The Annual Meeting Subcommittee and its Working Groups are already hard at work putting together an exciting program for the 2018 Annual Meeting in Nashville, TN. But before I get to the program itself, I want to introduce the team behind it. I am the Chair of the new Annual Meeting Subcommittee, and Ingrid Reiser is the Vice Chair. The Scientific Program is headed by Kristy Brock. Shuai Leng and Joseph Stayman are the Scientific Imaging Track Director and Co-Director, while Lei Xing and Carri Glide-Hurst are the Director and Co-Director for the Scientific Therapy Track. Lei and Shuai are also the Directors for the Scientific Joint Imaging-Therapy Track. The Education Program is headed by Tyler Fisher. Rick Layman and Georgeta Mihai are the Education Imaging Track Director and Co-Director, and Stephen Thompson and Robin Miller are the Director and Co-Director for the Education Therapy Track. Brian Wang is Director for the Practical Track, and Tyler also serves as the Co-Director. For the Professional Program, Jeffrey Limmer is the Program Director, while Eileen Cirino and Erin Angel are the Professional Track Director and Co-Director.

The meeting program itself is shaping up well. Highlights include a 2-day Specialty Track on QIN/QIBA organized by Ed Jackson and Paul Kinahan. The Certificate Course, organized by Hugo Aerts and Laurence Court, will be on the topic of Computational Advances. The Anne and Donald Herbert Distinguished Lecture in Statistical Modeling will discuss QUANTEC: analysis of heterogeneous big data using modern statistical methods. More details about the program can be found here.

New for this year is the Med Phys Slam, a joint effort of the Students and Trainees Subcommittee and the Scientific Program. Each AAPM Chapter will select one student/graduate student/resident champion to represent them. The chapter champions will give short presentations which will be judged on the quality of the presentation, particularly comprehensibility, communication skills, and audience engagement. Winners will be determined and awarded. Come and cheer on your chapter champ!

A helpful new feature we’re implementing this year is the use of keywords to help you navigate the program and find those presentations of particular interest to you. Each presentation will have one category and up to three keywords associated with it. These will be the same categories and keywords used by Medical Physics and JACMP. Authors will be requested to select the category and keywords when submitting their abstracts.

See you in Nashville!