AAPM

The meeting started at 8:10 PM.

1. Attendance

Gary Fullerton

J. Francisco Aguirre

J. A. BenComo

Julie Dawson

Rene J. Smith

2. Minutes were read and approved as modified (add Susi Garson to last minutes list)
3. J. Francisco report

• Task group working on LASC guidelines still actively working.
• Web page- we need a person who will work on it.
• Meeting in Mexico has been cancelled.

1. Gary Fullerton report

• Spoke to Patricio Flores President of the Mexican Medical Physicist Association in Nice, France. E. Gaona cancelled the meeting in Monterrey unilaterally without consultation. The Mexican Society meets 3 weeks ago in Monterrey. There were round table discussions on Medical Physics.
• 500 to 700 people attended.
• Maria Brandon work on a PET project with Physicians
• Arturo Becerril, Alimar Gonsalez
• Teaching of Medical Physics at University of State of Mexico in Toluca offers M.S. and a Ph.D. degrees. They have 17 students, all physicists.
• The University of Texas at San Antonio is offering a 3 hours course in Nuclear Medicine which id transmitted to UNAM, in Mexico City via telecommunication. A grand from Southwester Bell is supporting this project.
• Julie Dawson added that Georgia Tech. record their classes on videocassettes and these classes are available for instructing students at remote locations. This concept could be very useful to instruct Physicists in Latino America.
• The Mexican Medical Physics Society asks the AAPM through Dr. Fullerton to sponsor a QA workshop on all the areas of Medical physic (mostly Radiotherapy).
• Dr. Fullerton proposed to the AAPM SW chapter to have their annual meeting in Mexico City, so Mexican Physicists could attaint. The SW chapter agreed to have the meeting by 1999.
• Dr. Fullerton Suggested the IAEA, The SW chapter, and the LASC to sponsor and work on meeting in Mexico City.
• There was some discussion of a proposal of a QA in Radiotherapy workshop (hands on) meeting during the spring.

1. JFA reported for Susi Garson

• Mrs. Garson helped to acquire one Linac for Bolivia and coordinated the teaching of Physicist there.
• In the Dominican Republic help to buy Brachytherapy sources.
• In Ecuador Mrs. Garson helped to acquire two Linacs, one HDR unit, and water phantom system for calibration.
• Helped to train Physicists in Ecuador.

1. J. Francisco Aguirre

• Reported on his visit to Paraguay. He visits three hospitals, which do not have Radiotherapy departments. One Hospital has a Linac, which never have been used on patients.
• Paraguay bought two new Linacs and they have two cobalt unit but not Physicists.
• He will be traveling to Costa Rica to work on a document in QA on Radiotherapy, which is mostly a translation to Spanish of the AAPM TG#40. (The document contains guidelines for minimum performance and also minimum standards).

1. Rene Smith- no Report.
2. J.A. Bencomo no Report.
3. Julie Dawson Reports

• CRILA 1998 meeting in Chile: She will not attend. The organizers have invited 10 physicist to the convention.
• CRILA executive committee decided to change the membership status of physicist from associate members to members.
• Julie visited the Catholic University of Santiago and discussed the creation of a Master in Medical Physics Program.

1. World Congress

Gary Fullerton discussed the web page for Graduate Program of the University of Texas San Antonio.

2. Task Group # 1 (Fontenla) No report
3. Task Group #2 (Dawson) draft of guidelines given to attendants.

• Guidelines approved (4 votes in favor no abstentions)

1. Task Group #3 (web side design)

• Rene Smith Editor
• Content of page: Directory

1. Chicago 2000

• The Meeting has a very active international advisory committee net work
• Some discussion on a proposal to IAC to support several Physicist from Latin America
• To obtain Sponsorship from IAC for a workshop for Latino American physicist
• Gary made motion to form a Task Group (# 4) to write a letter of Intent to IAC J. Francisco Aguirre was assigned the task (vote 4 in favor 0 abstentions)

1. New Business

• Gary asks LASC to sponsor a workshop on QA in Mexico City. This sponsorship will be taken to IAC:
• Should content a concrete proposal on how it will be done
• SW-AAPM agrees to have meeting in Mexico City
• May be done in conjunction with IAEA activities for Mexico