Following two
further years of full time employment as medical physicists and appropriate
continuous professional development, they may be recognised as medical physics experts. Further readings to this are found below*
What
attracted you to take up your profession and to the health service?
This profession offered an opportunity to delve
into a field where many sciences come together for the benefit of the patient
and to improve the quality of service for our community.
What
motivates you most?
From hands-on work on medical imaging systems,
to spreadsheet and software development, to reading up on legislation and
current scientific publications and research, our work is rarely repetitive. However,
above all, it is the satisfaction that the efforts put forward improve the
effectiveness, efficiency and safety of the healthcare service.
What
about the teamwork between different professions/roles involved in relation to
patient care?
We collaborate with many different professions
and are stakeholders in a wide spectrum of projects. We work with radiologists
and radiographers to understand imaging techniques, procedures and clinical
requirements; we work with biomedical engineering on procurement projects; we
work with IT on software projects to facilitate and automate analyses to
improve efficiency.
Can
you give us one challenge and one success story?
Challenge
The number and sophistication of
medical imaging devices and associated software is expanding extremely rapidly.
The current number of medical physicists is insufficient to handle this growth.
However I am glad to note that many students are preparing themselves for entry
into the profession. We must now look into developing a training programme to
be able to address the need for additional medical physicists within our team.
Success
Over the past few years we have not
only managed to provide a quality assurance service to X-ray and CT systems,
but
also managed to expand our quality assurance to ultrasound, MRI, and additional
systems outside our immediate department, such as cardiology. We have become a
point of reference for radiographers, radiologists, and biomedical engineering
with regard to technical specifications, system issues and advice with regard
to patient radiation safety.
What
advice would you give to young students considering taking up this profession?
Medical Physics is an exciting, dynamic,
technology oriented profession for anyone having a strong background in physics
who would like to apply own physics knowledge and skills to the improvement of
healthcare
What
are the benefits of working with the public service?
The satisfaction that work is carried out to
improve the quality of service offered to members of the public.
IAEA
Training Course Series No.71. Guidelines for the Certification of
Clinically Qualified Medical Physicists.