Globalism versus Nationalism in Medical Physics

Nowadays we medical physicists are bombarded with guidelines and task reports, and we may see similar ones from different organizations in the United States of America or worldwide. Many extraordinary and diligent medical physicists have devoted their time and knowledge in creating these documents. Yet some of us might be wondering: should we optimize the use of our resources by establishing a global medical physics society? One global medical physics organization may eliminate redundancies and improve cost-effectiveness. However, it may also bring in inefficiency, lack of diversity, or poor environmental adaptation. Our debate topic in this issue is: A global medical physics organization in science, education, professional, and administrative structures will result in greater advancement of the medical physics profession. Arguing for the proposition is Scott Dube. Mr. Scott Dube is a solo medical physicist at Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater, FL. He is also on the faculty of Radiological Technologies University and enjoys teaching aspiring medical physics and medical dosimetry students. Arguing against the proposition is Jeroen van de Kamer. Mr. Jeroen van de Kamer is a medical physicist working at the Netherlands Cancer Institute at the department of radiation oncology. Together with his colleagues, he is involved with linac and patient-specific QA, the clinical use of PET/CT, and the continuous development of the treatment for head and neck cancer. Jeroen is chair of the Netherlands Commission on Radiation Dosimetry, a Dutch–Belgium consortium of scientist aiming to promote the appropriate use of dosimetry of ionizing radiation. He was course director of the 2016 pre-meeting ESTRO course “Multidimensional dosimetry systems.” Jeroen is a member of the advisory board of the Dutch Metrology Institute VSL. 2 | OPENING STATEMENT