Spanish Young Committee - PDF Version
Medical physics training in Spain involves a mandatory, three-year residency in which future medical physicists are trained in radiotherapy, nuclear medicine, and radiology and radiation protection in a Spanish hospital that is accredited as offering an educational service. Access to the residency is by means of an annual state examination after completion of a European qualifications framework level 6 bachelor’s degree.
The young committee of the Spanish Society of Medical Physics (SEFM), known as SEFM’s CT group, was created in 2018 during the European SocieTy for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO) congress in Barcelona. Its purpose was to act as a link between junior Spanish medical physicists and the SEFM and to promote our profession among new generations of physicists. Our group consists of medical physicists who are either in training or in the first three years of work as medical physics experts. Not all the young members of the SEFM are part of the CT group. However, only a motivation letter and membership as a young medical physicist of the SEFM are required to become a member of the society’s young committee. We are always looking for new members in order to develop new activities.
Among our goals, boosting our visibility in social media is essential. To achieve this, we are active in the three most prominent social platforms: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Under the username “grupoCT”, we post news, snippets of our day-to-day work and interesting facts about medical physics. We also hold presentations at universities throughout Spain to promote the role we play in hospitals and the opportunities that medical physics offers to young researchers.
In 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the lack of on-site events, we arranged the first virtual congress for trainees and junior medical physicists, which took place on 27 November 2020. We received 35 submissions about radiotherapy, nuclear physics and radiation protection, which were classified as poster or oral communications.
We were very pleased with the level of participation and the submissions we received. We were encouraged to think about future editions. The undeniable influence of social media among young people and the support of SEFM made it possible.
We also participate in the biennial congress of SEFM and the Spanish Society of Radiation Protection. We started with a conference at the sixth congress, which was celebrated in June 2019 in Burgos, Spain. At the last congress, which took place online during the first week of June 2021, our group had a space in which we talked about our activities and conducted an informal quiz that was called “the medical physics competition” and was staged for all the participants. The participation was high and SEFM congratulated us on the quiz.
In August 2021, we participated in the first face-to-face event that had been held since the start of the pandemic, the ESTRO 2021 congress in Madrid. We attended as representatives in the SEFM stand. We also organised a raffle in which anyone who visited the stand could take part. In addition, this event enabled us to meet the young committee of ESTRO (yESTRO) and the young committee of the Spanish Society of Radiation Oncology.
We also organised the first Curie meeting in November 2021. Even though the registration was open to everyone, it was especially focused on medical physicists in training and young medical physics experts. Various activities were organised at this event, and we offered short conferences related to radiation oncology, nuclear medicine and proton-therapy equipment.
.jpg.aspx "Spanish-Young-Committee-(2).jpg")
Image 1: Attendees at the first Curie meeting, which was organised in November 2021 in Valencia (Spain). From left to right: Damián Guirado Llorente (president of the SEFM), Beatriz Chover Díaz (president of the CT group), Roser Fayos-Solá Capilla (member of CT group), Agustín Santos Serra (vice-president of the SEFM), Rodrigo Astudillo Olalla (vice-president of the CT group), Tamara Lusa (member of CT group) and Teresa Cuenca Bandín (member of CT group).
Dr José Pérez-Calatayud, head of the Department of Medical Physics in Radiotherapy at the University Hospital La Fe in Valencia, Spain, presented the GAIN project. This is an initiative that arose from SEFM to promote research among young medical physicists. We even held another quiz and organised some stand-up comedy! In addition, Dr Steven Petit from the young ESTRO committee and Dr Nuria Jornet, senior consultant in medical physics at the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona, Spain, gave a talk about the situation of medical physics in Europe. We expect that this meeting will have formed new bonds within the Spanish medical physics community.
The CT group is proud to be achieving the objectives proposed each year, boosting our profession and helping SEFM to listen to and meet the needs of young medical physicists. We trust that this harmony will last for many years, and that together we will continue to improve the excellent quality of Spanish medical physics.
Facebook: “Grupos Ct SEFM”
Twitter: @GSefm
Instagram: @grupoCT
Rodrigo Astudillo Olalla
Medical physicist
Hospital Universitario de Cruces
Vizcaya, Spain
ras.spa@gmail.com
Beatriz Chover Díaz
Medical physicist
Hospital Clinico Universitario Arnau de Vilanova
Lleida, Spain
beatriz.chover@gmail.com