Around 100 committee members/delegates from across India attended the NCISRT council meeting with the special guest being the heard of the Atomic Energy Board of India, who govern all aspects of radiation safety. During the day the main problems and challenges of radiation therapy in India were highlighted:
– How to keep up with technology
– No standardisation of education across the country for RT’s. Courses vary from 1 to 4 years with no formal qualification to a degree.
– Content of the courses are very out-dated and need revised
Vertual took part in the inaugural ceremony being invited to light the ceremonial flame to open the meeting and bring light. This was our opportunity to introduce ourselves to the committee attendees and present an introduction to Vertual before the conference started the following day. Most of the delegates and attendees were diagnostic radiographers or oncologists. Many of the radiation therapy courses in India and not run as a sole course, the students are taught in every aspect including diagnostic and nuclear medicine.
The society publish a magazine called ALARA which is sent to around 2000 radiographers across the country. We have agreed to write an article about VERT and computer simulation in healthcare which will be published in their magazine.
During the next 2 days, at the conference, there were around 600 delegates attended the conference. We delivered a presentation on VERT to the delegates and performed live demonstrations on the booth throughout the day. Later this year we are attending another conference in India (AROICON) to continue building relationships and hopefully putting a VERT installation on our map in future.