ISRRT 2012 Dien Van Dijk Award

4/22/2012

ISRRT 2012 Dien Van Dijk Award

Mr Terry JD West

Throughout his entire career as a Medical Radiation Technologist and even more so while involved in the International Society of Radiographers and Radiological Technologists in his roles as the Council Member for Canada, ISRRT Board Member, Secretary General of the ISRRT as  President and finally as the Treasurer, Terry West demonstrated his belief in providing exceptional service to the radiographic community. His goal was always to find how the ISRRT could best provide support for developing countries.

One of his ways of ensuring assistance to developing nations was the provision of ISRRT educational workshops that would allow the training for the trainers. His major concern was always to assist those in need. This began when he taught radiation therapy students and when he was the front-line therapist performing radiation treatments on his patients. From the time of being a front line radiation therapist right into his positions on the ISRRT Terry truly exemplified the Mission of the ISRRT to "continually striving to improve the standards of delivery and practice of medical imaging and radiation therapy by promoting quality patient care, and education in the radiation medicine sciences".

In 1969 Terry West began as the voice of the International Society of Radiographers and Radiological Technologists first in Canada as one of their first Council Members.

In 1971 he became the ISRRT Regional Director of the Americas Region and served in that position until 1977. Terry was the Chairman of the Organising Committee for the first ISRRT Conference in the Americas and it was shortly after that Conference that he was nominated and elected to be the ISRRT President for the four year term, 1977-1981.

In this role of ISRRT President, Terry West was very instrumental in assisting the ISRRT to build on its history of improving the standards of radiation medicine and the status of radiographers and radiologic technologists as equal members of the Radiological Sciences Team.

In 1979 Terry was able to convince ISRRT Board of Management that the ISRRT Associate Membership category should be made available. It has certainly been proven that these Associate Members of the ISRRT play a very important role in promoting the aims of the ISRRT not only in his/her own country but globally as well.

During his time on the ISRRT Board Terry worked extremely hard to encourage not just individual technologists to become Associate Members of the ISRRT but he continually communicated with national societies to become members of the ISRRT by demonstrating to them ways in which the ISRRT could help. By do doing the number of member societies increased from the 15 in existence in 1962 to the 85 countries that are part of the ISRRT today.

In his time as President, and after meeting with the President of the European Congress of Radiology in Vienna, Terry made some tremendous strides. First he obtained their consent to allow a few papers to be presented by medical radiation technologists at the ECR World Congress and then by further negotiations and much work, Terry was able to get the ECR to officially recognized that radiographers and radiological technologists to be a vital part of the overall presenting team.

One of his lifetime objectives has been to assist in the educating of medical radiation technologists throughout the world, not just in his own place of employment. Knowing how important it was while serving in various roles in Canada, Terry took his knowledge of establishing standards of practice to a world-wide level and was always marketing the importance of how these standards are a necessity to prove that the ISRRT represents the radiation sciences profession. Based on his hard work in this area, Terry was named to be the first non medical member to chair an accreditation team of radiologists and radiation therapists for the Canadian Medical Association Accreditation Committee. Terry then pushed harder to show the need for world-wide recognition of medical radiation technology for developing nations through ongoing training sessions. 

Terry was also was involved in the furthering of recognition of the ISRRT as a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) by many international organizations such as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the International Radiation Protection Association. He has always been a strong proponent of radiation protection for staff and patients alike a fact that was not just evident at the ISRRT level but he was also recognized in Canada and was appointed to serve on the Canadian Ministry of Health to be the representative for Radiation Safety Legislation.

When his term of ISRRT President ended Terry certainly did not feel that his work was done yet. Terry became the ISRRT Regional Director of the Americas Region in 1981 and served for two full terms.

In 1987 he was elected to become the very vital job of ISRRT Secretary General and served in this role until 2002. In his fifteen years as the ISRRT Secretary General, Terry continually co-ordinated the society’s activities including the daily organization, communication, collection and distribution of all ISRRT information. It should be noted that while in his role as Secretary General the ISRRT Office was established in 1995.

In 2002 Terry was elected to become the ISRRT Treasurer and served in this position until 2006. It should be noted that because of volunteers like Terry West during this time of almost forty years, the ISRRT budget was never in a deficit situation- it always showed a profit as a result of due diligence yet many very important educational workshops and projects were accomplished.

Terry’s values of hard work, excellence, dedication, professionalism and integrity and his outstanding volunteerism were recognized by several organizations and societies with the following:

·       Honorary Fellow, College of Radiographers, United Kingdom

·       Honorary Fellow, Australian Institute of Radiography, Australia

·       Honorary Life Member, Nederlandse Vereniging Medische Beeldvorming en Radiotherapie

·       Life member, Canadian and Ontario Associations of Medical Radiation Technologists

Terry would tell you that all of his accomplishments were as a result of his personal friendship and one-on-one mentorship with Dien Van Dijk. He knows how fortunate he was to have known her as she is the one who made him strive to be the role model that he was.

Although Terry is now “retired” from his volunteer roles on the ISRRT his belief of ongoing assistance to those in need is instilled in his everyday life. Terry is the Director for the weekly distribution of the community food bank in Don Mills Ontario, Canada.  Through all his efforts food is acquired and distributed each week to almost seventy families. He has also been instrumental in lobbying the government for the raising of funds to the tune of seventeen million dollars in order to build a Community Centre for the children in the neighbourhood.