Department of Radiological Physics, SMS Medical College & Hospitals, Jaipur, India.
Phys Eng Sci Med. 2021 Jun;44(2):357-364. doi: 10.1007/s13246-021-00984-6.
Medical physicists are health professionals recognized by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and hence medical physicists working in a clinical environment should have the required competency and undergo a structured training program and residency under an experienced medical physicist in a recognized institution. Furthermore, medical physics is a rapidly growing area needing a high degree of knowledge and professional competency due to the rise in complexity of treatment procedures, increasing access to medical technology, and the requirement of coordination between the disciplines of medicine, physics and biomedical engineering. The unprecedented surge in medical physics competency in the last 2-3 decades is due to the implementation of specialized physics intensive procedures such as particle therapy, image-guided & intra-operative radiotherapy, advanced imaging and nuclear medicine techniques. In this scenario to handle this new technology era the quantity of qualified medical physicists needs to be in consonance with the competency needed. There is a special requirement for education and training of medical physicists which led to the opening of numerous educational programs around the world. The Asia-Oceania Federation of Organizations for Medical Physics (AFOMP) was founded in 2000 and today 19 countries national medical physicist associations (NMPO) are member of AFOMP. The AFOMP region is populated by over 4.5 billion people and socioeconomically is very diverse with GDP per capita as high as around US $60,000 [Australia] to as low as around US $750 [Nepal]. We conducted a survey by sending questionnaires to AFOMP NMPOs to assess the status of medical physics education and training in the region. We have received responses from 20 countries in the AFOMP region to the questionnaire. It was observed that 16 [80%] countries from AFOMP have well organized master program in medical physics, however only 8 [50%] programs were accredited and in only 9 [45%] countries are medical physicists registered as health professionals.
医学物理学家是国际劳工组织（ILO）认可的健康专业人员，因此，在临床环境中工作的医学物理学家应具备所需的能力，并在认可的机构中接受经验丰富的医学物理学家的结构化培训计划和住院医师培训。此外，由于治疗程序的复杂性不断提高，获得医疗技术的机会增加，以及医学、物理学和生物医学工程等学科之间协调的要求，医学物理学是一个快速发展的领域，需要高度的知识和专业能力。在过去 2-3 十年中，医学物理能力的空前增长是由于实施了专门的物理密集型程序，如粒子治疗、图像引导和术中放射治疗、先进成像和核医学技术。在这种情况下，为了应对这个新技术时代，需要有数量与所需能力相符的合格医学物理学家。医学物理学家的教育和培训有特殊要求，这导致了世界各地开设了众多教育项目。亚洲-大洋洲医学物理组织联合会（AFOMP）成立于 2000 年，如今，19 个国家的国家医学物理学家协会（NMPO）是 AFOMP 的成员。AFOMP 地区拥有超过 45 亿人口，社会经济非常多样化，人均 GDP 高达约 60,000 美元（澳大利亚），低至约 750 美元（尼泊尔）。我们通过向 AFOMP 的 NMPO 发送问卷进行了一项调查，以评估该地区医学物理教育和培训的现状。我们收到了来自 AFOMP 地区 20 个国家对问卷的回复。观察到，来自 AFOMP 的 16 个国家[80%]拥有组织良好的医学物理硕士课程，但只有 8 个[50%]课程获得认证，并且只有 9 个[45%]国家的医学物理学家作为卫生专业人员注册。
