EDUCATION COUNCIL REPORT Jim Dobbins, PhD, Durham, NC

The Education Council is making progress on its key activities for the year and we would like to provide a brief update following the successful Annual Meeting in Denver.

First, the number of residency programs continues to grow. There are now 90 accredited therapy programs, 15 accredited imaging programs, and 4 accredited DMP programs. Using the approximate guide of 1.5 slots per program, this gives us a total of about 150-160 therapy or imaging residency slots per year in addition to the DMP residency-equivalent slots. An initial assessment several years back indicated that about 145-175 total slots were likely to be needed per year, so we are certainly very close to reaching our overall goal. We will continue to work on expanding this number somewhat in the years ahead in order to ensure a robust set of residency opportunities for our trainees. Fortunately, the number of slots appears to be holding fairly steady and not diminishing significantly due to attrition. We will continue to monitor the number of residency slots closely. I want to say a word of appreciation for the tremendous effort of a number of individuals over the past decade to bring the number of residency programs and slots up to near the level that it needs to be.

The MedPhys Match just completed its third year and received 224 total applicants and matched 107. There were an equal number of CAMPEP MS and CAMPEP PhD applicants who matched (42 each), though a higher percentage (89%) for the PhD than for the Masters (60%). There were also applicants who matched fromcertificate programs and a few other categories.

An important ongoing initiative of the Education Council is to try to ascertain how output from graduate and residency programs compares with market work force needs. Ed Jackson, Vice-Chair of EC, is spearheading this activity and will work in close collaboration with Professional Council, SDAMPP, and CAMPEP to collect the data needed to make this assessment. Data collected for 2016 indicate that residents are successful in securing employment following their residencies with only 1.4% having difficulty. There is also particular interest in whether the output of imaging programs is sufficient to meet workforce needs, since anecdotal reports would suggest that we are undersupplying the field with qualified imaging physicists.

We are continuing to work with others within AAPM to identify ways of assessing the need for future imaging physicists. The Education Council held a symposium at this year's annual meeting as part of a three-symposium morning session. The EC symposium included talks by Ed Jackson on adapting graduate education to future directions in the field of medical physics, Joann Prisciandaro on future trends in residency training, and Victor Montemayor on novel approaches to teaching medical physics. This symposium was preceded by a symposium from the Professional Council and a Joint Council Symposium that highlighted activities of all four of AAPM's councils, including Education Council. Judging from the large attendance at these three symposia, this appears to be a format that is valued by our members and the chairs of the four councils are looking at ways to repeat a similar set of symposia in the future.

Our Medical Physicists as Educators Committee, chaired by Victor Montemayor, is also planning a special two-day workshop on educational methods in medical physics just prior to next year's annual meeting. I would highly recommend thatthose who have a role in medical physics educationto consider attending this important event. As always, we welcome feedback from the AAPM membership on ways in which we can most effectively serve the educational needs of our field.