For a little over a year, AAPM's Corporate Advisory Board (CAB) has been in existence. Formed in late 2017, this newly created partnership with our Corporate Community came together as a vehicle to identify and prioritize important areas where industry and AAPM can work together for mutual benefit and to improve global healthcare.

With overarching goals and objectives, the CAB works to:

• Increase awareness of issues confronting AAPM and Industry;
• Increase collaboration between AAPM and Industry to resolve and mitigate important issues, and develop solutions
• Work with AAPM to develop training programs for physicists interested in or already involved within Industry
• Increase the safety and effectiveness of products and services used to diagnose and treat patients
• Increase the rate at which such products and services are adopted in clinics, and,
• Work with AAPM to better understand patient and provider needs and increase general awareness of existing solutions.

Through a synergistic relationship between AAPM and Industry, twelve elected Corporate members-at-large, representing a broad spectrum of our Corporate Affiliates from both large- and small-sized companies, and comprising a proportional mix of both imaging and radiotherapy equipment vendors, the Inaugural Board was formed. Beginning in 2020, as terms expire, candidates will be named from among our Corporate Affiliates members and voted upon by them to fill vacancies.

The Inaugural CAB Industry partners include representation from:

• CIRS
• Elekta
• GE Healthcare
• IBA Dosimetry
• NELCO
• Radcal Corporation
• RaySearch Laboratories
• RIT
• Siemens Healthcare
• Standard Imaging Corporation
• Sun Nuclear Corporation
• Varian Medical Systems

Corey Zankowski, Chief Technology Innovation Officer and SVP of Oncology Software Solutions at Varian Medical Systems, chairs the CAB and Rick LeBlanc, President of NELCO, is Vice-Chair. Jatinder Palta serves as Chair of the Corporate Relations Committee (CRC), providing direct interface between the CAB, CRC, and AAPM's Board of Directors.

The CAB conducts three face-to-face meetings during a calendar year, which also include representation from AAPM's Executive Committee: Spring Clinical, Annual Meeting, and during RSNA. It also meets via conference call throughout the year.

In upcoming issues of the newsletter, and through its own web page (in development), the CAB will regularly report on its activities, provide project updates, and discuss strategic goals it may identify.