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Purpose: Patient-specific protocol optimisation in abdomino-pelvic Computed Tomography (CT) requires measurement of body habitus/size (BH), sensitivity-specificity (surrogates image quality (IQ) metrics) and risk (surrogates often dose quantities) (RD). This work provides an updated inventory of metrics available for each of these three categories of optimisation variables derivable directly from patient measurements or images. We consider objective IQ metrics mostly in the spatial domain (i.e., those related directly to sharpness, contrast, noise quantity/texture and perceived detectability as these are used by radiologists to assess the acceptability or otherwise of patient images in practice)., Materials and Methods: The search engine used was PubMed with the search period being 2010-2024. The key words used were: 'comput* tomography', 'CT', 'abdom*', 'dose', 'risk', 'SSDE', 'image quality', 'water equivalent diameter', 'size', 'body composition', 'habit*', 'BMI', 'obes*', 'overweight'. Since BH is critical for patient specific optimisation, articles correlating RD vs BH, and IQ vs BH were reviewed., Results: The inventory includes 11 BH, 12 IQ and 6 RD metrics. 25 RD vs BH correlation studies and 9 IQ vs BH correlation studies were identified. 7 articles in the latter group correlated metrics from all three categories concurrently., Conclusions: Protocol optimisation should be fine-tuned to the level of the individual patient and particular clinical query. This would require a judicious choice of metrics from each of the three categories. It is suggested that, for increased utility in clinical practice, more future optimisation studies be clinical task based and involve the three categories of metrics concurrently., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Associazione Italiana di Fisica Medica e Sanitaria. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In 2006, the European Federation of Organisations for Medical Physics (EFOMP) adopted the "Malaga Declaration". The declaration asserted the fundamental role of Medical Physics professionals in the radiation protection of patients, workers, general public, carers and comforters and research participants in hospitals. However, since that time the Medical Physics profession has evolved in Europe and new regulations and documentation have been issued, such as directive 2013/59/Euratom and the "European Guidelines on Medical Physics Expert" (RP174). EFOMP has published updated core-curricula and strived towards the recognition of the profession at the European level. In view of this, an update of the original Malaga Declaration was deemed necessary, to define the future vision that will guide the actions of the Federation in the years to come. This Declaration, which has been approved by the national member organizations of EFOMP in April 2023, is much broader than the original Malaga version. This is expected considering the rapid evolution of medical device technology over the last 17 years. The Radiation Protection Expert in hospital settings should be an MPE, since the latter has the highest level of radiation protection knowledge and training. Given the passion and energy that animated the debate, which led to the updating of the Malaga Declaration, we are confident that it represents a solid basis for the development of our profession in Europe which is in consonance with the aspirations of us all., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Associazione Italiana di Fisica Medica e Sanitaria. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Although Medical Physics educators have historically contributed to the education of the non-physics healthcare professions, their role was not studied in a systematic manner. In 2009, EFOMP set up a group to research the issue. In their first paper, the group carried out an extensive literature review regarding physics teaching for the non-physics healthcare professions. Their second paper reported the results of a pan-European survey of physics curricula delivered to the healthcare professions and a Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) audit of the role. The group's third paper presented a strategic development model for the role, based on the SWOT data. A comprehensive curriculum development model was subsequently published, whilst plans were laid to develop the present policy statement. This policy statement presents mission and vision statements for Medical Physicists teaching non-physics users of medical devices and physical agents, best practices for teaching non-physics healthcare professionals, a stepwise process for curriculum development (content, method of delivery and assessment), and summary recommendations based on the aforementioned research studies., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Associazione Italiana di Fisica Medica e Sanitaria. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: Calculation of the Size Specific Dose Estimate (SSDE) requires accurate delineation of the skin boundary of patient CT slices. The AAPM recommendation for SSDE evaluation at every CT slice is too time intensive for manual contouring, prohibiting real-time or bulk processing; an automated approach is therefore desirable. Previous automated delineation studies either did not fully disclose the steps of the algorithm or did not always manage to fully isolate the patient. The purpose of this study was to develop a validated, freely available, fast, vendor-independent open-source tool to automatically and accurately contour and calculate the SSDE for the abdomino-pelvic region for entire studies in real-time, including flagging of patient-truncated images., Methods: The Python tool, CTContour, consists of a sequence of morphological steps and scales over multiple cores for speed. Tool validation was achieved on 700 randomly selected slices from abdominal and abdomino-pelvic studies from public datasets. Contouring accuracy was assessed visually by four medical physicists using a 1-5 Likert scale (5 indicating perfect contouring). Mean SSDE values were validated via manual calculation., Results: Contour accuracy validation produced a score of four of five for 98.5 % of the images. A 300 slice exam was contoured and truncation flagged in 6.3 s on a six-core laptop., Conclusions: The algorithm was accurate even for complex clinical scenarios and when artefacts were present. Fast execution makes it possible to automate the calculation of SSDE in real time. The tool has been published on GitHub under the GNU-GPLv3 license., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Associazione Italiana di Fisica Medica e Sanitaria. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Training, educating, and fostering of young professionals are key requisites for the progress of any profession. The young medical physicists (MPs) of today are the medical physics professionals and leaders of tomorrow. It is, therefore, essential that they learn to work collectively and in a coordinated manner at both national and European levels at an early stage in their career. In view of this, EFOMP is planning to create a special interest group (SIG) encompassing early career MPs from across Europe., Methods: A survey was developed by EFOMP and circulated to all National Member Organisations (NMOs) to gather information on the status of early career groups in their respective societies and on the interest to partake in such group within the Federation., Results: Of the 36 NMOs that are part of EFOMP, 32 responded to the survey. Only 9 NMOs have established early career MPs groups within their NMOs, while the remaining countries are either considering setting up young MPs groups in the future (15 NMOs) or do not show such interest (8 NMOs). Of all responders, 59% expressed interest in the creation of the EFOMP SIG, 34% remained neutral towards this issue by not answering the question and for two NMOs the SIG idea had no appeal., Conclusion: Most NMOs showed interest in the creation of an early career MPs group within EFOMP and offered constructive feedbacks on the roles they envisage for the group. EFOMP will use and implement this information when establishing the special interest group., (Copyright © 2022 Associazione Italiana di Fisica Medica e Sanitaria. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

From its inception, EFOMP has pursued a policy to improve and coordinate education and training of medical physicists across all its participating European countries. Several EFOMP policy statements on education and training have been published and surveys have been held to get an overview of the actual situation. At the beginning of 2020 a new survey was distributed amongst the 36 National Member Organizations (NMOs), in which questions were based on recommendations published in the most recent policy statements. Thirty-three of the NMOs (91%) responded, of which 22 indicated having a National Registration Scheme (NRS) for Medical Physics Experts (MPEs) in place. Another 6 indicated considering such a scheme. Results of the questionnaire showed that there was good correspondence between education and training programmes, i.e. a division between a BSc phase, an MSc phase and a clinical phase after completion of the MSc. Differences between NRSs were primarily seen in the availability and composition of a supervising committee and in the availability of guidelines for handling professional misconduct. In addition, some differences were seen in the topics that were part of the education and training programme. The goal of a universal (registered) MPE accepted by all European countries is still far away despite the progress being made. The new procedure for approving an existing NRS, which fulfils all EFOMP criteria is seen as an important step forward. Exchange of experience, knowledge, ideas and, above all, MPE trainees between European countries is seen as the best approach to achieve this goal., (Copyright © 2021 Associazione Italiana di Fisica Medica. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The objective of the study was the construction of a generic curriculum development model for the use of biomedical physics (BMP) educators teaching the non-physics healthcare professions (HCP) in Europe. A comprehensive, qualitative cross-sectional Europe-wide survey of the curricula delivered by BMP in Faculties of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS) was carried out. Curricular content was collected from faculty web-sites, curricular documents and textbooks. The survey data was supplemented with semi-structured interviews and direct observation during onsite visits. The number of faculties studied was 118 from 67 universities spread all over Europe, whilst the number of onsite visits/interviews was 15 (geographically distributed as follows: Eastern Europe 6, North Western Europe 5, and South Western Europe 4). EU legislation, recommendations by European national medical councils, educational benchmark statements by higher education quality assurance agencies, research journals concerning HCP education and other documents relevant to standards in clinical practice and undergraduate education were also analyzed. Best practices and BMP learning outcomes were elicited from the curricular materials, interviews and documentation and these were subsequently used to construct the curriculum development model. A structured, comprehensive BMP learning outcomes inventory was designed in the format required by the European Qualifications Framework (EQF). The structures of the inventory and curriculum development model make them ideally suited for use by BMP involved in European curriculum development initiatives for the HCP., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

On 5 December 2013 the European Council promulgated Directive 2013/59/EURATOM. This Directive is important for Medical Physicists and Medical Physics Experts as it puts the profession on solid foundations and describes it more comprehensively. Much commentary regarding the role and competences has been developed in the context of the European Commission project "European Guidelines on the Medical Physics Expert" published as Radiation Protection Report RP174. The guidelines elaborate on the role and responsibilities under 2013/59/EURATOM in terms of a mission statement and competence profile in the specialty areas of Medical Physics relating to medical radiological services, namely Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Radiation Oncology and Nuclear Medicine. The present policy statement summarises the provisions of Directive 2013/59/EURATOM regarding the role and competences, reiterates the results of the European Guidelines on the Medical Physics Expert document relating to role and competences of the profession and provides additional commentary regarding further issues arising following the publication of the RP174 guidelines., (Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

In 2010, EFOMP issued Policy Statement No. 12: "The present status of Medical Physics Education and Training in Europe. New perspectives and EFOMP recommendations" to be applied to education and training in Medical Physics within the context of the developments in the European Higher Education Area arising from the Bologna Declaration and with a view to facilitate the free movement of Medical Physics professionals within Europe. Concurrently, new recommendations regarding qualifications frameworks were published by the European Parliament and Council which introduced new terminology and a new qualifications framework - the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) for lifelong learning. In addition, a new European directive involving the medical use of ionizing radiations and set to replace previous directives in this area was in the process of development. This has now been realized as Council Directive 2013/59/Euratom of 5 December 2013 which has repealed directive 97/43/Euratom. In this regard, a new document was developed in the context of the EC financed project "European Guidelines on the Medical Physics Expert" and published as RP174. Among other items, these guidelines refer to the mission statement, key activities, qualification framework and curricula for the specialty areas of Medical Physics relating to radiological devices and protection from ionizing radiation. These developments have made necessary an update of PS12; this policy statement provides the necessary update., (Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Purpose: To provide a guideline curriculum covering theoretical and practical aspects of education and training for Medical Physicists in Nuclear Medicine within Europe., Material and Methods: National training programmes of Medical Physics, Radiation Physics and Nuclear Medicine physics from a range of European countries and from North America were reviewed and elements of best practice identified. An independent panel of experts was used to achieve consensus regarding the content of the curriculum., Results: Guidelines have been developed for the specialist theoretical knowledge and practical experience required to practice as a Medical Physicist in Nuclear Medicine in Europe. It is assumed that the precondition for the beginning of the training is a good initial degree in Medical Physics at master level (or equivalent). The Learning Outcomes are categorised using the Knowledge, Skill and Competence approach along the lines recommended by the European Qualifications Framework. The minimum level expected in each topic in the theoretical knowledge and practical experience sections is intended to bring trainees up to the requirements expected of a Medical Physicist entering the field of Nuclear Medicine., Conclusions: This new joint EANM/EFOMP European guideline curriculum is a further step to harmonise specialist training of Medical Physicists in Nuclear Medicine within Europe. It provides a common framework for national Medical Physics societies to develop or benchmark their own curricula. The responsibility for the implementation and accreditation of these standards and guidelines resides within national training and regulatory bodies., (Copyright © 2012 Associazione Italiana di Fisica Medica. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This is the third of a series of articles targeted at biomedical physicists providing educational services to other healthcare professions, whether in a university faculty of medicine/health sciences or otherwise (e.g., faculty of science, hospital-based medical physics department). The first paper identified the past and present role of the biomedical physicist in the education of the healthcare professions and highlighted issues of concern. The second paper reported the results of a comprehensive SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) audit of that role. In this paper we present a strategy for the development of the role based on the outcomes of the SWOT audit. The research methods adopted focus on the importance of strategic planning at all levels in the provision of educational services. The analytical process used in the study was a pragmatic blend of the various theoretical frameworks described in the literature on strategic planning research as adapted for use in academic role development. Important results included identification of the core competences of the biomedical physicist in this context; specification of benchmarking schemes based on experiences of other biomedical disciplines; formulation of detailed mission and vision statements; gap analysis for the role. The paper concludes with a set of strategies and specific actions for gap reduction., (Copyright © 2011 Associazione Italiana di Fisica Medica. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Although biomedical physicists provide educational services to the healthcare professions in the majority of universities in Europe, their precise role with respect to the education of the healthcare professions has not been studied systematically. To address this issue we are conducting a research project to produce a strategic development model for the role using the well-established SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) methodology. SWOT based strategic planning is a two-step process: one first carries out a SWOT position audit and then uses the identified SWOT themes to construct the strategic development model. This paper reports the results of a SWOT audit for the role of the biomedical physicist in the education of the healthcare professions in Europe. Internal Strengths and Weaknesses of the role were identified through a qualitative survey of biomedical physics departments and biomedical physics curricula delivered to healthcare professionals across Europe. External environmental Opportunities and Threats were identified through a systematic survey of the healthcare, healthcare professional education and higher education literature and categorized under standard PEST (Political, Economic, Social-Psychological, Technological-Scientific) categories. The paper includes an appendix of terminology. Defined terms are marked with an asterisk in the text., (Copyright 2009 Associazione Italiana di Fisica Medica. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The role of the biomedical physicist in the education of the healthcare professions has not yet been studied in a systematic manner. This article presents the first results of an EFOMP project aimed at researching and developing this important component of the role of the biomedical physicist. A background to the study expands on the reasons that led to the need for the project. This is followed by an extensive review of the published literature regarding the role. This focuses mainly on the teaching contributions within programmes for physicians, diagnostic radiographers, radiation therapists, and the postgraduate medical specializations of radiology, radiotherapy, interventional radiology and cardiology. Finally a summary list of the specific research objectives that need to be immediately addressed is presented. These are the carrying out of a Europe-wide position audit for the role, the construction of a strategic role development model and the design of a curriculum development model suitable for modern healthcare professional education.