European Federation of Organisations for Medical Physics
The European Federation of Organisations for Medical Physics was founded in May 1980 in London to serve as an umbrella organisation representing the national Medical Physics societies in Europe. It took just twenty-seven months from the first initiative, by the Council of the Hospital Physicists' Association in February 1978, to reach agreement on the formation of the EFOMP. The inaugural meeting took place in London, UK on the 9th of May 1979 and the first President of EFOMP was John Clifton.
EFOMP is a non-profit organisation and aims to foster and coordinate the activities of its national member organisations, encourage exchange and dissemination of professional and scientific information, develop guidelines for education, training and accreditation programmes and to make recommendations on the responsibilities, organisational relationships and roles of medical physicists.
Structure
The EFOMP organisation has two sections: the European federation of professional societies and a company limited by guarantee in England and Wales. The federation consists of national member organisations representing medical physics in Europe, where only one NMO can represent the corresponding nation. The number of representatives each NMO can send into the council depends on the number of national members. The council is the governing authority of EFOMP and normally meets once a year. The council elects the president and all other members of the board, it is responsible for maintaining the constitution of the federation, it handles all NMO related issues and sets up committees, foundations and other legal and operative bodies to facilitate the aims and purpose of the federation. The officers of the council are the members of the board and the chairpersons of the committees. In order to handle all financial aspects of the federation and its mission and aims the limited company was founded in January 2008. The officers of the board are the directors, the members of the council are the members of the company.The federation has six permanent committees:
- Communications & Publications: is in charge of demonstrating the application of physical sciences to medicine to the public and promotes international links among National Member Organizations and other professional bodies. The committee is responsible for the dissemination of information on EFOMP activities to enhance the education, competence, research and continuing professional development of medical physicists across Europe via digital channels of communications and publications.
- European Matters: represents the interest of the federation to the various bodies of the European Union
- Education & Training: is responsible for supporting NMOs in providing educational approaches for physics in medicine
- Professional Matters: is in charge of establishing and maintaining the recognition of the Medical Physicists as a academic profession in Europe bridging between physics and medicine and deals with professional issues related to the medical physics profession
- Projects: is in charge of participation in and coordination of major European projects in close collaboration with national and international legal bodies
- Science: is responsible for supporting the NMOs in setting up scientific activities and organizing ordinary meetings, promotes the operation of working groups on special topics and participates in the production of guidelines and policies describing good practice
National Member Organisations
| Member State | Current National Member Organisation | Founded | EFOMP affiliation | Number of Delegates | Approved national Registration Scheme |
| Albanian Association of Medical Physics | 2019 | 1 | |||
| Austrian Society of Medical Physics | 1980 | 1980 | 2 | Yes | |
| Société Bèlge des Physiciens des Hospitaux Belgische Vereniging Ziekenhuis Fysici | 1980 | 2 | |||
| Association of Medical Physicists in Bosnia and Herzegovina | 2017 | 1 | |||
| Bulgarian Society of Biomedical Physics and Engineering | 1971 | 1983 | 1 | ||
| Croatian Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics Society | 1984 | 1 | |||
| Cyprus Association of Medical Physics and Bio-Medical Engineering | 1988 | 1 | |||
| Czech Association of Medical Physicists | 2004 | 2004 | 2 | ||
| Danish Society for Medical Physics | 1981 | 1980 | 2 | ||
| Estonian Society for Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics | 2003 | 1 | |||
| Finnish Association of Hospital Physicists | 1965 | 1980 | 2 | ||
| Société Française de Physique Médicale | 1972 | 1980 | 3 | Yes | |
| Deutsche Gesellschaft für Medizinische Physik | 1969 | 1980 | 3 | Yes | |
| Hellenic Association of Medical Physicists | 1969 | 1981 | 2 | ||
| Hungarian Society of Medical Physics | 1974 | 1987 | 1 | ||
| Irish Association of Physicists in Medicine | 2010 | 1985 | 2 | ||
| Associazione Italiana di Fisica Medica | 1998 | 1980 | 3 | ||
| Latvian Medical Engineering and Physics Society | 2016 | 1 | |||
| Lithuanian Association of Medical physics and Biomedical Engineering | 2009 | 2012 | 1 | ||
| Malta Association of Medical Physicists | 2007 | 2010 | 1 | ||
| Association of Medical Physicists from the Republic of Moldova | 2016 | 2016 | 1 | ||
| Nederlandse vereniging voor klinische fysica | 1973 | 1980 | 3 | Yes | |
| Association of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering | 2004 | 1 | |||
| Norwegian Association of Medical Physics | 1976 | 1980 | 2 | ||
| Polish Society of Medical Physics | 1965 | 1987 | 2 | ||
| Medical Physics Division of the Portuguese Physics Society | 1985 | 2 | |||
| Romanian College of Medical Physicists | 1991 | 2015 | 1 | ||
| Association of Medical Physicists of Russia | 1993 | 2010 | 1 | ||
| Serbian Association of Medical Physicists | 2012 | 2012 | 1 | ||
| Slovak Society of Physics and Biophysics Slovak Medical Society | 2011 | 1 | |||
| Slovenian Biophysical Society | 2013 | 1 | |||
| Sociedad Espanola de Fisica Medica | 1974 | 1980 | 3 | ||
| Swedish Hospital Physicists Association | 1976 | 1980 | 2 | ||
| Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Strahlenbiologie und Medizinische Physik Société Suisse de Radiobiologie et de Physique Médicale Società Svizzera di Radiobiologia e di Fisica Medica | 1964 | 1980 | 2 | ||
| Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine | 1943 | 1980 | 3 |
The foundation date specifies the constitution of the earliest national organisation of natural scientists or engineers working in a clinical environment which can be considered the predecessor of the NMO. The affiliation dates represent the earliest memberships of the current member nations represented by a society.
European Affairs
Several projects at European level with impact on medical physics matters and legislation have been undertaken.One of the most important was the transposition of the Basic Safety Standards Directive. After the BSS was brought into force in 2014, EFOMP headed a European consortium with the task to merge current scientific, technological and operational knowledge and experience with the consolidation of different directives and recommendations in the field of radiation protection. The objective of this project was to evaluate Member States‘ activities for the transposition and implementation of Council Directive in the medical area. In addition an exchange of initial experiences and resolutions was coordinated in order to identify good practices.
MEDIRAD, is one of the current projects EFOMP is involved in during its preparation phase started by the European Union in 2017 dealing with implications of medical low dose radiation exposure. EFOMP is in the advisory panel of the project and participates in work package six in order to formulate policy recommendations for the effective protection of patients and medical workers and the general public.
Education and Training
The EFOMP School for Medical Physics Experts organizes medical physics education and training events specifically targeted to Medical Physicists who are already Medical Physics Experts or would like to achieve Medical Physics Expert status. Several editions were organised jointly with COCIR driven by the need for a closer cooperation between manufacturers and medical physicists to increase the awareness of features of medical devices related to imaging, radiotherapy and nuclear medicine. In 2019, EFOMP launched an e-learning platform, where pdfs and video recordings of the lectures given during the EFOMP school editions have been made available.The main target of EFOMP is the harmonization of Medical Physics education and training standards throughout Europe. For this purpose, two elements have been implemented:
- NMOs education and training scheme for medical physicists can be validated by the Professional Matters Committee and approved by the EFOMP Board of Officers. The long term aim of the National Registration Scheme is a generally accepted level of expertise, facilitating an exchange of professionals over Europe.
- The European Examination board awards the European Diploma of Medical Physics and the European Attestation Certificate to those Medical Physicists that have reached the Medical Physics Expert level.
Science
Between 1987 and 2014, EFOMP has collaborated with national organisations in holding regular European Conferences of Medical Physics.
1987: Innsbruck, 1990: Oxford, 1993: Tenerife, 1995: Wurzburg, 1996: Trieste, 1999: Patras, 2001: Belfast, 2003: Eindhoven, 2005: Nuremberg, 2007: Pisa; 2008: Krakow, 2009: Munich: 2011: Dublin, 2012: Sofia, 2013: Brighton, 2014: Athens. Every two years since 2016, EFOMP organizes the European Congress of Medical Physics on his own. The first congress took place in Athens and the second one in Copenhagen.The 3rd ECMP will take place in Torino and the 4th in Dublin.
Since 2007, Physica Medica the European Journal of Medical Physics, is the official scientific journal of the organisation. The owner of the journal is the Italian Association of Medical Physics and it is also the official organ of the French, Irish, Czech Republic and Hellenic Societies of Medical Physics. In 2019, EJMP has become official publication of the International Organization for Medical Physics. Every month a volume is published. According to the Institute for Scientific Information the current Impact Factor is 2.532.
There are three other scientific journals that EFOMP is associated with:
- Physiological Measurements owned by the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine
- European Radiology owned by the European Society of Radiology
- Physics in Medicine and Biology owned by IPEM
Co-operation
EFOMP created an international network of relationships with other stakeholders in the field of physical science applied to healthcare.Collaborations:* regional organisation member of the International Organization for Medical Physics
- collaborator with the International Atomic Energy Agency in the field of Radiation Protection for Patients
- shareholder of the European Institute for Biomedical Imaging Research
- representative for medical physics in the organization Heads of European Radiological Protection Competent Authorities
- associate member of the European Foundation for Training and Education in Radiation Protection
- participant in the European Commission Initiative on Breast Cancer
Memoranda of Understanding:
- American Association of Physicists in Medicine
- European Association of Nuclear Medicine
- European Coordination Committee of the Radiological, Electromedical and Healthcare IT Industry
- European Federation of Radiographer Societies
- European Network for Training and Education of Medical Physics Experts
- European Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology
- European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology
- European Society of Radiology
- European Society of Medical Imaging Informatics
- Middle East Federation Of Organizations of Medical Physics
- Multidisciplinary European Low Dose Initiative