Join Us for the 26th Annual Meeting of the American College of Medical Physics!

It is my sincere pleasure to invite you to join us at the 26th Annual Meeting of the American College of Medical Physics. The College was founded in 1982, and held its first scientific and professional meeting in 1983. Chris Serago and the ACMP Program Committee have been working very hard to make the 2009 meeting our best one yet!

Dates: May 2 – 5, 2009

Location: Westin Virginia Beach Town Center, Virginia Beach, VA
The Westin, a 4-star hotel that just opened in the fall of 2007, is just steps from upscale shopping, dining and entertainment. Strategically situated in the central business district of Virginia Beach, the Town Center is just 11 miles from the Virginia Beach oceanfront and 11 miles from downtown Norfolk.

Scientific 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:

• Breast Cancer Imaging and Treatment
• IGRT, SBRT
• Electronic Brachytherapy
• Advances in Arc Therapy
• Vascular, 4D Cardiac Imaging
• 3D Angiography
• Imaging and Radiotherapy
• TG 117 and TG 142
• Ethics and Law for Medical Physicists

Special Session/Workshop: Medical Response to Radiation Incidents
The ACMP & AAPM are co-sponsoring a daylong session on Monday including hands-on demonstrations focusing on how medical physicists can assist in responding to radiation incidents. Participants will learn about the Medical Reserve Corps and how to become engaged within their local communities. Speakers from DHS, FEMA, and CDC have been invited.

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 hectic, 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
Once again, ACMP is making a special effort to attract international medical physicists to the 2009 meeting. Ned Sternick is chairing a newly formed Constituting Panel on International Board of Medical Physics.  He and other speakers will speak in the International Medical Physicists Symposium on Tuesday. 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 as a well trained medical physicist. Both are the main themes of the ACMP annual meetings.

Therefore, ACMP 2009 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 and 2008 meetings, we will continue to provide special sessions for students and trainees in Medical Physics. Sessions will include:

• Board Certification Review
• Medical Physics Residency Program
• 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 will continue to offer the opportunity for 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 26th 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 Virginia Beach in May, and to the opportunity to thank you personally for supporting the American College of Medical Physics.

Raymond K. Wu,
ACMP 2009 Chairman

• Meeting Registration available on-line.
• Hotel reservation group rate available at The Westin Virginia Beach Town Center Hotel.