By Professor Peter Hogg
I was invited to present three papers at the Annual Scientific Meeting of Medical Imaging and Radiation Therapy (ASMMIRT) which was held in Brisbane, Australia, from 21st to 24th April 2016. One paper, the conference keynote, considered controversies in mammography and it drew exclusively on research conducted by the University of Salford and its collaborators.
ASMMIRT was attended by approximately 1000 delegates, these included sonographers, diagnostic radiographers, radiation therapists (therapeutic radiographers) and nuclear medicine technologists. Students had a very high profile as they had their own conference which ran in tandem with the rest of the conference. Australian radiographers have a growing appetite for developing radiography research and opportunities exist to for the Directorate of Radiography in the University of Salford link with some Australian universities to develop projects and bid for grant money.
I have not visited Australia on a professional basis previously so this visit gave me the chance to meet people face to face for the first time. Some I have already published with, others I am currently working on research with. I was fortunate to meet with Dr Ann Poulos; Ann has been a leading international researcher in breast cancer diagnosis for years. I explained to her that she was instrumental in stimulating the research conducted into practitioner compression force variability in mammography which was undertaken in collaboration with the University of Salford. She was thrilled with this news.
I should like to thank the Australian Institute of Radiography (AIR) for funding my flight to and from Brisbane, my conference registration and my hotel whilst in Brisbane. I should also like to thank the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, for funding my flight to Newcastle and hotel accommodation whilst there.
ASMMIRT 2017 will be held in Perth, Western Australia, and information will be available about it on the AIR website (https://www.air.asn.au/). Do consider submitting a proffered paper. The typical flight time from London to Perth is just over 19 hours in the air. Several carriers fly this route and if you shop around you could get a good deal. Perth is about 5 hours by air from Sydney and there is a time difference between them.