EFOMP Special Interest Group in Early Career Medical Physicists | Call for Members

Publication Date: Sep 10th, 2022 09:29, Category: EFOMP Announcements

The EFOMP hereby announces a new Special Interest Group (SIG) entitled “Early Career Medical Physicists”. The SIG will operate under the European Matters Committee and is established as a permanent structure. The SIG has been approved during the EFOMP Spring Officers meeting in Helsinki in May 2022 and presented to Council in Dublin in August 2022.

The rationale of the SIG: The young medical physicists (MP) of today will be the national medical physics and European medical physics professional and leaders of tomorrow. If the profession is to be developed and become stronger in a rapidly evolving environment, education and training of the young medical physicists is vital so that they may develop into the effective and robust scientific and strategic leaders that the profession needs in the future. Young medical physicists need to learn how to act in a coordinated manner at both national and European levels. To achieve this goal, a strong, flexible, and dynamic link is needed between academic education and professional training, across all countries. 

A SIG will provide opportunities for our young medical physicists to develop not only their substantive scientific and research skills but also their soft skills, as scientific competence on its own does not ensure success in today’s demanding hospital environment. Skills such as strategic planning, marketing, good communication and pedagogical skills, proficiencies in qualitative research methodology as well as skills in conflict resolution, organizational politics, negotiation, and teambuilding are also needed.

A Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) analysis of the Medical Physics profession indicates that most of the weaknesses of the profession lie precisely in the area of soft skills. If the profession is to thrive it is important that any plans for its further development also incorporate strategies for addressing these critical weaknesses amongst our young physicists.
The call for members opened on 10th September 2022. The kick-off meeting will be held in February 2023.

NMOs are kindly asked to distribute this announcement to their members, who can apply to be a member of this SIG electronically using the attached SIG member application form. 

Nominations received prior to the 15th of February will be reviewed in time for succesful candidates to attend the kick-off meeting. Internal rules, steering committee members, SIG priorities etc will be voted on at the kick-off meeting, attendance is encouraged. The structure of the SIG is described at the EFOMP manual. 

 

Nominations can be sent anytime during the life of the SIG to: board.sig_frec@efomp.org

 

 

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