AAPM PRESIDENT'S REPORT Melissa C. Martin, MS, Gardena, CA

It is my pleasure to write this first article for the Newsletter as your AAPM President. I look forward to a rewarding and exciting year with all of the planned activities for the organization. Bruce Curran is continuing with the possible updated governance project which is the most significant and time consuming activity that has been undertaken in a while. We have just completed the Board of Directors' meeting at the RSNA meeting in Chicago where a more detailed explanation of this proposal was given to the members of the Board. You can contact your chapter representative for more details or wait until they are presented in an upcoming article from Bruce and at the Annual Meeting. Some of the proposed changes include a restructured set of Councils with elected Council Chairpersons, a Nominations Committee (elected), a Governance Committee, and Operations and Strategic Planning Committees of the Board along with a much smaller Board of Directors. Plans are in place for presentations to be given to each chapter prior to the Annual Meeting with details of the proposed reorganization. Please plan to attend your chapter meeting when this presentation is made to get details and voice your opinion.

The project that I am undertaking, that may or may not be successful, is to attempt to work with our AAPM Educational Program directors and leaders, along with the American Board of Radiology Trustees, Chair Valerie Jackson, MD, and the American Board of Medical Physics representative, to meet in mid-January at AAPM Headquarters to address the problems with getting enough Qualified Medical Physicists into the workforce, particularly in imaging. Now that we have had the residency requirement in place for a couple of years, there is a growing mismatch between the number of candidates completing residencies in imaging (diagnostic and nuclear medicine) and the increasing demand by accreditation bodies and regulatory requirements for QMPs in the clinical practice areas. When we have no way for a significant percentage of our Medical Physics graduates to even enter the process to become a QMP, an increasing divergence between the supply of physicists and the number of candidates eligible to enter the certifying process develops. It is recognized and documented that those candidates who complete residencies do better on the ABR certification exams. Therefore, we want to maintain those imaging residencies that are in existence whenever possible. We are very aware though, that the funding of these programs is tenuous at best and may not continue in the future. Therefore, we feel that we need to look at some alternate pathway for diagnostic imaging and nuclear medicine physicists to become qualified to enter the ABR Certification process.

Other projects that are moving along very well include Medical Physics 3.0 under the direction of Ehsan Samei. Some very interesting and informative videos about medical physicists and their stories, as well as the field of medical physics, are in production and should be available soon. Regarding international activities projects: there are currently many on-going activities. I am writing this article on the long flight to Bangkok, Thailand to attend the International Congress of Medical Physics along with Alan Wilkerson and Yakov Pipman as IOMP delegates. Other speakers from AAPM at this meeting include Tony Seibert, Ehsan Samei, and Cari Boras.

The planning for the upcoming Spring Clinical Meeting is solidly underway under the direction of Jessica Clements and her team including Chris Serago, Jean Moran, Annie Hsu, and other great program directors. The meeting will be held just after St. Patrick's Day in New Orleans so if you have never attended a Spring Clinical Meeting, this one may be the one to start with: great program, great location, and great time of year in New Orleans. In addition, there will be a one-day course on implementing TG100 preceding the Spring Clinical Meeting.

Planning is also well underway for the 2017 Annual Meeting in the Mile High City of Denver. Another terrific job will, no doubt, be performed by the team at Headquarters this year regarding logistics. And once again, a fantastic scientific, professional, and educational program has been assembled. Please plan to attend one of these meetings, if not both, to keep up your required continuing education credits as well as learn the latest scientific developments.

As you can see, we have an exciting and busy year ahead of us and those of us in leadership really do appreciate the opportunity to work with all of you. Together we are a much stronger organization and community of medical physicists.

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