Congress:
EuroSafe Imaging 2016
Keywords:
Action 10 - Improved communication and collaboration of health professionals in radiation protection, Action 4 - Quality of radiological equipment, Action 3 - Optimisation, diagnostic reference levels, image quality, Action 2 - Clinical diagnostic reference levels (DRLs), Action 3 - Image quality assessment based on clinical indications, Action 13 - Stakeholder engagement and collaboration
Authors:
J. Damilakis, S. Evans, R. Bayford, V. Tsapaki, P. Sharp, R. Figueira, A. Makridou
DOI:
10.1594/esi2016/ESI-0010
Background/Introduction
The new European Union (EU) Basic Safety Standards (BSS) Directive (1) defines the ‘medical physics expert’ as ‘an individual or,
if provided for in national legislation,
a group of individuals,
having the knowledge,
training and experience to act or give advice on matters relating to radiation physics applied to medical exposure,
whose competence in this respect is recognised by the competent authority’.
Educational qualification of medical physicists is usually accomplished in two phases.
The first phase of the education program is completion of a Bachelor’s degree in physics or an equivalent degree in a relevant subject.
The second phase is completion of a Master’s degree in Medical Physics.
Medical physicists who have clinical responsibilities should have structured accredited clinical training residency. The European Commission ‘European Guidelines on Medical Physics Expert’ publication (2) states that this residency should be in the specialty of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology or Nuclear Medicine or Radiation Oncology and the duration should be typically two full-time year equivalents.
This means that the ‘clinically certified medical physicists’ are professionals having a Master’s degree in Medical Physics and 2 years of clinical training in a Medical Physics specialty.
The ‘medical physics expert’ level in a given specialty of Medical Physics requires structured accredited advanced experience and continuous professional development (CPD).
To become ‘medical physics expert’,
a clinically certified medical physicist needs an additional minimum of two full-time year equivalents (2).