I am pleased to announce that the 115th Scientific Meeting of the Japan Society of Medical Physics (JSMP) will be held from Thursday, April 12 to Sunday, April 15, 2018 at PACIFICO Yokohama. This four-day event, organized as a joint congress (JRC2018), will be held in conjunction with the 77th Annual Meeting of the Japan Radiological Society (JRS), the 74th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Radiological Technology (JSRT), and the International Technical Exhibition of Medical Imaging (ITEM).
The main theme of JRC2018 is “Innovative sciences and humanism in Radiology.” By innovation, we mean “the future” as a keyword that will lead us to hopes for a bright future and the development of new medical equipment and technologies. Humanism, on the other hand, refers to “the present,” where we provide reliable medical care with which both patients and medical professionals can feel safe and satisfied. Radiology has been greatly affected by various technological innovations, such as multi-detector helical CT and high magnetic field MR imaging. We expect that the latest developments, particularly in the areas of artificial intelligence, the use of big data, cloud computing and molecular imaging, will further enable human-friendly, or more specifically, patient-friendly, innovative diagnosis and treatment options.
For one of the three symposia planned for JRC2018, JSMP has decided on the theme “Application of Radiomics in radiology and radiation oncology ” to explore one area of innovative science. This symposium will feature a keynote lecture by Prof. Samuel Armato from the University of Chicago, who has been making significant contributions in this field. Prof. Armato, together with distinguished medical physicists from Japan, will discuss the current state and future prospects of radiomics study in radiological communities in Japan and abroad. We have also invited Prof. Massimo Pinto from the National Institute of Ionizing Radiation Metrology in Italy to give us a lecture on the trends related to beam quality correction factors in European countries. Prof. Pinto has been studying the measurement of absorbed dose to water in radiotherapy for a patient-friendly radiological practice, and is involved in the IAEA TRS-398. Furthermore, we invited Prof. Sasa Mutic from the Washington University to give us a keynote lecture about Image registration and Image fusion algorithm. Prof. Sasa Mutic is core member of AAPM TG-132 and has a profound knowledge of clinical practice of the radiation therapy. We invited Prof. Do-Kun Yoon from the Catholic University of Korea to give us a lecture about the deep learning technique in radiation imaging and radiotherapy. He is looked on as the leading authority on the deep learning technique in radiology.
Medical physics has contributed to the discovery of X-rays and their medical applications, and promoted medical advancements. To help make further contributions, our executive committee has been organizing exciting programs to ensure that JRC2018 will provide many scientists, researchers and professionals with the opportunities to actively share information and to find new ideas and inspiration. We look forward to seeing you at JRC2018.
Hiroshi Oguchi (Nagoya University)
President of the 115th Scientific Meeting of the Japan Society of Medical Physics