"50 Years Strong" was the theme for this year's Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors Annual Meeting in Charleston, SC. As always, AAPM had a strong presence at this meeting as trainers, presenters, and attendees. AAPM members provided a one-day technical training for State personnel on "Shielding: Up Close and Personal," which included a field trip to the Medical University of South Carolina—many thanks to Ken Vanek, PhD and Russ Ritenour, PhD. There were over fifty regulators at this session. In keeping with the 50th anniversary theme, AAPM also moderated a topical session on "Medical Physics: Past, Present and Future." Multiple AAPM members, including current President, Bruce Thomadsen PhD, were also featured presenters in the proceedings Healing Arts session. Kathleen Hintenlang, PhD and Melissa Martin, MSc, AAPM's CRCPD Committee Chair and liaison to CRCPD RPAC respectively, also attended the CRCPD Board meeting. The interaction with and input from AAPM continues to be an invaluable resource to CRCPD. The relationships that we have forged over the past fifty years have grown and flourished. There are currently many AAPM members serving as resource members and advisors to CRCPD committees on healing arts issues as well as on the suggested state regulations committees. As state regulators and the physicist community deal with similar issues, we will continue to work together and strengthen the relationship between AAPM and CRCPD constituencies.

In a similar vein, "Beyond the Future!" was the theme for the 60^th Annual AAPM meeting in Nashville, TN. The CRCPD sent several representatives to the meeting. The State of Tennessee also benefited from AAPM's regulator registration category and sent several of their staff for training. CRCPD maintained a booth in the exhibit hall. The booth highlighted the SCATR program and the QMP Registry. Over the four-day period, the booth attracted many visitors.

Attendees at the AAPM Hands-on Training held at the Medical University of South Carolina

Contact Author

Print Article

Jennifer Elee, CRCPD's liaison to AAPM, attended several meetings which were held in conjunction with the AAPM meeting. Jennifer attended the Government and Regulatory Affairs Committee meeting, the Regional Organization Committee meeting, as well as the Chapter Leadership meeting. At these meetings, Jennifer and Kathleen encouraged Chapters to reach out to the State programs in their areas. We would like to see States take advantage of the local Chapter meetings for training and get involved as speakers. The Chapters were receptive to working with their States and advisory committees. Please try to work with your local regulators to promote these relationships. Jennifer and Mary Ann Spohrer, CRCPD Healing Arts Council Chair, also met with the AAPM Executive Committee and CRCPD Committee liaisons and staff. Some of the topics covered were proposed training at the 2019 CRCPD meeting, IEC challenges, and the new Joint Commission fluoroscopy requirements.

Attendees at the AAPM Hands-on Training held at the Medical University of South Carolina

The CRCPD Committee on IEC Standards also met at the AAPM meeting. Jennifer and Mary Ann were joined by committee members John Winston and Lisa Bruedigan. The group met to discuss the proposed charts to map IEC standards to the CFR standard that it would replace and the impact on State regulations. The proposed table or chart is essentially a list of the IEC standards that are different from the 21 CRF standard and will be available for each x-ray device when the manufacturer chooses to conform to the IEC standard instead of the Federal Performance standard. CRCPD has numerous concerns about the table including: where it would be located, how it would be accessed, and how it would correlate to individual State standards. The CRCPD committee then attended the AAPM's Working Group on IEC Coordination meeting with additional stake holders including FDA, MITA, and ACR. The FDA indicated that they will be moving forward in the Fall of 2018 to publish final guidance. The first x-ray modality to be implemented will be interventional fluoro, and the tables will be available on the MITA website. The FDA guidance document will provide additional detail on the changes and how to access the website. The move to IEC standards will be for x-ray devices manufactured from the date specified by FDA and going forward. All devices manufactured prior to that date are still held to the standards in 21 CFR. It is also important to note that while it is anticipated that larger manufacturers may choose to adopt the IEC standards, it is an optional choice; smaller x-ray device manufacturers (such as dental) may elect to remain with the FDA standards.