-180, TG-191, TG-199, etc.) will be presented. Returning popular topics will include small-field dosimetry, adaptive treatment planning, and proton therapy. Continuing the tradition from the last several meetings, there will be a live point-counter point debate; this year the comparison between proton and photon radiation therapy will be the focus.

Practical Medical Physics Track

The Practical Medical Physics Track offers presentations of use and interest to the practicing medical physicist.Topics for 2016 include: commissioning and QA for treatment planning systems; practical statistics; motion management techniques for Lung SBRT and Breast Radiation Therapy;  Planning and Delivering HDR APBI Treatments; Performing Radiation Safety Surveys; Identifying and Correcting Image Artifacts; and a special presentation on the basics of Proton Therapy.

Professional Track

The Professional Track will be offering sessions designed to keep our members abreast of the latest profession-related developments. Topics include clinical, publishing, educating, diversity in the workplace, compliance, international, and other aspects of our profession. International content will cover material from NCRP, ICRP, contributing to the developing world, and updates on dose reduction efforts across the globe.  Sessions include ABR preparation and MOC update, achieving residency excellence, fostering a successful research career, radiology resident teaching.  Regulatory topic sessions will discuss compliance with new CT clinical practice and Joint Commission guidelines, Radiation Protection, and CDRH/FDA device science and regulatory process.

Science Council Session

Topic: Imaging for Particle Therapy

The Science Council Session includes proffered abstracts on a topic at the cutting-edge of medical physics research, presented in a special, high-visibility proffered oral session. For the 2016 Annual Meeting, the Scientific Program invites abstract submissions on “Imaging for Particle Therapy,” emphasizing research in imaging for treatment planning, dose calculations, image guidance, and verification of treatment. Example areas of research include (but are not limited to):

• Innovation in imaging for particle therapy treatment planning and adaptation, including, but not limited to, the use of imaging for range uncertainty reduction, robust optimization, and motion assessment.
• Development and implementation of novel in-room image guidance systems (e.g. proton radiography and tomography) for particle therapy to ensure accurate delivery of treatment plan and assess the need for adaptation.
• Novel methods to verify the delivery and efficacy of particle therapy.

Criteria for abstract evaluation include the novelty of the research, the emphasis on innovation in the application for particle therapy, and the potential impact / significance in therapy.

Innovation in Medical Physics Education

The Education Council of the AAPM is sponsoring a session to honor and publicize Innovation in Medical Physics Education. AAPM members are invited to submit an abstract describing innovative medical physics educational activities for radiology residents, radiation oncology residents, medical physicists, technologists or others. The abstract can describe novel teaching strategies such as team teaching or adult learning efforts, novel educational materials such as lectures, websites, educational videos or interactive media, novel program designs, or other innovations. Submissions will be judged on the following criteria: the level of innovation, the potential for educational use, the extent to which the innovation has already been implemented and assessed, and how readily the innovation could be implemented or used at a variety of other institutions.

The top six submissions will be invited to present their abstracts at the session during the Annual Meeting. Each speaker will be allocated 15 minutes. The top presenting abstract will be announced at the Awards Ceremony during the Annual Meeting and presented a plaque and a $2,000 prize. The Award for Innovation in Medical Physics Education is made possible by a generous bequest of Harold Marcus.

How the Meeting is Organized

The numbering scheme encodes the day, time block, room assignment and talk number in the abstract presentation code. The organization for each day (Monday - Thursday) is shown in the table below. Times and Rooms vary on Sunday and Thursday. For example, on Tuesday:

TU – B – 201 – 1
Day of Week (SU – TH) – Time Block (A - G) – Room Assignment – Talk Number

The general layout of rooms for various programs is as follows; although there are numerous exceptions throughout the week, so check the program carefully:

• Therapy (Education and Scientific): Rooms 204, 201, 202, 209, 207B, Ballrooms C, B, A
• Imaging (Education and Scientific): Rooms 207A, 206,209, 207B
• Joint Imaging-Therapy: Rooms 201,202, 207B, Ballrooms C, B, A
• Professional: Rooms 204, 201, 206, Partners in Solutions Room
• Practical Medical Physics: Room 209, Ballrooms B, A
• Radiomics: Rooms 207A, 207B

Items of Note:

• SNAP Oral Sessions: A fast-paced short oral presentation format. Watch for the short oral sessions on Sunday (Time Blocks C, D, and G).
• Young Investigators Symposium: The YIS is on Monday, 7:30 – 9:30 am, in Ballroom A.
• President’s Symposium: This symposium runs unparalleled - Monday, 10:15 – 12:15 pm, in Ballroom B.
• Science Council Session: This proffered session of abstracts on a topic of special relevance is scheduled for Tuesday, 1:45 – 3:45 pm, in Ballroom B.
• Innovation in Medical Physics Education Session: This proffered session of abstracts is scheduled for Monday, 1:45 – 3:45 pm, in Ballroom A.

ePoster Theater

• Best in Physics: The top 5 abstracts in each track, Imaging, Joint – Imaging and Therapy, and Therapy, will be highlighted on Sunday afternoon in ePoster theater in the exhibit hall.
• Campus Posters: Campus Posters include a select group of high-scoring posters on a specific theme identified by the Program Directors to be of special interest to attendees of the scientific program. Reinvigorating scientific presentations through ePoster sessions lead by a Campus Provost, Monday and Tuesday afternoons in ePoster theater in the exhibit hall.
• General ePosters: General ePosters include a select group of high-scoring posters on a specific theme identified by the Program Directors to be of special interest to attendees of the scientific program. These General ePoster presentations will occur in the ePoster Theater Area integrated with the poster presentation area in a format promoting lively discussion and scientific exchange.

Meeting Theme

The theme for 2016 and the AAPM Annual Meeting is “Communicating our Value. Improving our Future.” I have observed over recent years that the importance of the Medical Physicist to both the imaging and treatment processes has lessened in many institutions. We are losing / have lost our place as key players on the diagnosis and treatment teams, often relegated to the role of technicians in the eyes of our colleagues and administrators. This is true in academic/research arenas as well, where grant opportunities for improvements in technology and process, areas in which we are major players, have been on the decline. We need to reverse these trends in order to survive and thrive. 

AAPM can help medical physicists achieve better recognition by providing tools and guidance in promoting our value to our institutions and colleagues. Medical Physics 3.0, the Medical Physics Leadership Academy and the 2016 Summer School on Leadership are all venues that have this goal (among others). Our Annual Meeting provides opportunities for sharing/improving your scientific knowledge, clinical skills, and professional leadership. Involvement in AAPM committees and task groups enable you to help shape our future, clinically, scientifically, and professionally. 

These opportunities, however, are only of value if you take advantage of them and work to incorporate them into your research, clinical practice, or interactions with your colleagues. I echo John Boone’s words from 2015; “I invite you — indeed I challenge you — to take advantage of the outstanding opportunities offered at this summer’s meeting to reinvigorate your professional, [clinical, and scientific] excellence.”

Bruce H. Curran
2016 AAPM President

How the Sessions are Defined

Scientific Program

Scientific Session – These sessions comprise the bulk of the scientific program, in which the best-scored proffered abstracts are presented in a regular oral presentation format. Each session is on one or several specific scientific topics, with several oral presentations [10 min each (8 min talk + 2 min Q&A)].

Symposium – A symposium is a topical session focusing on a current topic related to pioneering or state-of-the-art research and development of medical physics. The symposia often include multiple speakers, some of them invited, to speak on the topic. Some symposia will include a panel discussion aiming to define the current state of the field and to distill the thinking of the experts.

SNAP Oral Sessions – Similar to regular Scientific Sessions, the SNAP Oral Sessions feature high-scoring proffered abstracts presented in an accelerated presentation format [7 min each (5 min talk + 2 min Q&A)].

General Poster Discussion Session – This category includes proffered abstracts judged to be of high scientific quality and for merit presentation in poster format. Authors will be present during the scheduled session in order to interact with meeting attendees.

Educational Program

Education Council Symposium – This symposium is designed to update our members on the various activities of the Education Council. Emphasis is placed on the resources and programs that are available to enhance the skills of our members as well as resources that are available through the Association to assist our members when presenting programs to related health professionals and the public.

Educational Courses –The 2016 Therapy Education Program will feature a total of 35 hours of educational sessions designed to meet the diverse interests of our membership, with the majority of sessions being SAM sessions. The program will include topics in SRS/SBRT, IGRT, brachytherapy, proton therapy, quality assurance, motion management, and safety. Highlighted topics for this year include a series of SBRT Case Study Panel Discussions of different treatment sites (lung, liver, and spine), two sessions on Statistical Considerations for RT, and a session on Big Data in Rad Onc. A few sessions on the updates of AAPM TG reports (TG-167, TG-180, TG-191, TG-199, etc.) will be presented. Returning popular topics will include small-field dosimetry, adaptive treatment planning, and proton therapy. Continuing the tradition from the last several meetings, there will be a live point-counter point debate; this year the comparison between proton and photon radiation therapy will be the focus.

The Imaging Education Program will be focused on meeting the continuing education requirements of our membership, with topics covering various technical and practical aspects of diagnostic medical physics and modalities. Offerings include multi-part sessions in Dose Optimization, Mammography/Digital Breast Tomosynthesis and Ultrasound. Other sessions include material covering MRI physics, X-ray sources, Informatics, and Body Tomosynthesis. This year's Zagzebski/Carson invited lecture will be on advances seen in Ultrasound Therapies. Attendees will find a combination of clinical and academic peers as well as vendor scientists presenting at this year's meeting. The talks should be useful to the novice as well as someone wanting to learn more in depth information in the various areas. Where possible an attempt has been made to make sure as many courses as possible offer SAM credits.

Professional Program

Professional Council Symposium – This Symposium is focused on current topics that involve the professional practice of medical physics. This years’ symposium discusses the role of the medical physicist in the ever changing healthcare environment, and offers solutions for medical physicists on how they can enhance their value in the healthcare enterprise today.

Professional Courses – The Professional program is devoted to professional aspects of the Medical Physics Career. New this year is a symposium by the Medical Physics Leadership Academy. Other symposia cover topics in ethics and diversity & inclusion. The international symposium highlights worldwide dose-reduction efforts in CT. A number of symposia are devoted to the discussion of compliance issues, such as implementation of the new Joint Commission Diagnostic Imaging requirements, and legal aspects of the profession.

For Medical Physicists-in-training, presentations on Medical Physics Career choices provide guidance and several symposia are devoted to teaching and exam question writing. As in previous years, symposia cover ABR preparation and MOC compliance, workshops on publishing and updates from the Medical Physics Journal. The New Member Symposium introduces the structure of AAPM and helps new members navigate the AAPM organization. A 4 hour HAZMAT course is offered every three years, and is returning this year.

Practical Medical Physics Program

The Practical Medical Physics Track offers presentations of use and interest to the practicing medical physicist. Topics for 2016 include: commissioning and QA for treatment planning systems; practical statistics; motion management techniques for Lung SBRT and Breast Radiation Therapy; Planning and Delivering HDR APBI Treatments; Performing Radiation Safety Surveys; Identifying and Correcting Image Artifacts; and a special presentation on the basics of Proton Therapy.

Radiomics – Special Program

“Radiomics” is the name given to the growing effort to quantitatively and objectively extract and utilize data inherent in medical images in order to quantify and data mine medically relevant characteristics (e.g., phenotypes of cancerous tumors.) The field continues to evolve, building upon quantitative image analysis methods from computer-aided diagnosis and machine learning. Various radiomic studies are attempting to further understand the biology of cancer (for example, druggable mutations), as well as the role of tumor heterogeneity. Medical physicists have taken a leading role in radiomics and thus, this track will include proffered and invited talks, as well as posters, over several days addressing multiple key areas of radiomics, including quantitative imaging foundations and best practices, new applications and results across modalities, new software tools and processes, robustness analyses, and driving biological questions.  Important challenges, such as the dependence of radiomic features on databases, technology, and methodology, as well as issues related to funding, regulatory, and clinical implementation, will also be examined in detail to help set the course for the future.

TG100 Certificate of Completion Course: Application of Risk Analysis Methods to Radiotherapy Quality Management

The course will consist of an all-day program on Wednesday followed by a workshop on Thursday, which provides further hands-on experience with tools of risk analysis and safety improvement. The course will run in Ballroom C concurrently with other AAPM program content. Upon fulfilling the requirements, participants will receive a certificate of completion. This mini-track, open to all registrants, will focus on describing a structured methodology of TG100 for analyzing clinical processes and for developing clinic - and site - specific quality management programs that more effectively and efficiently address work practices in individual clinics. The mini-track will consist of 6 sessions (including educational and scientific sessions, and proffered papers) which provide basic education as well as a survey of emerging and advanced concepts. The topics will be of interest to those working in diagnostic radiology as well as therapy physics.

The mini-track will also serve as the certificate course at this year’s meeting, which provides an in-depth review of a particular topic with verification of learning objectives through online homework. Attendees may enroll in the certificate program for an additional fee. Enrollment in the program entitles participants to dedicated seating in the mini-track sessions as well as additional online materials. Following the meeting, certificate program participants will be required to take an online examination which covers the material presented throughout the day-long mini-track. Enrollees who demonstrate satisfactory attendance at the course and successful completion of the online examination (available after the meeting) will receive a framed certificate of completion for this course.

Special Keynote Speaker: Leilani Schweitzer The Certificate Course will feature a special keynote speaker. Leilani Schweitzer understands medical error as few others do: through the death of her child. Faced with this profound loss, she has made a choice to work together with healthcare community to ask why mistakes happen and what can be done to respond to them in a meaningful way.  In this keynote address she will share her story and the lessons that have emerged. Her experience is a powerful reminder of the errors that no one wants to happen and what can be done to stop them. Wed 1:45-2:40, Ballroom C

Please note: 5 of the sessions comprising the TG100 Certificate of Completion Course will be Self Assessment Modules (SAMs) sessions. Registrants in the Course will be provided a COMPLIMENTARY PD to be used in any SAMs sessions throughout the week or single day of course.

Partners in Solutions

Partners in Solutions continues to offer a unique way for physicists to interact with and learn from our vendors, with vendors providing physics-level applications training classes in a special-purpose lecture room located on the exhibit floor. These are not sales pitches, but practical information for the clinical physicist from the people who know their systems in depth. Topics for this year are:

• Imaging: Digital Breast Tomosynthesis. The three PinS sessions will cover the manufacturer- and model-specific features and requirements of the DBT systems currently approved by FDA. Together with other sessions offered during the Annual Meeting program, these will allow attendees to meet the FDA initial training requirements for DBT (8 hours of training including manufacturer-specific features of each approved system).
• Therapy: MR Simulation. MRI techniques are becoming increasingly used in treatment planning, image-guided radiation therapy, and treatment evaluation, and it is important that medical physicists understand the underlying processes of the systems they are using. Presentations from three manufacturers will feature details of their fast MR imaging techniques, functional MR imaging techniques, and MRI distortion correction and quality assurance techniques, including their pros and cons.An increased awareness of how MRI simulation tools work will allow attendees to better understand and apply their results.

Look for the Partners in Solutions sessions on the meeting program. CE credit will be offered. Come learn with us!

Exhibit Hall Guided Tours

The Exhibit Hall Guided Tours offer a new way for attendees to interact with our exhibitors and earn SAM credit in the process.  First, attend a short introduction by an expert on the selected theme – Microdosimeters for Therapy or Dosimeters for Diagnostic Imaging Quality Control. Then follow your tour guide to participating exhibitors’ booths, where they will present detailed information about the solutions they offer.  A fun, easy way to get a comprehensive overview of the products available on the market to address the clinical need.

Note: Presentation Identifiers
* - Where indicated, denotes Presenting Author