Medical physics is a branch of physics that studies the physical principles of radiation, both ionizing and non-ionizing, on how medical equipment in hospitals works. This is based on the potential for health problems for patients and hospital workers that could arise due to exposure to ionizing and non-ionizing radiation if the use of medical equipment does not comply with the reference standards set by government regulations. Therefore, this branch of knowledge is the basic competency that radiation workers in hospitals such as Medical Physicists need to have. Medical physicists have the duties and responsibilities of measuring, checking and reporting the condition of medical equipment that uses ionizing and non-ionizing radiation regularly. Apart from that, medical physicists are also responsible for planning the purchase, operation and maintenance of medical equipment.
IndoQCT and IndoseCT software can quantitatively measure the quality of medical images as well as the radiation dose output received by patients when undergoing a CT scan. This software has been used by many researchers in the field of medical physics at home and abroad and has produced dozens of reputable publications indexed by Scopus. Uniquely, this software is the work of the Undip academic community from the Department of Physics which has been patented. The high interest of users of this software makes academic communication carried out by the software creator, Dr. Choirul Anam, with various researchers and students both at home and abroad to discuss the working methods and capabilities of the IndoQCT and IndoseCT software.
In order to support students’ ability to analyze medical image quality using image quality software, the Department of Physics Undip is holding a summer course to attract domestic and foreign students, practitioners and researchers to study IndoQCT and IndoseCT software in a structured and scheduled manner in the form of non-degree academic activities such as summer course. The 2024 Summer Course in Medical Physics activities with theme of “IndoQCT and IndoseCT for CT Image Quality and Dosimetry Measurements”. This activity was held in a hybrid manner for seven days from 22 – 30 July 2024 at the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Mathematics, Diponegoro University. Every day, lecture sessions are given for 100 minutes twice, giving a total lecture time of 1400 minutes. This activity was successfully carried out in a hybrid manner, therefore, foreign participants took part in the event using the ZOOM application, while domestic participants took part in the event directly at the Undip Physics Department, or using the ZOOM application. The lecture session contains theory and techniques for CT Scan image processing as well as dose measurement techniques through CT Scan acquisition data. All lecture material is contained in the Summer Course Handout which is given in hardfile to students who take lectures offline, and in softfile to participants who take lectures online.
In this summer course, three speakers from Diponegoro University and three speakers from Foreign Universities delivered a total of 14 materials, namely:
Dr. Choirul Anam, Diponegoro University, Indonesia
Dr. Pandji Triadyaksa, Diponegoro University, Indonesia
Prof. Dr. Wahyu Setia Budi, MS, Diponegoro University, Indonesia
Dr. Noor Diyana Osman, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia
Dr. Mustapha Alhaji Barde, Bayero University Kano, Nigeria
Dr. Muhammad Kabir Abdulkadir, University of Ilorin, Nigeria
Participants involved in this activity consisted of 35 foreign students from 21 foreign universities, namely:
Al-Quds University, Palestine
Bahuddin Zakariya University Multan, Pakistan
Brainware University, India
Covenant University, Nigeria
Federal Urdu University of Arts, Sciences & Technology, Pakistan
Hazara University Mansehra, Pakistan
International Islamic University Islamabad, Pakistan
Karachi university, Pakistan
King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia
NED University of Engineering and Technology, Pakistan
Quaid-I-Azam University Islamabad, Pakistan
Tehran University of Medical Science, Iran
The Government Sadiq College Women University Bahawalpur, Pakistan
Tribhuvan University, Nepal
Université Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah, Morocco
Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia
Tunku Abdul Rahman University, Malaysia
University of Bologna, Italy
University of Chittagong, Bangladesh
University of Ilorin Nigeria
University of Karachi, Pakistan
Apart from international students, this summer course was also attended by 103 students from 19 universities in Indonesia, as well as medical physics practitioners and academics from within the country (51 participants) and abroad (34 participants). Of the 103 Indonesian students who participated, 26 students attended lectures offline at the Physics Department of Diponegoro University. This activity will continue in 2025 to increase the number of foreign students in the Physics Department, Faculty of Science and Mathematics, Diponegoro University.