Scientific Forum2026 Technical Session 3 - Establishing sustainability of cancer care

All righty. Thanks everybody. Welcome back. Let's take our seats and get the final session of the day underway. Thank you for bearing with us. And I'm really impressed to still see so many people in the room um even as we're getting close to to the day. But I think it's testament to the interest that we have um in this year scientific forum for very obvious reasons. Um so as with the um the previous session this is also going to be a similar sort of setup the Davos style um panel that we'll do up front here but um the IAEA rays of hope and centers is where we're putting the emphasis now these are designed to play an important role um in serving regional hubs for training for knowledge exchange uh for research capacity building as well and Um again I'm going to ask my panelists here to just say a short introduction which will be accompanied by a slide um very short introduction like the others did in the previous panel uh and then of course we'll get to the questions that have been prepared for you. So I'll start now with Mr. Hberto Romano who's a medical physicist at the intentness senior in Argentina. Okay, >> thank you very much for the introduction. Good afternoon. I'm honored to be here. Thank you for your presence. Um, my name is Ombberto Romano and I am a clinical medical physicist with CNA is the Argentinian National Atomic Energy Commission and I carry out my work at Fund Fund Integr. If I had to define a medical physicist in one word, I will choose optimization. That means better results with less harm. No. And every dose, every radiation dose is a balance. No. Um enough to seal the tumor or to destroy it, but never more than patient needs. And finding that balance is our work. We are not at the bedside. Maybe the patient never sees us, but we are behind the quality of every image and every treatment. As you can see, Argentina's uncon centered it's it is not a single institution. It's a network. It's a CNA working through a network of institutes and clinical center across the country. So it is very important because that network race of hope is very important for us because that network it is not automatic. It is not work on its own. Race of hope give us a common purpose and keep us moving in the same direction. Thank you. >> Thank you very much Mr. Romano. And now Mr. Jamal Kada, radiation oncologist at King Hussein Cancer Center in Jordan. Uh thank you so much. Good afternoon everyone. Um I'm Dr. Jamal Khadar radishologist from King Hosin Cancer Center in Aman Jordan. I'm also the chairman of KCC Academy for training and education. I've been honored to be an experts at IEA for many missions u outside Jordan. Uh we are really um uh privileged to be from the first batch of countries that have been selected to be an anchor center that uh we signed an agreement in 2023 and um we are looking really forward to increase our and expand actually our scientific collaboration with the IIA uh King Hussein Castle Center is considered to be one of the uh main pillars of uh cancer treatment and research in the region. Um we do have a lot of collaborative agreements not only from countries within the region but also outside in East Europe and Far East and also we um not only provide the capacity building but also we have a common research activities with many cancer centers uh uh around Jordan. Um um we are looking forward as an anchor center really to expand this collaboration with other countries as well. Thank you. >> Thank you. And next is Miss Common Margarita Hernandez Cardinius. She's director general of the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases in Mexico. Thank you. Thanks to the agency for your kind invitation. I am Carmen Hernandez and I am the general director of the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases in Mexico. I am representing the Ministry of Health from Mexico. The INCAN is the National Institute of Cancerology in my country. One of the most important and large cancer centers in Latin America. INCAN is a reference center who support treatment, terraiagnostics, diagnosis, radiotherapy research, training and radioarmaceuticals production for all the country and beyond. Currently we are being considered as a anchor center race of hope. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. And next is Mr. Mike Sate, head of nuclear medicine at the Steve Bo academic hospital in South Africa. >> Thank you so kindly. Um I'm a nuclear physician and also the CEO of a nuclear medicine research infrastructure which is the anchor center in South Africa. The uniqueness of this anchor center and for the raise of hope is that it has got partnership with nexa with itmber labs with Steve Bo and invest pritoria and therefore it gives access to the ministries of energy health education science and technology and therefore it's again also one of those leading ones in acceptation medicine in nutrition care. Thanks. >> Thank you. And next is Mr. Krishnat Chamsumaki, head or or medical physicist at the Ramatibodi. This is an IAA anchor center in Thailand. >> Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Uh my name is Katacham Samaki uh from Ramatipidi IA anchor center in Bangkok, Thailand. So at RATPD our journey with the IIA had uh receiving from the IIA support to the national training court on the quatnam and then we develop our national capacity uh implement the quatnam implementation uh develop uh the Thai auditor with multi-disiplinary quality culture. uh as the anchor center in Thailand uh we uh share the regional impact uh by working on three area uh building the quality building people and building the network and I do believe that the anchor center multiply the impact when they help country build the system that can support other thank you >> thank you Miss Sarah K is next professor in radiation oncology at the university in Turkey >> hi Hi. Uh good afternoon everybody. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm so proud of to be here also. I'm a radiation oncologist from EA University. Uh this is the first anchor center in the European and Central Asia area and we are involved lot of regional and intern regional cancer care network to re to achieve better access and better care for the cancer treatment. And we also joined educational and training activities under the umbrella of Anchor Center raise of hope projects. And uh our pri priority is uh um join include quality and innovation pillars also and our regional collaboration and also inter regional and international collaboration are essential for to improve cancer care in the whole world. and we we are so proud to be a part of this in projects and this is what I'm saying. I'm so happy to be here again. >> Well, thank you Miss Karma. And next is Miss Aldi Janna Osma Naji, head of business development and growth strategy at Electa. >> Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and thank you again for the invitation. Uh as mentioned I'm Alana and I'm representing ELA here today. As you know, Electa is the global radiation oncology and radio surgery solution provider. And in fact, we were the first private sector uh partner that joined a race of hope initiative quite exactly three years ago when we had the honor to host DJ Graciia at our headquarters in in Stockholm. Um and for us this was uh quite a natural I would say decision at the at the time where we had something we called strategy access 2025 which was aiming for to reach um more even more patients with our solutions. And for the past three years we have been focusing on all I would say the essential elements that need to be in place uh in building in closing this gap that we've heard of so many times today. As you can see here in the pictures, we've focused on collaborated with the agency on building awareness in different forums, organizing events and well supporting each other in in every forum we can to to raise more attention to radiotherapy. We've also supported particularly uh anchor centers both um in terms of um technology uh but also with our uh application specialist training which indirectly of course um had synergies with with the trainings that anchor centers provided. In this case we started in Morocco ENO in Morocco. We also collaborated on expanding with technology. Uh as you could see in the beautiful video this morning in Malawi. Um we were honored to be part of this journey in establishing the first uh center. Um and I really want to thank everyone who were involved and again here we don't only act as a technology provider as you can imagine working on this project being the first in the country a lot of different technical expertise knowledge transfer is is needed and and we were uh honored to to be there with our feet and hands on the ground and and support from all um all parts of our organization together with the agency and of course the the uh hospital And last but not least, we also supported the agency particularly in strengthening quality um in their symmetry laboratories. So quality research um at the laboratories in cyber outside of Vienna. So three years have passed very fast and we look forward to to continue this journey. >> Thank you. And last but not least, Mr. Ben Newton, global head of oncology at GE Healthcare. Well, good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and firstly thank you very much for the invitation uh to speak today uh to the IAEA and Director General Graci but most of all thank you uh to the IAA for inviting us to take part in the raise of hope uh campaign three years ago. It's been our um privilege uh to serve and to support uh the raise of hope campaign and the establishment of the 20 anchor centers. My role at G Healthcare is to uh develop solutions and services that will support cancer care entirely across the continuum. And we've been able to use some of this capability and use a lot of the expertise at G Healthcare to support the anchor center growth and the development of the raise of hope campaign in three key ways. Firstly, we've been able to support the building of a confident workforce. We've learned a lot of lessons over the last three years that equipment and technology and putting those things into countries to support cancer care is simply not enough. We support the sustained delivery of skills and the buildup of expertise for technologists who can service the equipment, can use equipment confidently and to build the capability for a scalable and sustained cancer care delivery. Secondly, across the network, we've been able to uh support knowledge sharing, building best practice, creating fellowship programs for technologists to get trained in state-of-the-art equipment, therapy guidance equipment to deliver uh the therapy where it's needed most to the seat of the cancer and not to the organs that are at risk. That knowledge sharing is critical because it allows the scalability and the ability for us to scale from 20 centers to maybe 40 to 100 and 200. And this is what is going to deliver um cancer care in the future. And finally, as I mentioned, it's not about just putting uh equipment and software into centers. It's about sustained partnership. Cancer care is all about multi multidisciplinary care and so is the journey that we're on to deliver a multi- vendor multi-disciplinary multi- partner support network and it's only through collaboration and partnership will we actually deliver sustainable cancer care worldwide. So it's a privilege to join and thank you very much for the invitation again. >> Thank you. Um so again continuing our discussion on establishing sustainability of cancer care through anchor centers and perhaps let's begin uh with you Miss um Hernandez Cardinius um the role of anchor centers that can be played in extending expertise beyond its own institution. Now in incan in the ministry of health is widely recognized for its long-standing contribution to cancer care in Central America. How will becoming an IAEA raise of hope anchor center uh enhance its ability to serve as a regional hub of expertise, training and innovation in radiation medicine? >> Thanks for your question. Um first of all I will say that contribution of the INCAN has been mainly in a national level until now but we have been training a lot of physician and specialist in all medicine from all the nations of Latin America. Becoming a race of hope anchor center would allow incan to build on its experience in cancer care and radiation medicine and extend its impact and share with other nations its capacities as an anchor center. Incan could be recognized a regional hub supporting countries where access to quality radiation medicine remains liite limited. We could offer practical training, share clinical and quality practices and facilitate professional networks that are missing across the region. Race of hope is not about technology or getting infrastructure. It's about making community. It's about becoming sustainable in radiation medicine, providing safe, effective, and accesses accessible cancer care. In order to do that, we need to be communicated and working together. Incan can contribute to this sharing its experience being one of the largest cancer centers in Latin America and having a widely recognized quality program radiation in radiation medicine. Becoming an anchor center would allow incan to multiply its impact and contribute to reducing disparities in cancer care. Thank you. Thank you very much, Professor Sate, turning to you. Um, and in South Africa and it having the potential for strong national expertise to support neighboring countries, um, South Africa's developed um, an expertise in nuclear medicine uh, in molecular imaging as well as in theostics. So, how can South Africa through uh, new merry support neighboring countries in building sustainable cancer care capacity? >> Thanks, J. I mean as you would see that the numeri has got in one platform basic uh translational research unit preclinical imaging facility radio um medical physics and radiobiology and of course the clinical interronostic. So what that says is that of course we offer to our neighbors the potential to understand the biology very well and then to then be able to select the patients very well and to treat them and then of course follow them up well and in that uh uh we also are saying that as an alpha leading site globally we we we also offer them the situation to can see that indeed the dose is just physics >> but the response is biology. So and and and of course those units enables you to actually take through the disease process and it just it's not a project, it's a platform that they create. And then of course it also makes them to have hands-on like patient interaction when they're at our unit which is important both labeling the the doymmetry and as well as see the patients. So they don't just observe but they do it themselves but it offers them the opportunity to also can start their units when they go home because they do short and long-term training with us and of course that enables them to obviously be able to have units that will in turn work with us and that will then make us to do multiple clinical trials together with them. So this uh unit therefore it's an important one to have three values. the policy value, >> the clinical value and the global health value with a policy value it means that I mean we creating evidence together with them and not only in South Africa and that's important and data sharing becomes an important thing data is really the infrastructure in itself and then we can create this and then of course the clinical values that we have to redefine how we select our patients it's not the same for various regions depending on the pattern of the diseases and then of course the global health value becomes the issue of that as as a world we've got to have Africanled innovation contributing to to to healthcare. >> Thank you, Professor Sate. Um and maybe coming to you uh Mr. Chumaki. Quality is also another essential part of sustainability and Thailand uh provides a particularly interesting example um in terms of moving from international support uh to developing national capacity. Now at the Rambori hospital uh you've moved from being a recipient of IAEA um comprehensive clinical audits to supporting the implementation of IAEA style audits on a national level. Um how has the hospital implemented uh these clinical quality audits such as quantum to strengthen nuclear medicine services in Thailand and how can this model be expanded into a sustainable regional initiative so outside of Thailand? >> Thank you for the question. uh when we first implement the quatnam our goal is is not only the audit so we want to build a quality framework for the country so uh in the past decade uh the quatnam implement in Thailand was only in the university bed hospital uh but for the current project uh we plan to implement it in the regional cancer hospital uh we start the project with the national training course uh with multi-disiplinary team uh because like the quality ity work cannot die alone. So we need a team and then uh we developed the TAI auditor and the TAI auditor is uh developed from the observe of the international experts support by the IAA and I think as the anchor center uh we can expand this model to the regional impact and we can use the same model for the other uh quality audits of the IA like the quad deal uh for diagnostic and for the quadto for radiotherapy as well. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Coming to you Mr. Romano. Uh let's turn to the workforce um and particularly the role of um medical physics training. Uh SAI through its institutes has been involved in the education and training of medical physicists. Now this has been happening for the last few decades. Drawing on this experience, what do you think is the role of anchor centers in supporting countries and regions in medical physics training? Thank you. Um the CNA as an anon center um brings above all training brings people. Um for two decades we have trained medical physic physicists and now under race of hope umbrella we formalized the clinical training with IAA fellows from different countries of our region. And uh we have a problem and I would like to share it with you because that explained the role of the anchor center. It's that training a medical physicist needs two things. The first one is the academic education and uh different countries of our region can provide that for example the master in medical physics. The second is the supervised clinical training in a real hospital with real patients. And that's the bottleneck. That's what CNA can provide to the region through our new career um the specialization in in clinical medical physics. Today we have uh 10 graduates from our career and five of them from different countries of our region and uh we need to move forward increasing the number of cups of sites clinical centers for the residencies because five I think it is not too we need to do more so that's one um the role of the anchors center anchor centers give us a common purpose to our network to keep moving forward with in that goal. Thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Romano. Uh Dr. Kadu uh King Hussein a cancer center has already accumulated valuable experience as a raise of hope anchor center. Um and perhaps let's talk about what this really means in practice. So you were designated an IAEA razor of hope center in 2023. >> That's right. >> And um since then you've contributed to many human resource training in in the region. And can you maybe highlight some of your efforts, how you see the tangible impact on your capacity building efforts and how your institution can further support countries in developing sustainable radiation medicine workforce. >> Yeah, thank you so much. uh as I mentioned earlier actually our scientific relationship with the IA uh you know it goes for many many years but really that was uh intensified for last three years after being an anchor center. Uh so um uh for last few years we have trained more than uh 220 healthcare providers from different countries indeed but just to mention after signing the u the agreement with the IE as a collaborative center or anchor center we have a trained uh uh 50 healthcare providers from eight uh different countries from Libya from Yemen from Palestine from Indonesia from Bangladesh and uh from Syria. from uh and beside others. So it's not the only regional now it's becoming like international hub for training and beside the other training we have also trained people from 27 countries as we signed so many agreements with different countries in east far east and some of the uh uh eastern uh Europe like in Ukraine, Romania and other countries which we really we help them in developing uh their medical uh teams which is very important especially when you have a new machines and new technology it's very risky you need really highly skilled people uh uh uh to run these uh machines and to practice the modern uh radiotherapy when I talk about the uh training I'm talking about radiation oncology the for medical physics for radiation oncologist for the RTS for radiation uh protection officers and also for nuclear medicine we have very active also uh uh training program we have a trained so many either the short training which one to three months or even the residency program the four years and would like really to thank IA for supporting so many trainees the full four years uh um the residency program nuclear medicine radiation oncology and also the two years also now we started the uh the um uh uh what we call the uh clinical uh residency program in medical physics so and And we also now started with the nutrition uh division here at the IIA uh being involved in some of the uh clinical trials. So we're looking forward uh really to expand this uh collaboration not only the training but also the mentorship which is really very important and to establish also to help some countries to establish from scratch their cancer centers and radiotherapy nuclear medicine like what we did with Palestine in which there was no single till a year ago no single radiotherapy facility in West Bank and Gaza Strip and cancer patients almost 6,000 patients they have to some of them uh I mean 50 persons of them they have to travel to uh Jerusalem for the uh one hospital there uh Victoria goes to the hospital for radiotherapy. So now they have two, one in Ramla and one in Unablas. And we had really uh um the the uh pleasure to help them from scratch from the design of the uh of the departments from the training from staffing uh from uh uh you know providing them with the uh the protocols and also mentorship. So um we are looking now to expand this with the research as well and I think we'll talk about it later on. Thank you. >> Thank you Dr. Kader um professor come um let's turn specifically to childhood cancer um at Ed University has emerged as a recognized leader in pediatric radiation oncology from your perspective why is investing in the fight against childhood cancer an important global health priority and what lessons from EGA University's experience could help accelerate progress in other regions >> thank you for the Investing in childhood cancer is vital for global health. Actually, every child deserves a fair chance to survive cancer, no matter where they were born. Sadly, this is not in case today. Most children with cancer live in low and middle inome countries right now and they often have difficulty to access diagnosis and treatment and which leads to lower survival rates. However, many children can be cured with the timely and high quality treatment. Investing in childhood cancer not only serves saves lives now but also gives them to chance to grow, learn and contribute their communities in the future. At EG University we learned that technology alone does not create lasting cancer care. people, teamwork and knowledge are the key elements. We have learned some uh lessons during after the raise of hope project. I'm going to share with you the first we need to train health care professional and built strong teams in the local areas to provide high high quality care. Second, we should create networks rather than the isolated uh isolated centers. A strong center should only not treated your their uh patients but also share knowledge, offer education and help nearby uh centers improve. Third, partnerships are essential. Our work with the IAA through the raise of rays of hope initiate shows how global collaboration cannot connect knowledge, education and technology to where they are needed most. The most important lesson we can share in this instead of the making every center like the ego university, we should help each region create its their its own effective model of care. In the end, we should measure the success of an anchor center by how many centers it helps improve and how many more children get the chance to survive cancer care, not just the number of the patients treated. Thank you. >> Thank you. That's a very good point. Um and to you um Miss Otsma. So we've heard about the role of institution and and um expertise. I would now like to bring your voice in as an industry stakeholder. Um so Electa has demonstrated its commitment to the sustainability of cancer care through its support for Anka centers including a generous donation of training equipment. So how does Alexa envision its role in supporting and advancing the IAEA raise of hope and centers going forward? >> Thank you for the question. So as I mentioned in in my previous remarks, yes, we were first one out uh into this collaboration. So we tested the ground a bit you could say and started with collaborating on one can anchor center where we both contributed to with our solutions. So equipment and and and software but also knowledge transfer not the least. Um and this was uh one first um step and we are willing to explore more. We believe that um like it was mentioned before that building the capacity needs to happen locally. So we would like to uh elaborate together with the anchor centers how can we strengthen their capacities even further not only as a technology provider but truly as a knowledge partner because we believe in uh long-term partnership and sustainable cancer care and we think that this is the the first step to go. Secondly, it's been mentioned before that as the anchor center community is growing of course we want to establish it as a as a fun functioning network in everything that what what that means. So we would like to also explore how can we as industry partners support you as a network with different software solutions, equipment again knowledge transfer from other experiences that we have globally uh to both collaborate better but perhaps even to uh explore new ways of of delivering the treatment and pooling resources etc. all falling back to the gaps that we see in workforce uh and the long um increasing patient that are waiting. And last but not least, one um besides the capacity building, one one important part of the anchor centers is as well research. So uh the anchor centers as research light houses and slowly um elaborating also on how can we support with that tapping into our global community of different research uh consortia again not only technology but also that implementation or or translation of technology uh into practical care that again will save more lives and and expand on that access. So more both an answer but also a question or maybe an invite to to allow us as industry partners that are part of this whole community to to maybe have a next joint dialogue and and explore more on what would you need from us and how could we uh find those synergies together. >> Thank you Osmanagic. Um Mr. Newton just coming over to you um staying with with the voice of industry. So education and training are obviously fundamental to ensuring that technology translates into sustainable services. And can you tell us about how GE healthcare envisions supporting education and training under the raise of hope initiative including through the anchor centers um to strengthen regional expertise and obviously to improve access to cancer care? >> Um thank you for the question. Um we've learned a lot uh as I mentioned earlier over the last uh three years or so in terms of what's important from a partner and as an industry partner our role is as I said not just to provide technology but also the the skills and training to operate that technology and also to uh learn uh the continual advancements that are taking place in that technology the hardware the software workflow solutions but also cancer itself. Now, unfortunately, one in two of us may be affected by cancer in our lifetimes. And that's important because we want to turn cancer into something that is treatable and eventually curable. And to do that, education and the sustainment of our involvement and being strong partners to the anchor centers and the IIA is is is critical. Now in that journey um as cancers become um more complex um and the treatments become more complex and in fact some of the processes involved in the delivery of care become more complex. I think as a provider of solutions, it's our role to simplify the operation of that technology to simplify the workflow to provide software solutions that will be easy to maintain and easy to calibrate and easy to operate. And really that's our role. We want to remove technology as a barrier to cancer care. And I think if we can do that based on the learnings that we have and based on the strong partnerships that we have with many on this panel and of course many in the audience here, we think that our goal of eliminating cancer is achievable. But it's only through partnership and through sustained um partnership and commitment to the delivery of care will we actually do this. And really that's our goal over the next few years. >> Yeah. Thank you. I want to open the floor now for any questions we might have in the room before we proceed to a second round of questions. So, anybody with a question for any one of our panelists? I see one hand. I see. Is that a hand? Oh, you're pointing to the hand. Okay. Right. Okay. Let's take it and then we'll come around and do >> I I'm happy to not be the only person asking questions but I perhaps I don't have a healthy amount of shame so I will ask more questions. Yes. Um so I'm I'm happy to hear more about like the the technology and how it's being disseminated and the indust the role of industry and getting involved. Um I want to ask point my question more directly to the representative of Jordan. I will be in Jordan in uh January if um all goes well. Inshallah. >> Good to >> uh so I hope we can I can grab you for five minutes afterwards and we can talk about the the role of medical technology and setting up more partnerships. So I'm um I'm involved with some fusion activities there through the American University of Beirut and the Arab fusion energy initiative. There's a lot of spillout technology from fusion uh into medicine. Um Iran at their side event uh earlier today showed about plasma healing technology that they've been applying to different wounds. And then there's of course the medical isotopes and magnets applied to radiation and nuclear sources for cancer treatment. So I'd be very interested in talking about that and how that could connect to other activities already ongoing in the region. Thank you. Uh sure. Um uh first of all most welcome in Jordan. So um surely we'll meet there during your visit. I'll just uh give you my contact and then uh we'll be in touch. So actually in Jordan or uh at King Hussein Cass luckily we have the latest technology and also we do have uh the uh the skilled personnel because from day one we realize that it's not only enough to buy a machine but also parallel to that really to invest in the training of the staff that will run that machine. That's why uh we had so many uh uh proudly saying um collaborative agreements uh with especially with Princess Margaret Hospital. Dr. Mary is here. She was the dynamo behind actually this collaboration where we used to work and we use also to invest a lot on the training whether it's a short or the longer training and uh so this is always the message that we pass it to the other cancer cancer center in general not only anchor centers that you may build a nice uh hospital and buy a machines but really you neglect to invest in the training of the staff. So really um the always the message that you there should be a budget for that. There should be a plan strategic plan how to build your medical team because wherever you go especially in NMICS you hear about the severe shortage in the healthcare to providers and the solutions are there but the they should uh start with the actions to implement also and to learn from others like in King Hussein cancer center being an MIC country being a poor country but how we c we could uh reach to that level of international level of having that cancer center. So um uh so really the uh capacity building and building staff is very important. >> Thank you Dr. Kader. Any other questions or Oh okay more questions over >> uh I have a question for the uh industry representatives. So uh most of the encore centers are from uh low and middle inome countries and they are in developed centers in those countries and these centers they know what they want what kind of equipment is they need and so uh do you think this may be a good platform for industry to work together with anor centers to develop uh let's say most suitable equipment according to needs of the low and middle income countries that's most of the countries in the world So then uh to develop cheaper easy to maintain according to machines equipment uh produced according to needs uh of the of the let's say most of the most of the world. >> It's a fantastic sorry if I can jump. It's a it's a fantastic question and I think um it gets to the heart of of the point I was trying to make in terms of uh simplifying workflows. Um, learning is something that we're going to be doing over today and and the next few days from the regions and from from centers about the the growth of cancer, the development of cancer, the local needs. And it's really applying those needs and how those needs can drive innovation in the workflow or in the hardware and applying those so that they particularly solve the needs the cancer needs locally is going to be critical. So that's something which we do um all the time. It's no good um taking a solution perhaps that works in the US and applying it to Loto or to Southeast Asia or the Philippines. You've really got to understand exactly what the local needs are and then adapt or configure software or capabilities to make sure it's going to deliver for the patients and the caregivers in those regions. And I think that gets to the heart of what partnership is really about and it also gets to the heart of driving improvements in outcomes in those regions. So that really the essence I would say of what we need to do as uh I think industry partners and I know it's something that my colleague at elector really believes. >> Yes, thank you for the question. And I completely agree and this is why we're also part of this community hoping also that we can come to the table at an early stage and really be seen as that knowledge partner for discussion to be able to co-create, co-develop, adapt, configurate. Um, and we have done that in a couple of different already examples that I'm happy to share with you more about. Uh, but really we're welcoming that idea and and please let's come together. um to find the right forum and and to start uh applying uh that in say one or two test test beds. Thank you. We had another question. Uh yes ma'am. Well, first of all, I want to thank all of the anchor centers and representatives that we have here in the table because it's been thanks to their efforts and their support to the agency initiative that we have managed to multiply the effect of all the education and training activities that we have uh been doing for many years. Erh, additionally to this, I would like to ask a question to Dr. Sarah. H she has been working with us very closely as as we you have already seen and based on the experience that we recently had in our inter regional workshop in um Brazil. What would you exper uh what would you recommend as an anchor center representative er regarding the networking and and moving forward from on not only the regional but a more comprehensive approach? Thank you >> and thank you for the this question. Yeah. Uh it was the first inter regional workshop that I've joined. Uh it was fantastic uh collabor there were collaboration center and we face with the different countries different uh we face with the different regions also further than our our local areas. Uh it improves our knowledge and we it open to mind a new needs and what we needs to increase improve for the future. Uh I think we really need some more inter regional uh more international uh workshops to improve radiotherapy especially for the pediatric radiotherapy because as I mentioned during my answer all the most of the children with the cancer is coming from the low and middle inome countries from from our regions actually and sharing our knowledge and our expertise will improve improve the success of the treatment especially for the radiotherapy and also using with the better radiation medicine applications medical we need some uh medical physicists uh quality assurance program especially for the pediatric cases and also we need to improve some skilled guidelines for the how do we use diagnostic and nuclear medicine with the cancer care for the can pediatric cases. We also must be go one step further to improve the the other radiation uh disciplinary to the rad uh uh cancer care for the pediatric cases. >> Any more questions? >> Yes, I um just a quick question. I think one of the things that's very unique about this group, we have leaders in in in all these different anchor centers. We've had really exciting experiences in terms of your support and and the movement forward. But the uniqueness is also the anchor center network that we have and we have joint training. We have uh a lot of discussions that are happening, best practices, all of these things. And I was wondering this is open to anyone who'd like to answer or more than one is how do you see this in terms of the value that it brings because there's one thing about each anchor center but this network that we've created together I think has has really pushed everything forward in a much in a much deeper and and faster way and uh and I've heard some of the discussions you've had on research on quality assurance and other things best practices that may not be um finding solutions in spite of sometimes resource resource constraints. So it's really a very unique opportunity. So in your experience what have you how have you felt about it and did you feel that it has really changed things on the ground for you and um including from the CRPS that we're doing from the educational initiatives and discussions if if you'd like to answer that that would be very helpful. >> Thank you. Well uh thank you Dr. May for this really very excellent uh question. Yes, we do feel as an anchor center the impact uh for the last three years uh being an anchor centers by the uh the ways that now we do with uh uh as an anchor centers and with other anchor centers as well as an anchor centers by identifying some experts from these anchor centers to go outside some missions uh whether uh quattro missions whether courses or whether uh some workshops really and that's uh that was very helpful uh for the faculty on and also for the participants of the workshop with the networking which is after these scientific events which is very important sometimes just the second opinions or um thinking together in some joint work or research work. So this is really very helpful. Now um uh I give you another example also. We had the pleasure really to help Syria for example where the IA thankfully they provided them with bracket therapy and you know the situation the conflict in in Syria. Uh so um really there was a bad need to train them and also to provide some management protocols for them and mentorship you know. So, and here comes the the the the really the idea of having uh King Hosen cast center and anchor center to go there and to um u to do the calibrations of the machines and to help also in providing the management of protocols and the mentorship and our staff were there uh just to treat to to start the treatment of the first uh uh the first uh uh patients there and later on also virtually. And before that they were also trained at King Cancer Center for 3 months all the bracket therapy uh team. So really really expanding and especially uh you know um going from one step to another step not having a good bracket therapy uh you know setup to have now really a good setup there with some mentorship and with support that will build confidence to them. research. We had like last year an a series of lecture for research led by the IE and the the help of the MD Anderson, our colleagues at the MD Anderson and two hours ago we had a meeting with the group of anchor centers with the IIA and the uh the MD Anderson how to go forward in the research within the anchor centers. So I I think I'm very optimistic and really we thank uh um on behalf of the anchor centers the IA for this great idea of the anchor centers and hopefully there are many other ways that we can collaborate together in the future. >> Thank you. Would anybody else like to tackle that from up front before I professor Sate? >> I think it's very important that we continue with this because that's going to be critical for the SOPs that are going to be shared amongst us. The best practices will come by but importantly as uh many of the anchor centers are from the LMIC's. This gives an opportunity for the industry to also identify additional sites for PIs to be in those centers and then of course with the research methodologies that have been done and this consolidates this. I think uh then it would also make the industry to walk the talk right and not because they will have seen and experienced what is happen. So this is very valuable but it will also bring back the sunrise that we must still implement the sharing of data. Sharing of data is seriously going to be an important aspect and the anchor centers will do this much more better. >> Okay. Thank you. And there was a question from the gentleman. >> Hello. Good evening. Thank you so much um for uh the session and the opinions and the expertise that was provided so far. My name is Abdman Abhir. I'm Somalia's national leazison officer and Somalia is a new member of the international atomic agency uh since 2024 and this is the first time Somalia participates at the general conference uh so we're very glad uh to participate my question is uh more of a strategic question um as Somalia now goes towards u uh individual capacity building and so on we're wondering how uh and if there is a pathway at the agency for countries like Somalia that are at an early stage to take advantage of anchor centers and uh at what stage should Somalia perhaps start to engage uh with this anchor centers and and so on. Thank you very much. >> Yes, I agree with you. And um I think that um technology by itself doesn't cure cancer people do and we are as an uncon center we can make a very big contribution with the training of the people who is going to put that machines that technology to work and uh I think we have to streng strengthen our network to have the capability to train more in less time Because you can if you have the budget you can buy the technology the equipment immediately you have to install it anchor centers you need a structure you need to be predictable about the training of the people who are going to work there because if you're going to make the inversion you know that you need two years for example for to build a radiotherapy center so the anchor center ha has to provide the professionals for that work. And with a structure, you can plant that and you don't want you don't have to wait until you have the professionals. You can plan it since the beginning. >> Well, if >> yes, please. you would appreciate. >> From my experience actually um the best thing that you can do as an advice to Somalia is really to have a twinning program with a leading cancer center in the region or even beyond. uh really to come and to evaluate what the status that you have now in the cancer cancer facilities the uh professionals and also all aspects related to cancer treatment and they can help you in putting the plan how to improve and then you can seek support from the IEA from uh your from different WH there are many but there should be a plan for you where you are and where you want to be in the coming few years that's to me This is really uh you know my advice to you. >> Okay, I have another question on the floor that end of the room. >> Thank you very much. Uh I just want to recognize and appreciate all the uh beautiful insights from the various uh experts uh and I was of course very much interested uh from the comments from New because I visited uh the center this year which I appreciate. uh but mine is more of a comment uh than a question but people can still respond to it. uh one of the challenges uh that sometimes are faced uh within the various regions and uh this is also true you know from the Afro region is sometimes when you're processing candidates uh to go to another center uh you have these bottlenecks that are associated with uh movement and registration uh in in a foreign country and sometimes we've seen situations where it has taken even a year you know to process an application. My name is Leo Masamba from Malawi and we have uh processed several candidates uh that have trained in several countries but uh we have faced sometimes serious challenges just to process a single candidate uh because of the red tape associated with various countries. So my comment would be when we are thinking of you know anchor centers we need to have streamline processes how candidates from different countries not from the doicile country can be processed because such a duration of processing and the tedious you know bottlenecks can also be a hindrance. Thank you. >> Thank you for that comment. Does somebody want to speak to that? It was a comment not necessarily a question but um Oh yes yes >> I have a comment about your situation after the >> Yeah yeah yeah I um >> after the three years to be an anchor center what we have learned that every health care system their own problems actually some needs education some needs training some needs better equipment or some needs uh uh organization and equality and we believe that it the first step is to listen and understand and after that we can work together to find the better solution. This is this must be the first step to start as an anchor center. >> Thank you Miss Sarah. I see another hand that side of the room. >> Okay. >> My question is specifically for Professor Te. Professor Te. Um when we send students to come and train for long-term fellowships, I do think people do not understand that these are people in their 30s with family at home, small children, and they sacrifice a lot to come to an anchor center to train. and when they go back to their home country, staff retention in their home countries are not necessarily very good. Do you have any idea how we can address people returning to their country actually having a work? Thank you so kindly for that question and I think when we do the training especially the long-term first we must maybe as the IAA and us try and see that can we do a hybrid training can we accredited those places like if say a radiographer or a physician comes can they spend some of their time in their hometown and not the entire four years at Numera for instance that would also help and that also gives the confidence that you are also not patronizing the other centers. But it also says those centers in future can train for themselves. Of course, it depends on the status of those centers. But of course then as we do it, we have to ensure that we continually engage the educators before they even comes that they must receive them. And then of course there has to be >> we've got to utilize AMO. Amova is a a a health professional body for instance in the region to say that if people have been to a certain place they must recognize those disciplines and therefore then there must be protection discipline time for them to practice in that field and then take it further that would perhaps help in terms of not having fruitless and wasteful expenditure of training them and then they then go back and and do something else. >> Okay. I guess I can come back uh to the stage here. Um so I think we've we've sort of established how anchor centers can help build expertise uh strengthen uh quality support training and extend knowledge across countries and even regions. Um why don't we look now at how these efforts can create sustainable long-term impact. and Miss Hernandez Cardinius. Um, looking ahead, how does Encan in the Ministry of Health plan to leverage the raise of hope initiative to streng to strengthen cancer services, build regional capacity, and support countries working to expand access to radiation medicine. >> Thank you. Well, incarn would like to to use and to support on the race of hope initiative as a platform to strength the regional capacity of cancer care in Central America. I will say incan will do it from three pr principles over which every national institute in Mexico are built. education, medical assistance and research. So first training in already forms a lot of specialist multidisiplinary specialist in oncology and not just that forms leaders in oncology. We need to incorporate that leaders to the different centers in Central America to become part of this collaboration network. Second, sharing clinical experience between other anchor centers and sharing experience in implementing quality as programs for optimization of radiation medicine departments. And third, strengthen collaboration among cancer centers, universities and researches researchers to be partners in research. Our objective is to help other countries develop sustainable services and stronger local capacity throughout the race of hope network in could do it. >> Thank you very much for that. Um, Mr. Shamsumaki if we can perhaps uh look at what are the key factors needed for anchor centers to create long-term regional impact uh beyond individual training activities. >> Thank you very much for the important question. I think and I think many panel uh Dr. Sarah and Dr. Jama already answered this question very clear but I think uh the the key factor I think is the networking and also the collaboration in the future and I do believe that uh the training should not be stopped uh after the fellow go back to the home country. So the anchor center should continue because some of the clinical implementation it just begin when the fellow is go back to home country. So I think uh we need to be like a facilitator and I think as the anchor center we need to work together more. Uh for example this year uh Thailand and Jordan uh we plan to have like um the network together. Uh Dr. Jama will visit our department in October. I think this kind of collaboration is can have the sustainable uh impact uh with the anchor center and with the member state as well. Thank you, Professor Sate. Um, anchor centers can contribute in many different ways, but where from your perspective can they have the the greatest impact? Um, as an IAEA anchor center, what do you see as Numeri's most important contribution to the region? Um, is it training, technology transfer, clinical partnerships, research, or helping countries move from initial access to long-term sustainability? >> Thanks, Ch. I think research will be one of those that is important to make sure that sustainability is there as numera making sure that we together with our people that come to our center participate in first in human trials it's a very good experience for them to see so that they can also do that in themselves and then I'm thankful to the agency to also working with us in this regard but also to make sure that numery as a as a regional bridge between the industry the universities and the communities. It's going to be an important aspect in terms of making sure that when we train the people, we're looking at the knowledge, the knowledge, the skills and the attitude. The attitude is very important and we don't necessarily look into it seriously in a sense that uh the attitude helps uh in for people to look into things like health technology assessment. The health technology assessment is a very good thing that we must do and can do because otherwise we can speak about these things but how do we really get them implemented and unless we have health technology assessment done that that's going to be important. So, so the attitude part of it we shouldn't need knowing this and we we want to contribute into this very seriously because then in it we shall not only bring uh as we speak everyone speaks in the previous session we spoke about AI but AI is going to be an important aspect here to really bring those technologies and those research that we are doing as an anchor center together with other people to help the regulators accumulate the data because if various people are doing various things there's no need to reinvent but the AI I for the regulators going to be critical. So regulatory science is going to be something we want to participate and contribute in but also using of AI to make sure that how affordable and how we can make things cheap in terms of the radio isotopes in terms of the radioies and of course the the the equipment themselves. So that is an important aspect that we want to leap into coming forward. Thanks >> Mr. Newton. Do you want to speak to that? I can see you agreeing with Professor City. profound agreement actually I I I think um you know there's a great question earlier about um training and professional development of staff you know when we talk about training and education it's not just about training and education on the equipment or managing the software or learning how to use the devices it's training and development that runs and runs and runs and I think um there different forms of training you know we've um supported Ed nuclear medicine training on PET CT. So fellowship program where um nuclear medics from Africa go to Switzerland for example for one week or or two weeks training learn from a a hospital in in in Zurich. Another example of uh virtual training where we've had a hospital that has developed a one-stop clinic for breast cancer screening and detection educate on how to set up a one-stop clinic for example in Egypt and we had um dozens of participants who learned and then we have cross fertilization of that learning hospital in Colombia educating other hospitals. this sort of best practice um approach is is profoundly important I think not just in training to educate on how to develop um say a therronostic center or a nuclear medicine center or or or or indeed a radiation oncology center. It's also important for the professional development of the staff and of course that's the bedrock of sustainability. We don't want staff moving uh straight after they've learned these technologies. they have to be enriched continually with latest developments and so on. Professor Satake mentioned um a really important point about the use of AI and of course we can use these technologies to help train but as we also develop these centers the ability to accumulate data and to develop that data to inform the generalizability of AI solutions clinical applications that are going to support the use in different populations in different diseases becomes um all important. So I think this whole space of um training, education um research uh centers on data and collaboration and again so I think all of these themes are intertwined. So profound agreement with a lot of has been said and that's a role that I think we can participate and support on a continued basis. >> Yes. >> Um thank you so much for this comments. Um actually I'll speak frankly I'm happy first uh to see in this session that u the industry they are part of us as a partnership uh in this discussion but really if you compare the contribution and the support that the industry related to radiation oncology and nuclear medicine comparing with the pharma company which is a huge there is a huge difference between the support between the two and I I think the the industry um mainly in um in the uh uh nuclear medicine and radiation uh oncology they have to to work a lot with the with the hospitals as a partnership. You know it's not only just to uh to sell the machine and that's it and within the contract one week training here and there and that's it. Um uh we used to face a lot of problem by providing some uh uh you know some support for our staff whether they are RT, medical physics or radiation oncology uh to take uh to take part in some courses and some workshop or some conferences big conferences because of the lack of the support right you may have for radiation colleges a few but not for the other stuff and here comes really the continuous partnership not only you know some support here and there from the uh from the uh uh from the industry from you guys really. So you have really to book to look forward in the like strategic plan how really to be a true partnership with us like you know the pharma companies which they do a lot with the uh uh with the uh doctors. >> I mean if you want to maybe answer to that miss Osman. Yeah. >> Yeah. Thank you for the comment. I wish that we had the same uh resources as the pharma companies but uh I don't want to get into a comparison here but I wanted to highlight something. Yes, of course we can do much more and I think it goes both ways. I think we have also not been seen as that uh partner or knowledge partner that uh we would like to and that we're slowly maturing to. uh normally we've been invited to the table in the best case when a procurement is already launched and and then some point touch bases throughout the the 15 years of of the lifetime of machine. So yes, I really welcome to change that mindset uh and to invite us from the beginning in the different networks in the different forums um because I think we can contribute to a lot. Uh for ALCA for example, we count that two million patients are treated on an ALCA solutions yearly worldwide in 130 countries worldwide and with working with roughly 7,000 clinical leaders, clinical institutions. That tells you about the magnitude of the experience, the expertise that sits in our type of network for many many years. as you know better than me. So we would really welcome to tap into the that ecosystem and see us as part of the ecosystem rather than the technology provider because we're really welcoming that. As a concrete example, we at Alacta have for example launched the Brachia Academy together with many of you here in in the room and I hope you have experienced that. That's a concrete example. We have teamed up with NOS's different civil societies to also go beyond and establish strategic partnerships to also do clinical support with clinical educations. I would be really willing to explore how can that fit into the anchor center network as a concrete example. Um I think we count yearly that we roughly do collaborate or educate 30,000 clinical leaders in application specialist training alone that is also something to take away and consider how do we bring that into the network. >> Did this maybe spark a question from the audience otherwise I'm happy to come back here. U Mr. Mr. Romano, I had one for you. Just looking ahead into the future if we can come back to medical physics. Um, what will be the impact of having structured medical physics clinical training both nationally and regionally? >> Thank you. And uh I think that the key word of your question is structure and it is very important. Um and let me show me show show you how um without the structure training depends on individuals. No um someone with experience takes a young professional and their their supervision and the quality of the training depends entirely on that person. Um it works but that it cannot be plained planned it cannot be scaled and when that person person retires uh the the program disappears. No. So uh we implemented in our anchor center structured training programs that allow you defi defined competencies defined durations and uh a formal accredititation for example and two things comes from this at a national level. For example, if uh there is a a politics to to make more radiotherapy centers, they can train their professionals under this program and they know how many years you is going to take and uh they can uh make the inversion the the finance the finance for the for the training. No. And that's very important in medical physics. We had a very successful experience and we are extended this approach to other professionals like for example nuclear medicine physicians and radiation oncologists. That's our next step. And at the regional level, it is very important because it allow you some kind of professional mobility for example or mutual recognition of the training received in other country. So if we want to contribute to our region as an anchor center, we need to implement structured training programs. uh that's why I think it is very important and the impact for our nation and the region. Thank you. >> Yes. >> Can I comment uh on this because this is very important about the structured um program in medical physics. I have seen in many countries unfortunately in some of LMIC's that a medical physicist will stay in in a department of radiationology for a few months and then he will be named as medical physicist without a structure program without an advanced training even radiation oncologist uh unfortunately I've seen that in so some countries that they they will rotate not to train rotate in the department for a few months and then they will be named radition oncology ology oncologist and they start practicing. Now for the medical physicist with the new advances that we see in radiation oncology uh especially talking about the hypofractionation about the SPRT uh total uh body irradiation and other other uh techniques. So there is a re really a need uh for uh for well ststructured um medical physics uh uh um you know um program uh really to train even the one who is already medical physicist and practicing for this we started a discussion with our colleagues in the IEA and with the supports of the medical physics uh Dr. Maro Dr. May Abdulha Dr. and also uh um Gracilla Gracilla is here. She was here in the morning. Yes, she is here now to develop the pro the uh two years residency program for medical physics uh uh in support with the IEA just to have a look in the curriculum for this two years and requirements to enter this and the outcome of this and hoping we hope really um you know we'll continue discussion with the IIA to be endorsed by the IIA already some of our medical is from Jordan and from the region already graduated from this two years medical handson training and they are doing great job and some of them now they are the head of their newly developed department. So in to me in each region there should be a hub or should be a center well uh structured or well uh um uh equipped uh uh hospital with um senior medical physical step two years residency program really hands-on training and then really these people they can do their job uh in a better way. >> Thank you Dr. Per looking around for more hands. We have a few minutes left, but uh Mr. Newton, I wanted to get one over to you. Um because as we've discussed, new technologies do offer enormous opportunities, but their introduction also needs to be both sustainable and equisible. So how can GE healthcare support countries and ANCA centers in the responsible and sustainable adoption of new imaging technologies to improve cancer diagnosis and access to care? In particular, how can activities at the country level be linked with support provided through the anchor centers to maximize impact while avoiding the widening of some of the existing disparities that we've already pointed out? It it's a great question and it's a question that I think um can be answered in terms of the developments say for example in cloud technology and AI. What we're finding is that there now is a potential democratization of access to um applications that had to be bought and sat for example on premise. Um now traditionally in radiation oncology centers and nuclear medicine centers uh onrem um software has been really the norm in the last 30 40 years and um and and and that's something that needs to be maintained and sustained because there's been significant investment in those technologies. But now with the advent of of cloud-based hosting um of software the ability to offer software as a service for example from a contouring or a segmentation perspective these technologies can be validated and democratized and sat in the cloud um doymmetry tools for therronostics for the safe use of uh radoligant therapies or radoligant imaging agents these can become accessible And not only that, they can become uh accessible and if and when validated effectively uh some of the standards that um you know we're used to in many countries can be adopted in low and middle inome countries too and that's what I mean by democratization. So there are examples now where uh software companies can give access to those um tools and again uh the ability to access those simply and effectively is is made possible. The other thing I I think which is going to become more normal in the next couple of years is digital twins. One of the areas that of course is uh being of significant focus in uh advanced economies is the ability to take um curated data where imaging, medical record, genomic um pathology data and critically outcomes data being curated in a single location. The opportunity then not only to develop AI that can be validated like for example asymmetry tools or dose prediction tools can become um not only validated to uh support specific and outcomes in different types of cancers. The access to those tools then can be um leveraged elsewhere remotely and um most importantly the ability to create um dose plans for example in the case of radiation uh therapy can be really easily accessed and enabled. And of course, the standards with which some of those tools could work and operate at means that you could plug in a dose planning uh a dose plan um potentially to any patient that has the very same cancer, the very same lesion or indeed very similar genomic or pathology profile. So I'm not saying that that's something that is happening widespread now but there are examples where it's happening and actually the adoption of those into the developing anchor center network becomes entirely plausible over the next few years. the foundation that we're putting in in terms of the hardware, the software, the training, the education, the workforce planning, that's going to be the bedrock of these kinds of capabilities that already starting. So I think that's something to be excited about actually because again it's going to provide the means for delivering cancer care in the future and critically it's the sustainability of that cancer care. the workforce is going to be supported and cancer patients be supported too. So that's something I think to be really excited about. >> Yeah. And I think that's perhaps a good note to leave it uh for our session now. Thank you very much everybody for uh tackling all those questions but also all the insights that you have provided uh for the audience. That's where we'll leave. May I please have a round of applause for our speakers in this session. I won't take up too much more of your time because I know it's been a long day. Just to say that we resume again tomorrow at 9:30 shop. So looking forward to seeing you all here. Uh the speakers in that first session if you could please be in the room and assembled up front here 10 minutes before. This is just important for our logistics and I want to invite you if you haven't already seen it to the exhibition uh that we have for you this year. It's uh just near to the coffee corner on this floor. So please go around and see that. It's really beautiful. Uh, thank you so much everyone and see you tomorrow morning. Again, thank you to my panelists. Bye-bye everyone.