IOMP Webinar (20 Jan 2026):
An Introduction to Data Analysis with Python for Medical Physics 

20 January 2026 at 12 pm GMT; Duration 1 hour

To check the corresponding time in your country please check this link: https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Join the webinar here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_w24NpNy-RQymzlSLnPT5Lg#/registration

Moderator: Carmel J Caruana, PhD
Medical Physics, University of Malta

Speaker: Eric Pace, M.Sc., MIPEM, MPE, RPE
Medical Physics, University of Malta

Abstract

Python is a free, open-source programming language that has become increasingly prominent in scientific and clinical computing, including in Medical Physics and AI applications. With its extensive ecosystem of libraries for medical imaging and radiotherapy, Python is an extremely valuable tool for the clinical Medical Physicist today. Practical proficiency in Python supports essential tasks such as data analytics, workflow automation, and machine learning and AI development. This webinar provides a practical overview of the fundamental topics needed to understand the language and to organise data for statistics and visualisation using established libraries like pandas and matplotlib. It will also briefly cover reading DICOM files and analysing Catphan QC images using pydicom and pylinac. The 6th edition of the EBAMP accredited international online course Data Analysis with Python for Medical Physics delivered under the auspices of the Malta Association of Medical Physics and endorsed by EFOMP and IOMP is planned for 29-31 October 2026 and further information will be published soon on https://thepythoncourse.eu/.

The 6th edition of this online course has been postponed to 2027.

Previous editions of this course have been endorsed by EFOMP and IOMP accredited by EBAMP:

1. Accreditation. This course has always been EBAMP accredited in the past, and submission for re-accreditation will be done for the upcoming course.
2. Course slides. All slides and installation instructions will be provided ahead of time. You will have an opportunity to meet online with our tutors ta couple of weeks before so that we ensure you have a working system before the course starts.
3. Online & real-time. This is not an asynchronous course, i.e. you must be online during the dates of the workshop (Please note time-zones!).
4. Timezone. For anyone joining from outside Europe, course times are 09:00–17:00 CET.
5. Platform. The course will be delivered using the Zoom platform.
6. Course structure. The course is structured with a 50/50 balance between theory and hands-on to get you on the ground running.
7. Continuous assistance. There will be breakout rooms with tutors and helpers to support you in any difficulties or queries during the hands-on sessions.
8. Assessment. Optional multiple choice questions at the end of the last day.
9. Payment is done via Stripe or bank transfer.
10. Programme. See below. Subject to minor amendments.
11. Other important details. See bottom of page.

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Course content

• Basics of programming and control flow 
• Functions, methods and introduction to object-oriented programming. These are fundamental concepts to be able to work with data manipulation, scientific and plotting libraries. These are also essential for interacting with medical images (DICOM) and Excel / CSV files. 
• Parsing potentially unstructured machine log files produced by CT, MRI and other modalitiescontaining results from daily or weekly QC tests. 
• Read data from Excel (e.g. medical physics QC test reports) or CSV (e.g. exports from dose monitoring platforms), structure this data into data frames and perform cleaning and filtering so data is prepared for calculation of summary statistics and plotting. This is essential for 2D columnar data medical physicists often have to work with. 
• Restructure data into a 2D columnar format for easy manipulation, cleaning and filtering. 
• Export clean data to Excel or CSV for storage. Export settings/configurations/user settable parameters to the machine-readable JSON format. 
• Provide a tour of the PyCharm Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and highlight the benefits of an IDE over a plain text editor. 
• Overview of plotting libraries (matplotlib, pandas, seaborn) and introduction to best practices for plotting line, bar, box and scatter plots. More complex plotting (e.g. ‘small multiple’ or trellis plots) will also be introduced since often medical physics data is often multi-dimensional. 
• Introduction to the PyDICOM package to work with medical images (DICOM files )to extract information, including pixel data from DICOM headers, and write any modifications back to DICOM files. Overview of the concepts of DataSet, DataElement, Tag, Value Representation, Value Multiplicity and value. 
• Overview of the PyLinac library 

For clarity, this course does not: 

• Provide an introduction to databases or SQL 
• Cover numerical methods or statistical techniques

Teaching methods

3 days split equally between lectures and practical sessions. These will be carried out online via Zoom and participants will be given time to work through practical examples, where individual attention in case of difficulties or questions will be provided via Breakout Rooms.

Participants will be provided with instructions to set up a working Python installation on their computer. A troubleshooting session will be organised ahead of the course to resolve any installation issues so that the course can start on time. This course is held ONLINE and in Real-Time over 3 days from 09:00–17:00 CET. It is not possible to follow the course asynchronously.

Optional assessment

For those interested in obtaining additional CPD points, an optional assessment will be held in the last 1.5 hours of the last day, i.e. Saturday. The assessment will comprise multiple choice and short answer questions.

Zoom Platform

The course will be carried out on Zoom. Approximately 2 weeks prior to the course start date, you will receive 3 links. These links will give you access to the course in real time. Kindly visit the links and ensure that both your microphone and camera are working properly. Since participants are expected to have the camera on during the course, recording is NOT allowed as per GDPR regulations.

Insurance and cancellation

In case an unforeseen event would force MAMP to cancel the course, the Association will reimburse the participants fully the registration fees. MAMP will not be responsible for the refund of travel and accommodation costs, if applicable.

Otherwise, in case of cancellation, the course is non-refundable. MAMP takes no responsibility for, and the provider of the virtual meeting services has represented and warranted that the services shall not contain, and that no end user shall receive from the software used to hold the virtual meeting, any virus, worm, trap door, back door, timer, clock, counter or other limiting routine, instruction or design, or other malicious, illicit or similar unrequested code, including surveillance software or routines which may, or is designed to, permit access by any person, or on its own, to erase, or otherwise harm or modify any data or any system, server, facility or other infrastructure of any end user. MAMP will not be held liable for the internet connection used in order to attend the course online.

For any queries kindly reach us through the Association's page.

The first run of the international EBAMP accredited, EFOMP endorsed course on the use of Python for data analysis, organised by the Malta Association of Medical Physics.

February 2021

Following high demand, the course was repeated within three months of the 2020 course.

April 2022

September 2023

November 2025