Welcome to the 2020 Joint AAPM|COMP Virtual Meeting!

We are very excited to present the first ever Joint AAPM | COMP Virtual Meeting. Like the in-person meeting, the virtual meeting has a lot to offer with something for everyone. We will continue to have our usual high-quality presentations including the President’s Symposium, Young Investigators, proffered talks, and Scientific, Educational, and Professional Symposia. We will have ePosters available for viewing and the Virtual Exhibit Hall where you can view vendor information and set up appointments for virtual demos and discussions. New for this year is On-Demand access to session content. Can’t make a session you want to attend because of clinical or home duties? View it on your own schedule with On-Demand.

Program highlights for this year include:

• As usual, almost all invited symposia are SAM sessions. With only a few exceptions, almost every time slot has several SAM sessions to choose from, allowing attendees to follow their interests.
• Two special symposia on Data Science - Ontologies Supporting Diagnostic Imaging, Therapy and Science (Sunday July 12) and AI in Clinical Medical Physics (Tuesday July 14).
• Lunch with x-rays! Every day (except for Monday due to the Young Investigators Symposium) at 1 PM, enjoy the cutting-edge advances in CT during scientific proffered sessions on CT, spectral CT, photon counting CT, cone beam CT, and dosimetry in CT.
• How do radiologists’ brains react to medical images? Hear from experts in visual perception, at the opening symposium on Sunday, July 12 at 10:30 AM, on the latest findings on image interpretation and the impact of the quirks of the human visual system on reading performance.
• Precision medicine requires quantitative and functional imaging: Hear about the latest developments in making MRI (Monday, July 13 at 3:30 PM) and US (Tuesday, July 14 at 3:30 PM) quantitative, and learn all about the first 2 meter long PET system in the world at the joint EFOMP|AAPM Symposium entitled “Total Body PET: The Ultimate Molecular Imaging Tool” (Thursday, July 16 at 10:30)!
• Making a difference worldwide! Hear how the latest advances in AI and other methods are being used to make state-of-the-art care available to the most disadvantaged areas of the world, on Wednesday, July 15 at 10:30 AM.
• Do you trust AI when it functions as a black box? How can we ensure the safety and effectiveness of AI when it is implemented in clinical practice? Our invited AI experts will provide you insights on the development of explanatory AI models in the Science Council Session (Sunday, July 12 at 1:00 PM), followed by top-ranked scientific talks on data-driven automation and decision making.
• How do we decode the valuable information hidden in the current avalanche of medical images to enable a better management of treatment outcome? You will find answers during the two Scientific Symposia on outcome prediction (Thursday, July 16 at 11:30 AM) and treatment assessment (Tuesday, July 14 at 10:30 AM) and a proffered scientific session (Tuesday, July 14 at 1:00 PM), showing you the exciting developments in this area.
• Radiomics and genomics provide a unique opportunity for physicists to work together with physicians, biologists, and geneticists to tackle the most challenging problems in cancer management. Want to learn more about this? Mark your calendar for Wednesday, July 15, to attend the Scientific Symposium (1:00 PM) with a panel of physicists and a physician to talk about the breathtaking research on the topic, followed by a scientific session (3:30 PM) that will shed light on the recent breakthroughs in this fast-developing area.
• Imaging is the eye for various interventions, providing us the ability to perform high precision treatment. The Multi-Disciplinary Program features a broad spectrum of innovations and applications of imaging technologies, including MRI in radiotherapy, imaging for surgery and particle therapy, tracking, registration, synthesis, segmentation, and novel technologies. Pick your favorite sessions and enjoy the enlightening research on your subjects of interest.
• The President’s Symposium on Improving Health Quality, Increasing Global Impact will be augmented by a panel discussion later in the day on Access to Global Heathcare (Monday July 13).
• International Symposium: “AAPM and International Activities –Bending Silos to Foster Success” (Wednesday, July 15).
• The Professional program offers many diverse topics throughout the week to enhance your professional and clinical practice including: “Why Smart AAPM and COMP Members Do Dumb Things”, “Conflict to Mutual Goals: Foundational Mindset and Skills”, “Guidelines to Writing and Reviewing AAPM Task Group Reports” and an IEC update: “Getting Under the Hood in the IR/Cath Lab” to name just a few.
• This year’s Medical Physics Leadership Academy topic will be “Reading the Room: Before and After the New Normal” (Tuesday, July 14)
• Looking for a change of pace, check out “Hashtags 101: Social Media for Medical Physicists” and “MS vs PhD vs DMP: A Live Medical Physics Podcast” (Sunday, July 12).
• The FLASH scientific symposium on Sunday July 12 will bring you the latest status update on this popular topic. What’s more in this year, accompanying the symposium, there is a proffered session on the FLASH Enabling Technologies on Monday, July 13.
• Machine learning, artificial intelligence and automation are making a strong presence in the therapy scientific track this year. You will find their latest applications in the Safety, Quality and Automation scientific session on Sunday, July 12, Automated Treatment Planning session on Monday, July 13, and a symposium highlighting artificial intelligence in therapy on Wednesday, July 15.
• Researchers have made strides in radiation detection and will showcase the recent breakthroughs on Sunday, July 12 in the scientific symposium entitled Thunder and Light(ning): Applications and Potential of Radiation Acoustics and Optics, followed by a scientific session on Dosimeters and Portal Dosimetry.
• This year, we will present five sessions for the sweet intersection between physics and biology. Three of them are on Wednesday, July 15 as the radiobiology of heavy ions session, a small symposium and a scientific session on the animal irradiators and radiobiology. On Thursday, July 16, the topic will expand to cover Nanotechnology and Radionuclide Therapy, and Re-irradiation Imaging, Planning and Biology.
• A joint education symposium with ESTRO and AAPM – ‘Adoption of Artificial Intelligence in clinical radiotherapy practice’ (Wednesday, July 15).
• The AAPM Medical Physics Student Meeting will feature the presentation “Radiobiology - The Key Toward Individualized Patient Care” (Sunday July 12).
• Partners in Solutions (PinS) features exhibitor presentations on GYN Brachytherapy Applicators and Imaging/Diagnostic QA Software. Come experience this great series!

On behalf of the Scientific, Educational, and Professional Program Directors and Co-Directors, we wish to thank many people who have spent time to organize and coordinate this year's meeting. First and foremost, we wish to thank the AAPM headquarters staff, who went above and beyond to make this virtual meeting happen. We also want to thank the abstract contributors, abstract reviewers, invited speakers, session moderators, organizers of symposia and educational courses, and members of the Meeting Coordinating Committee for their dedication and hard work. Last but not least, we acknowledge the sponsors and commercial exhibitors for their support, and we hope that the meeting provides a valuable forum for growth and opportunity.

This year’s Joint AAPM | COMP Virtual Meeting promises to be one of the best new experiences yet. Join us and be part of AAPM and COMP history. We are looking forward to seeing you online!

Robin L. Stern, Ph.D.
Annual Meeting Subcommittee Chair
UC Davis Cancer Center
Sacramento, CA

Ingrid S. Reiser, Ph.D.
Annual Meeting Subcommittee Vice Chair
The University of Chicago
Chicago, IL