Join Us as We Celebrate 25 Years!

It is my sincere pleasure to invite you to join us at the 25th annual meeting of the American College of Medical Physics.   The College was founded in 1982, and held it first scientific and professional meeting in 1983.   Dr. Raymond Wu, Eileen Cirino, and the ACMP Program Committee have been working very hard to make the 2008 meeting our best one yet!  

Dates:  May 3 – 6, 2008

Location:  Fairmont Olympic Hotel, Seattle, Washington

As the Pacific Northwest's only AAA Five Diamond hotel,  the Fairmont Olympic is located in the heart of Seattle, footsteps from the city's most exciting attractions, including the famous Pike Place Market, Seattle Waterfront, and Space Needle, plus a multitude of museums, theatres, shops and restaurants.   I am confident that you will find the meeting space at this Grande Dame of Seattle’s Hotels to be both elegant and functional.

Technical Program Highlights

As always at ACMP meetings, the technical program is designed to address the educational and professional needs of practicing, clinical medical physicists.   Topics will include:

• Mammography (for MQSA)
• IMRT and IGRT
• Tomotherapy
• CyberKnife
• SRS QA (Gamma Knife, CyberKnfie, Linac based)
• Small field dosimetry
• Proton therapy
• Shielding
• Monte Carlo in treatment planning
• PET-CT
• MRI
• CT, CR, & DR
• Fluoroscopy
• ACR accreditation

Precisely because ACMP meetings are designed to attract practicing clinical medical physicists, they provide you, the vendor, with a unique opportunity to meet with the people who are making equipment- purchasing  decisions at the majority of hospitals in the U.S. and Canada.   The program design of ACMP meetings provides lots of time for in-depth discussions between vendors and practicing physicists – a feature which is often lacking at larger, more frenetic, scientific meetings.  For this reason, many ACMP members say that the ACMP meeting is their venue of choice to make decisions on equipment purchases.   Beyond business, the relaxed ambience allows vendors and medical physicists to make friendships and establish loyalties that endure.

International Attendance

Since we will be meeting in Seattle, ACMP is making a special effort to attract Medical Physicists from Pacific Rim and Latin American countries, as well as Canada, to the 2008 meeting.  Our Meeting Planning Task Group is hard at work making direct contacts with our colleagues in Latin America, Asia, and Australia, and we expect a record turnout of international attendees in 2008.  As you may know, Cancer Treatment Centers and Imaging Centers are developing at a fast pace in many parts of the world.   Representatives from many countries are interested in meeting their continuing education needs, and learning more about how to qualify a well trained medical physicist.  Both are the main themes of the ACMP annual meetings.  

Therefore,  ACMP 2008 should provide our Vendors with opportunities to expand your markets by making valuable contacts with US and International attendees, in the small and congenial atmosphere for which ACMP meetings are known.

Young Physicists

Based on the very positive feedback from initiatives made at our 2007 meeting, we will continue to provide special sessions for students and trainees in Medical Physics.  Sessions will include:

• ABR Exam Overview and Preparation

• Young Investigators Symposium

These young physicists will be successful practitioners in the near future.  By establishing relationships with them now, you are investing in the future of your institution or company.

Vendor Presentations

As you will see in the “Meeting-at-a-Glance” graphic in the Prospectus, we have modified (hopefully improved!) our approach to vendor presentations this year.  Vendors who support the College at a Sponsorship level will have the opportunity to give 15 minute oral presentations, in the same rooms as the scientific meetings.   

As you will read in the Prospectus, there are numerous ways in which you can support ACMP’s 25th Annual Meeting through a sponsorship.    I encourage you to review the prospectus carefully and support the ACMP at the highest level your company finds mutually beneficial.   Whether you are able to be a Platinum Sponsor or simply an Exhibitor, I look forward to seeing you in Seattle in May, and to the opportunity to thank you personally for supporting the American College of Medical Physics.

Mary Ellen Masterson-McGary

ACMP Chairman