Joint ICTP-IAEA Workshop on the Clinical Application of Imaging-Based Artificial Intelligence Systems for Medical Physicists

Administration

Description

An ICTP-IAEA meeting

The workshop is designed for medical physicists interested in expanding their knowledge and skills in the clinical implementation of imaging-based AI systems. By combining theoretical principles with hands-on practical examples, it offers a contemporary overview and practical tools for safe and effective implementation.

The deployment of technologies based on artificial intelligence (AI) in medical physics and in the medical use of ionizing radiation - namely radiation oncology, diagnostic imaging and nuclear medicine - is rapidly increasing. Medical physicists are expected to play a key role in ensuring safe and effective clinical implementation of AI based tools.

This comprehensive workshop will provide participants with a theoretical foundation in the most important areas of imaging-based AI systems relevant to medical physics. The workshop will introduce medical physicists to examples of imaging-based AI systems, along with relevent aspects of their clinical implementation, including technical, ethical, and legal challenges related to the implementation process. These aspects should be carefully considered to ensure that quality of patient care and patient safety are not compromised.

Hands-on training focused on implementation, risk mitigation, and quality assurance of imaging-based AI systems will be provided to strengthen participants’ practical skills.

Topics:

The Workshop is aimed at providing medical physicists with relevant knowledge to support departments in deploying and using imaging-based AI tools, including:

Insight into current imaging-based AI tools in radiation medicine (diagnostic radiology, nuclear medicine and radiotherapy imaging workflows);
Theoretical principles of AI from the user’s perspective: foundational statistical concepts, statistical modelling, machine learning, deep learning, radiomics, data management (including feature selection and engineering), model training and validation;
Roles and responsibilities of clinically qualified medical physicists in imaging-based AI clinical applications;
Requirements for education and training;
Implementation considerations: identification of needs, market research, (pre)selection, installation, acceptance and commissioning, introduction to clinical settings, quality assurance, clinical evaluation and decommissioning;
Regulatory and ethical aspects;
Hands-on training.

Lecturers:

Andre Dekker, Maastricht University, Medical Center and Maastro Clinic, Kingdom of the Netherlands
Serafina Di Gioia, ICTP, Italy
Giulia Giovannini, ATS Liguria, AREA 2, Italy
Ashish Kumar Jha, Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, India

Prerequisites:

The target audience are early and mid-career clinically qualified medical physicists (CQMPs, as per IAEA Publication Human Health Series No. 25) from United Nations, UNESCO or IAEA Member States holding a postgraduate-level university degree in medical physics and working in hospitals in either in radiotherapy, nuclear medicine or diagnostic radiology. Although the workshop is not intended for developers of AI-based tools, basic computational programming, data management and fundamental statistics skills are considered as assets.

Grants: A limited number of grants are available to support the attendance of selected participants, with priority given to participants from developing countries. There is no registration fee.

Material

Poster

Joint ICTP-IAEA Workshop on the Clinical Application of Imaging-Based Artificial Intelligence Systems for Medical Physicists | (smr 4246)

Go to day

Monday, 16 November 2026
- 08:45 - 09:30 Registration
- 09:30 - 17:00
  - 09:30 Welcome, introduction and workshop aims 30'
    
    Speaker: Marco Esposito (ICTP), Egor Titovich (IAEA)
  - 10:00 Pre-course test 30'
    
    Speaker: Marco Esposito (ICTP), Egor Titovich (IAEA)
  - 10:30 Coffee break 30'
  - 11:00 Participants' presentations: experience, local AI needs and barriers 1h30'
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All Participants
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  - 12:30 Lunch break 1h0'
  - 13:30 Participants' presentations 45'
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All Participants  (continued)
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  - 14:15 Introduction to AI, historical background 45'
    
    Speaker: Andre Dekker (Maastricht University, Medical Center and Maastro Clinic)
  - 15:00 Coffee break 30'
  - 15:30 AI terminology and clinical/data science task types for users 45'
    
    Speaker: Andre Dekker (Maastricht University, Medical Center and Maastro Clinic)
  - 16:15 CQMP roles across the AI clinical implementation lifecycle 45'
    
    Speaker: Andre Dekker (Maastricht University, Medical Center and Maastro Clinic)
- 19:00 - 20:00 Welcome reception
Tuesday, 17 November 2026
- 09:00 - 17:00
  - 09:00 Statistical foundations for AI users 45'
    
    Speaker: Serafina Di Gioia (ICTP)
  - 09:45 Machine learning models and performance metrics 45'
    
    Speaker: Serafina Di Gioia (ICTP), Andre Dekker (Maastricht University, Medical Center and Maastro Clinic)
  - 10:30 Group photo and coffee break 30'
  - 11:00 Deep learning basics for imaging-based AI users 45'
    
    Speaker: Serafina Di Gioia (ICTP), Giulia Giovannini (ATS Liguria, AREA 2)
  - 11:45 Data collection, DICOM, PACS/RIS/TPS and de-identification 45'
    
    Speaker: Ashish Jha (Tata Memorial Hospital)
  - 12:30 Lunch break 1h0'
  - 13:30 AI in diagnostic radiology and nuclear medicine: (clinical and technical challenges) and applications 45'
    
    Speaker: Giulia Giovannini (ATS Liguria, AREA 2)
  - 14:15 AI in Radiotherapy: (clinical and technical challenges) and applications 45'
    
    Speaker: Andre Dekker (Maastricht University, Medical Center and Maastro Clinic)
  - 15:00 Coffee break 30'
  - 15:30 Data curation, labelling, harmonization and bias in ML/DL datasets 45'
    
    Speaker: Ashish Jha (Tata Memorial Hospital)
  - 16:15 Bias, subgroup performance and data drift 45'
    
    Speaker: Andre Dekker (Maastricht University, Medical Center and Maastro Clinic)
Wednesday, 18 November 2026
- 09:00 - 17:00
  - 09:00 Practical exercises - Rotation 1 1h30'
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Group 1: Room A – Practical - Serafina Di Gioia
Group 2: Room B – Practical - Andre Dekker
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    Speaker: Serafina Di Gioia (ICTP), Andre Dekker (Maastricht University, Medical Center and Maastro Clinic)
  - 10:30 Coffee break 30'
  - 11:00 Practical exercises - Rotation 2 1h30'
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Groups switch rooms
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    Speaker: Serafina Di Gioia (ICTP), Andre Dekker (Maastricht University, Medical Center and Maastro Clinic)
  - 12:30 Lunch break 1h0'
  - 13:30 Feature engineering, deep features and foundation models: concepts with clinical examples 45'
    
    Speaker: Serafina Di Gioia (ICTP), Ashish Jha (Tata Memorial Hospital)
  - 14:15 Local validation strategies and test datasets, and monitoring? 45'
  - 15:00 Coffee break 30'
  - 15:30 Acceptance and commissioning of imaging-based AI systems 45'
    
    Speaker: Andre Dekker (Maastricht University, Medical Center and Maastro Clinic)
  - 16:15 Q&A and consolidation from practicals and lectures so far 45'
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All lecturers
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Thursday, 19 November 2026
- 09:00 - 16:30
  - 09:00 Practical exercises - Rotation 3 1h30'
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Group 1: Practical - Ashish Jha
Group 2: Practical - Giulia Giovannini
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    Speaker: Ashish Jha (Tata Memorial Hospital), Giulia Giovannini (ATS Liguria, AREA 2)
  - 10:30 Coffee break 30'
  - 11:00 Practical exercises - Rotation 4 1h30'
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Groups switch rooms
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    Speaker: Ashish Jha (Tata Memorial Hospital), Giulia Giovannini (ATS Liguria, AREA 2)
  - 12:30 Lunch break 30'
  - 13:00 Procurement, vendor documentation and model cards (assessment of need, pre-selection, demonstration, selection, installation) 45'
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HHS 50
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    Speaker: Ashish Jha (Tata Memorial Hospital)
  - 13:45 Clinical evaluation, clinical adoption, impact assessment and decommissioning 45'
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HHS 50
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    Speaker: Andre Dekker (Maastricht University, Medical Center and Maastro Clinic)
  - 14:30 Coffee break 30'
  - 15:00 AI QA programme: routine, case-specific and ad hoc QC; incidents 45'
    
    Speaker: Ashish Jha (Tata Memorial Hospital)
  - 15:45 Practical Q&A and consolidation 45'
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All lecturers
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Friday, 20 November 2026
- 09:00 - 14:30
  - 09:00 IT infrastructure, cybersecurity and workflow integration 45'
    
    Speaker: Giulia Giovannini (ATS Liguria, AREA 2)
  - 09:45 Regulatory, ethical and legal considerations for imaging-based AI 45'
    
    Speaker: Giulia Giovannini (ATS Liguria, AREA 2)
  - 10:30 Coffee break 30'
  - 11:00 Roundtable discussion: AI implementation needs, risks and expectations of participants 1h30'
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All participants
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  - 12:30 Lunch break 1h0'
  - 13:30 Post-course test 30'
    
    Speaker: Marco Esposito (ICTP), Egor Titovich (IAEA)
  - 14:00 Closing 30'
    
    Speaker: Marco Esposito (ICTP), Egor Titovich (IAEA)