The theme of this meeting and Presidential Symposium, is Building Bridges. Why build bridges? Because doing so Cultivates Safety and Grows our Value to our organizations and to the patients who benefit from our expertise.
The idiom “build bridges” is understood to mean: improve relationships between people who are very different. This year’s Presidential Symposium will provide an engaging look at the ways in which we can listen differently and understand better, building stronger and more rewarding relationships in our work environments. In particular, we will look at how negative stereotypes about people different from ourselves, particularly of a different generation, present a significant barrier to positive working relationships. We spend a lot of time with our work colleagues; let’s find a way to enjoy our time together!
The importance of crossing boundaries and building bridges is emphasized throughout our program this year. We have over 30 sessions of programming in Interdisciplinary Science, our four Councils are working collaboratively to present an integrated session on Quality in Medical Physics, and our Student Meeting is focusing on building bridging to our patients through improved communication. We will have a Professional Symposium on International Actions to discuss building better bridges to the global medical physics community. There will be many sessions that focus on the intersection of imaging and radiation therapy, and we will offer a 6-hour course on MR Safety in collaboration with colleagues from the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. In addition to our Partners in Solutions program in the technical exhibits, which provides unique opportunities to interact with and learn from our vendors, we offer our Partners for the Future program, which opens a dialogue between our corporate partners and individuals training to become medical physicists.
Our Annual Meeting Program Committee has done an exceptional job of building a program that truly offers something for everyone, emphasizing building connections across specialties; amongst individuals in academia, clinical practice, regulatory and industry; across different demographics; and across the globe. Please join us in San Antonio, and when you do, I hope that you will learn about new technologies and new areas of medical physics, and make new connections and new friends. We are strongest as a profession when we cross boundaries, build bridges, and take down silos.
