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Stephanie Sanford

Spring Service Journal

April 24th, 2017

AzAAPM Annual Chapter Meeting

The Arizona Chapter of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AzAAPM)

holds its annual chapter meeting each spring. This year the meeting was held in Phoenix, AZ at
Banner University Medical Center, Phoenix. The AzAAPM is in their fifth year of holding this
annual meeting and educational conference. I have had the opportunity to volunteer to assist
with attendance tracking in the past and this year I was able to help at the registration desk. This
was a great opportunity to meet many area physicists and other radiation oncology professionals.
Many I have had the opportunity to meet in the past and this was an opportunity to reconnect and
with others I was able to make new connections.

There were approximately 30 active members present at this event and nearly the same
amount of physics students and residents. In addition there were 13 vendors present to discuss
the latest technologies that their companies have available to help support healthcare providers in
Radiation Oncology. While I was the only dosimetry student at this meeting there is intention to
increase attendance of both medical dosimetrists and radiation therapists in the future as well as
students in both of these professions.

There was a full day of presentations including the following topics; Implementation
process and use of a MRI guided Cobalt 60 unit made by ViewRay, quality metrics and programs
being implemented for diagnostic imaging, Y90 procedures and dose tracking, cybersecurity,
stereotactic radiotherapy in the veterinary setting, implementation of proton therapy center, and
intracranial radiosurgery planning in Eclipse. The use of a linear accelerator in the veterinary
setting was a very interesting discussion. The veterinarian that was speaking talked about the
need to collaborate with other veterinarians who also provide radiation therapy services to create
standards of care and other valuable metrics to improve care for their patients. He showed the
types of custom immobilization devices used to care for his patients and discussed the unique
considerations each case requires.
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In addition to these lectures, 8 of the 1st and 2nd year physics residents from the Banner
MD Anderson Cancer Center, Mayo Clinic Scottsdale and Banner University Medical Center
presented short presentations on some of the research projects that they have been working on
during their residency. Some of the most interesting cases I heard during these talks were about
an evaluation of 6FFF and 10FFF mode for stereotactic radiosurgery and use of Iomab-B, I-131
therapy with adjuvant Total Body Irradiation.

During breaks I was available to help vendors and speakers for various requests. Having
the conference at one of the facilities within the health system I am currently working for and
completing my clinical internship at I was able to be of assistance by knowing who to contact
and how to help out. These requests included things such as transport of vendor equipment to
our loading docks for delivery, photocopying forms, and other office supply needs.

I was able to spend time with the program director of our physics residency program as
well as our 1st and 2nd year residents. During this time, the program director was able to
introduce us to other students, residents and program directors as well as other physicists. These
introductions made for valuable networking connections.

In the coming years I have committed to the recruiting efforts to include more radiation
oncology professionals in this wonderful educational and networking event. We will be working
toward building attendance of both area medical dosimetrists and radiation therapists. All topics
discussed at this years convention were relevant to both dosimetrists and therapists and would
be of interest to many. We will additionally be working toward obtaining continuing education
credits through both the MDCB and ARRT to further encourage engagement. I look forward to
further involvement in this valuable event.
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I am pictured here at the registration desk where I assisted with collection of attendance fees,
welcoming of members, guests, speakers and vendors as well as document distribution and
general information assistance.
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Above is a copy of the schedule of events at the AzAAPM 5th Annual Chapter Meeting