About the Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists (COMP)

The Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists (COMP) is the main professional body for medical physicists practicing in Canada.  Membership is composed of professional physicists, scientists, and academics located at universities, hospitals, cancer centres, and government research facilities such as the National Research Council, Medical Physics graduate students and post-doctoral fellows are also eligible for membership. Every member has an educational or professional background in physics or engineering as it applies to medicine. COMP has six stated objectives to encourage the application of physics in medicine. 

1. To promote the development of standards, policies, guidelines and research related to physics in medicine.
2. To provide members with timely, accessible and relevant programs and services to support their roles in medical physics.
3. To be the national and international voice for medical physics in Canada.
4. To attract a wide breadth of members committed to patient care excellence through medical physics.
5. To develop strategic alliances with organizations with similar objectives.
6. To promote and encourage certification by the Canadian College of Physicists in Medicine.

The membership has opportunities to meet formally at the COMP Annual Scientific Meeting and at the COMP Winter School. Proffered papers on various topics of current research interests are presented at the Scientific Meeting while the Winter School focuses on continuing education opportunities in a multi-disciplinary environment. These meetings provide opportunities for members to network, keep abreast of colleagues’ research activities and interests and to formally discuss issues of concern to the membership.

COMP also encourages corporate membership by national and international corporations. The scientific meeting and winter school are both opportunities for COMP's industry partners to showcase new products and form collaborations with other corporations as well as with Canadian scientists.

COMP is a member organization of the International Organization for Medical Physics and is approximately equivalent in scope to the American Association of Physicists in Medicine or to the European body, the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine.

COMP has two official journals: Medical Physics and Physics in Medicine and Biology. COMP members are quite prolific scientifically - on average 30% of the articles in Medical Physics are authored by COMP members.

Inquiries about professional or corporate membership should be directed to the COMP Office.