NEW DELHI, November 3: India has only 220 medical physicists though it needs 1,500 by the next millennium, according to A.V. Lakshman, director of the Adayar Cancer Institute. Laksman was addressing a press conference here on Tuesday to announce a four-day international conference on medical physics beginning November 6 at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). The theme of the conference is Medical Physics in the Service of Mankind.At present only the Adayar Institute and the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) were generating around 30 medical physics graduates every year, he said. BARC has a diploma course whereas Adayar Institute, a degree course.Addressing a press conference, he said that other medical colleges could easily start a course in medical physics but universities and their physics departments have never been cooperative.Medical physics, a paramedical science, has helped deliver accurate high doses of radiation as per prescription to kill cancer cells. The science ensures safety of healthy parts of the patient's body as well as that of the workers administering the treatment, said Dr Rehani of the Institute Rotary Cancer Hospital. The accuracy of dosage is possible only because of physics, he said.With advanced techniques of radiotherapy like gamma knife, X-knife and linear accelerator, tumours which were totally incurable are now 75 per cent curable, Dr Negi of the Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute said. But shortage of personnel and indigenous equipment were preventing the benefits of medical physics from reaching the patients all over the country, he said.For over a century, X-ray images have been viewed on films. Can technology allow viewing of X-ray images on paper and digital flat panels? This and a host of other issues will be discussed by medical physicists at the conference. The meet is also the 19th conference of the Association of Medical Physicists of India (AMPI), said the head of medical physics unit at AIIMS, M.M. Rehani. Topics to be discussed by the 400 experts participating in the conference include limitations to Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) technology, radioactive implants for prostrate cancer, quality assurance in imaging, risk from low-level radiation, indigenisation of radiodiagnostic equipment and replacing radium by safer radioisotopes.Participants include Roger Clarke, chairman of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) and Steffan Groth, head, Division of Human Health at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a UN body for safe application of radiation.
