Certification and licensing of clinical medical physicists in AFOMP countries

Abstract

In many countries the education and training of medical physicists has changed over the last few decades from being rather ad hoc to becoming structured with residency programs becoming quite common. These are often followed by formal certification by independent bodies, and medical physics professional organizations (MPPOs) affirming the quality of certified physicists and recognizing their competence and ability to practice independently. Policies on the training and education of medical physicists have been developed by the International Organization for Medical Physics (IOMP) and by the Asia- Oceania Federation of Organizations for Medical Physics (AFOMP). Currently nine countries in Asia-Oceania operate systems for the certification of clinical medical physicists and four others are planning or implementing such systems. The existing systems, which are described in this paper, generally conform to the policies. Licensing of medical physicists, which is primarily the responsibility of government bodies, is almost unknown in that region.