European & international Matters Committee
Aim
The European & international Matters Committee is responsible to the Council of the Federation for the representation of the interest of the Federation to the various bodies of the European Union. This includes:
- To follow developments within the European Union in relation to medical physics and report to the Officers on any important matters.
- To identify key Members of the European Parliament, Commission and other European Union employees and inform them about the policies of EFOMP on matters handled form time to time by them.
- To formulate proposals addressed to appropriate bodies of the European Union on matters related to medical physics.
- To disseminate relevant information to the NMOs to be used to inform their national delegates to the appropriate bodies of the European Union.
Members
Chairperson
Antonio Lopez Medina
Secretary
Miroslava Dobroňová
Activities
EU Projects Relevant to the field of Medical Physics
The EU Matters Committee has a remit to keep a watching brief on EU Projects that are relevant to the field of Medical Physics when new calls are made, project status is updated, EU sponsored events are announced and regulations are being formulated or announced.
To assist the EU Matters Committee, it would help us if you could identify an MEP from your country whom we could contact to inform about the Medical Physics profession in general and the EFOMP view of the MPE in particular.
In the related attachments you can find a presentation by Dr Penelope Allisy that was shown to the MEPs during the EFOMP sponsored French congress in Strasbourg in 2012, hosted by the SFPM.
Other EU initiatives
-
EFOMP has endorsed the Joint Statement of the Thematic network on medical training and professional development for patient safety - EU Health Policy Platform. For more information click here.
-
EFOMP has endorsed the white paper entitled 'Radiotherapy: seizing the opportunity in cancer care'. The paper was produced by the Marie Curie Legacy Campaign - an initiative of the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO) and the ESTRO Cancer Foundation (ECF). Marie Curie Legacy Campaign
-
The EU Matters Committee supports the activities of European Commission Initiative on Breast Cancer (ECIBC). ECIBC brings together a wide range of actors at a European level, including healthcare users, experts, professionals, NGOs, patient groups, civil society representatives, the industry, policy makers and involved countries’ representatives (ECIBC National Contacts). Medical Physicists are working inside ECIBC and EFOMP is one of the project stakeholders; interdisciplinary activities are mandatory to finalise the goal of the EU project. Their support include expertise on patient dosimetry, physics and technological support such as MRI, tomosynthesis,.. For more information click here.
- EU Health Policy
EU countries hold primary responsibility for organising and delivering health services and medical care. EU health policy therefore serves to complement national policies, and to ensure health protection in all EU policies.
EU policies and actions in public health aim to:
- Protect and improve the health of EU citizens
- Support the modernisation of health infrastructure
- Improve the efficiency of Europe's health systems.
Strategic health issues are discussed by representatives of national authorities and the European Commission in a senior-level working group on public health. EU institutions, countries, regional and local authorities, and other interest groups contribute to the implementation of the EU's health strategy.
https://ec.europa.eu/health/policies/overview_en - Heads Of The European Radiological Protection Competent Authorities (HERCA)
HERCA is a voluntary association in which the Heads of Radiation Protection Authorities work together in order to identify common issues and propose practical solutions for these issues. HERCA is working on topics generally covered by provisions of the EURATOM Treaty. The programme of work of HERCA is based on common interest in significant regulatory issues. HERCA brings together 56 radiation protection Authorities from 32 European countries.
http://www.herca.org/index.asp?p=1HERCA proposal on DAP units used in interventional radiology and general radiography
EFOMP's position
After considering the recent domain specific technology developments (general radiography, dental imaging and CBCT) and DRL related publication resources, the EFOMP agrees to adopt the Gycm2 and mGycm2 prefixes for interventional radiology and general radiography domain, respectively.
Furthermore, EFOMP would like to emphasize that both overall DAP accuracy and possible conversion of units should be properly verified by a medical physics expert. -
EFOMP is a shareholder society of the European Institute for Biomedical Imaging Research (EIBIR)
EIBIR aims to coordinate and support the development of biomedical imaging technologies and the dissemination of knowledge with the ultimate goal of improving the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease. The platform supports research networking activities and plays a key role in spreading good practice, promoting common initiatives and interoperability in the field of biomedical imaging research.
EU Platforms
1) EU Science Hub
The Joint Research Centre (JRC) is the European Commission's science and knowledge service which employs scientists to carry out research in order to provide independent scientific advice and support to EU policy. https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en
2) The European Metrology Programme for Innovation and Research (EMPIR) has been developed as an integrated part of Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. EMPIR Joint Research Projects (JRPs) from these calls will focus on priority areas, known as Targeted Programmes (TPs), to address the EU's Grand Challenges in Health, Energy, Environment and Industry, and to progress fundamental measurement science.
The Health TPs will address more reliable, comparable and efficient use of diagnostic and therapeutic methods, the development of new techniques to improve healthcare, limit costs, foster the competitiveness of related European industries and services and the underpinning for regulation.
https://www.euramet.org/research-innovation/research-empir/about-empir/
A workshop was held during the European Congress of Medical Physics 2018 on 'Patient specific dosimetry for cardiac CT perfusion imaging', in Copenhagen. http://ecmp2018.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ECMP_2018/Patient_specific_dosimetry_for_cardiac_CT_perfusion_imaging.pdf
3) The EnTIRE project aims to create an online platform that makes information about research Integrity and research ethics easily accessible to the research community. The platform will foster uptake of ethical standards and responsible conduct of research, and ultimately support research excellence and strengthen society’s confidence in research and its findings. It will offer help to anyone seeking support in handling day-to-day research practices and dilemmas, and provide best-practice guidelines, cases, and tools for finding relevant regulations. EnTIRE is a H2020 project funded by the European Commission, and is being developed by a consortium consisting of ten partners from across the European Union. http://entireconsortium.eu/vision/
4) The TRIMAGE project is an EU-funded FP7 project whose aim is to design and build a novel (PET/MR/EEG) brain scanner for early diagnosis of schizophrenia that could be also useful for other mental health disorders and brain studies (A. Del Guerra et al, European Psychiatry 2018,50,7-20). The project will be finishing end of 2018 and the TRIMAGE scanner will be installed at the Pisa University Hospital.
As part of the project, the TRIMAGE consortium is committed to the collection of feedbacks. An anonymous questionnaire which will be closing September 30th is available at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NKTSSNL.
Memoranda of Understanding
Recognizing the value of developing strong relationships with other societies working in the field of medical physics or related subjects, EFOMP has signed a Memoranda of Understanding with a number of organisations
https://www.efomp.org/index.php?r=pages&id=memoranda-of-understanding
Collaboration with European and International Organisations
https://www.efomp.org/index.php?r=pages&id=foundations
EUM committee introductory course
https://www.efomp.org/index.php?r=fc&id=committees-info
Related Attachments
EU Health Policy Platform Thematic Network on Medical Education and Professional Development for Patient Safety Size: 510,14 KB
Medical Physicists: Improving Treatments, Saving Lives Size: 9,56 MB