International Organization for Medical Physics (IOMP), the global umbrella body for Medical Physics professionals, has awarded Dr. Francis Hasford as recipient of the 2021 IDMP Award, for his excellence in Medical Physics and promotion of the profession to a larger audience and highlighting the contributions medical physicists make for patient care. Dr. Hasford is among five other recipients from different geographical regions of the world to receive this award which is linked to the International Day of Medical Physics (IDMP), from which it takes its name.
Profile of Dr. Francis Hasford
Dr. Francis Hasford is medical physicist with the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) and combines his research scientist role with headship position at the Medical Physics Department of the University of Ghana. He is the focal person for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Regional Designated Centre for Medical Physics training in Ghana. He has contributed to training several medical physicists, both local and foreign. He provides medical physics support to the University of Ghana Medical Centre and has played critical roles in the development of nuclear medicine services in Ghana. Dr. Hasford is a certified member of the Allied Health Professions Council of Ghana and serves on the Council’s Examination Board and Professions Committee.
Francis has rich experience in supervision of students’ research studies. He has supervised over 30 post-graduate students’ theses and co-authored over 50 research articles, 3 book chapters and 20 conference abstracts. He has delivered several public lectures focusing on radiation medicine research and medical physics development within the Africa region. Several projects aimed at developing medical physics in Ghana has been led by him. He led a team of medical physicists in the national project to institute sustainable physics audit network for radiotherapy centres in Ghana. At the peak period of Covid-19 pandemic in Ghana, he led a project to produced face shield personal protective equipment (PPEs) for donation to frontline health workers.
Francis is a project committee member for the Ghana-Norway Partnership Project for Medical Physics and Radiography Education (NORPART). In the last decade, he has coordinated three IAEA Regional Africa projects in Medical Physics. He is Project Scientific Consultant for the IAEA Regional Project on Medical Imaging Physics in Africa, a platform through which he has contributed positively to growth of medical imaging in Africa. He also serves as Ghana’s Coordinator for Thematic Safety Area 3 (IAEA project on Radiological Protection in Medical Exposures). He is project lead for the Triangular Partnership Project between IAEA, Ghana and Zimbabwe, a project that has seen the training of many medical physicists at the National University of Science and Technology in Zimbabwe.
Francis has played important roles by serving in top positions in medical physics professional bodies. Nationally, he has been in executive position for the Ghana Society for Medical Physics (GSMP), serving as Assistant Secretary (2012 – 2017), General Secretary (2018 – 2020) and presently the Vice-President. Internationally, he currently serves as Vice-President and President-Elect of the Federation of African Medical Physics Organizations (FAMPO). He previously served as Secretary General (2017 – 2021) and Chair of the Education and Training Committee (2016 – 2017) for the Federation. He has been highly instrumental in the setting up of the FAMPO Secretariat in Accra, Ghana.
Dr. Hasford is member of some key scientific bodies, including the Ghana Young Academy (GhYA), Ghana Nuclear Society (GNS) and Ghana Science Association (GSA). He is a Board member of the Ghana Young Generation in Nuclear (GhYGN). He is an Associate of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), member of the Editorial Board of the African Journal of Medical Physics (AJMP) and reviewer for some high profile medical physics journals. He is also a member of the IOMP Web Sub-committee and Ghana’s representative to the IOMP Council. He is Visiting Lecturer to the National University of Science and Technology in Zimbabwe and External Examiner for some high-profile universities in Ghana and South Africa.
Francis has been a member of the International Advisory Committees of the International Union for Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine (IUPESM) World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering 2021 (WC2021); the 18th Asia-Oceania Congress of Medical Physics (AOCMP) and 16th South-East Asia Congress of Medical Physics (SEACOMP); and the First AAPM ISEP/FAMPO Diagnostic Imaging Symposium. Locally, he has served on several statutory and ad hoc committees and made important contributions.
Francis is recipient of the 2018 Best Presentation at the ICTP College on Medical Physics; 2017 Recognition Award of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission; 2016 IOMP/IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Medical Physics; 2015 Best Presentation at the Maiden University of Ghana Doctoral Conference. In 2016, he was highlighted by British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on its “Focus on Africa programme” for his research work on ultrasound and PET/CT image fusion to aid prostate cancer treatment.
The experiences gained by Dr. Hasford has placed him in position where his contribution to the growth of medical physics nationally and internationally is well recognized.
