Education, clinical training and professional recognition of medical physicists

Abstract

the medical physicist fulfils an essential role in the safe and effective use of radiation in medicine, most commonly in cancer treatment or diagnostic imaging. Cancer rates are rising worldwide. This rate of increase is significantly higher in developing counties, thus requiring additional medical physics support. In recent years, the increasing complexity of both treatment and diagnostic radiation equipment, coupled with the raising of the expectations of good health care standards, as well as the implementation of more stringent radiation safety standards and accreditation requirements, has exacerbated the already critical shortage of fully qualified medical physicists in the developing world.

The qualifications of an entry level medical physicist should consist of an appropriate academic degree at the postgraduate level followed by clinical training and professional accreditation, recognition or registration. While there are examples of countries with functioning academic, clinical and accreditation processes in place, many countries, in Africa and Asia for example, have limited or no programmes at all. The IAEA has a long history of involvement in medical physics education and training. As part of its technology transfer scheme in the field of human health, the IAEA provides support for education, on the job training and for attendance of specialized courses. Currently, the IAEA supports the training of around 200 medical physicists per year through short courses. The long term strategy of the IAEA is to contribute to the establishment and harmonization of educational programmes in medical physics, including clinical training and professional accreditation/ registration, in Member States. It is however recognized that this can only be achieved and sustained in countries where there is a critical mass of applications in radiation medicine (treatment and imaging) providing a foundation for structured practice. For countries where there is only a limited number of medical applications, the concept of consolidating medical physics education within larger regions is applied. The IAEA works in close collaboration with professional bodies and other international organizations to further strengthen medical physics education and professional recognition. As of 2009, the IAEA has launched a new initiative to strengthen medical physics in radiation medicine through an interregional technical cooperation project.