ΙΑΕΑ publication No. 15: Medical Physics Staffing Needs in Diagnostic Imaging and Radionuclide Therapy: An Activity Based Approach
Publication Date: Feb 27th, 2018 19:20, Category: EFOMP Announcements
Over the last decades, the rapid technological development of diagnostic and interventional radiology and nuclear medicine has made them major tools of modern medicine. However, at the same time the involved risks, the growing number of procedures and the increasing complexity of the procedures require competent professional staff to ensure safe and effective patient diagnosis, treatment and management. Medical physicists (or clinically qualified medical physicists) have been recognized as vital health professionals with important and clear responsibilities related to quality and safety of applications of ionizing radiation in medicine. This publication describes an algorithm developed to determine the recommended staffing levels for clinical medical physics services in medical imaging and radionuclide therapy, based on current best practice, as described in international guidelines.
The publication and algorithm have been developed by the drafting committee (D. McLean (Australia), S. Holm (Denmark), M. Brambilla (Italy) and M.C. Martin (United States of America)), based on similar recommendations and estimations regarding the time and efforts required to perform the described medical physicist duties. The publication underwent a process of broad external review by medical physicists from around the world and the received input from numerous contributors has been used to improve the final publication. This publication has been endorsed by the International Organization for Medical Physics (IOMP). The IAEA officers responsible for this publication were H. Delis and G.L. Poli from the Division of Human Health.