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This study aimed to investigate the educational environment of radiotherapy technology and medical physics specialists (RTMP) in Japan. We conducted a nationwide questionnaire survey in radiotherapy institutions between June and August 2022. Participants were asked questions regarding the educational system, perspectives on updating RTMP's skills and qualifications, and perspectives on higher education for RTMP at radiotherapy institutions. The results were then analyzed in detail according to three factors: whether the hospital was designed for cancer care, whether it was a Japanese Society for Radiation Oncology (JASTRO)-accredited hospital, and whether it was an intensity-modulated radiation therapy charged hospital. Responses were obtained from 579 (69%) nationwide radiation therapy institutions. For non-qualified RTMP, 10% of the institutions had their own educational systems, only 17% of institutions provided on-the-job training, and 84% of institutions encouraged participation in educational lectures and workshops in academic societies. However, for qualified RTMP, 3.0% of institutions had their own educational systems, only 8.9% of the institutions provided on-the-job training, and 83% encouraged participation in academic conferences and workshops. Less than 1% of the facilities offered salary increases for certification, whereas 8.2% offered consideration for occupational promotion. Regarding the educational environment, JASTRO-accredited hospitals were better than general hospitals. Few institutions have their own educational systems for qualified and non-qualified RTMP, but they encourage them to attend educational seminars and conferences. It is desirable to provide systematic education and training by academic and professional organizations to maintain the skills of individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several staffing models are used to determine the required medical physics staffing, including radiotherapy technologists, of radiation oncology departments. However, since Japanese facilities tend to be smaller in scale than foreign ones, those models might not apply to Japan. Therefore, in this study, we surveyed workloads in Japan to estimate the optimal medical physics staffing in external beam radiotherapy. A total of 837 facilities were surveyed to collect information regarding radiotherapy techniques and medical physics specialists (RTMPs). The survey covered facility information, staffing, patient volume, equipment volume, workload and quality assurance (QA) status. Full-time equivalent (FTE) factors were estimated from the workload and compared with several models. Responses were received from 579 facilities (69.2%). The median annual patient volume was 369 at designated cancer care hospitals (DCCHs) and 252 across all facilities. In addition, the median FTE of RTMPs was 4.6 at DCCHs and 3.0 at all sites, and the average QA implementation rate for radiotherapy equipment was 69.4%. Furthermore, advanced treatment technologies have increased workloads, particularly in computed tomography simulations and treatment planning tasks. Compared to published models, larger facilities (over 500 annual patients) had a shortage of medical physics staff. In very small facilities (about 140 annual patients), the medical physics staffing requirement was estimated to be 0.5 FTE, implying that employing a full-time medical physicist would be inefficient. However, ensuring the quality of radiotherapy is an important issue, given the limited number of RTMPs. Our study provides insights into optimizing staffing and resource allocation in radiotherapy departments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The study analyzes MRI availability in 32 (59%) of the 54 African countries. • MR systems in 4 northern countries make up 53% of all MR systems available in the 32 studied African countries. • Less than a third of the surveyed African countries have 1 MR system for less than a million population. • The 32 studied African countries altogether have average of 1 MRI system per million population. • Published literature on brain examinations dominate quantitative MRI published studies in Africa in the last 5 years. This scoping review provides overview on the historical and major developments, current status, quantitative magnetic resonance (MR) studies and the role of medical physics bodies in MR imaging in Africa. The study analyzed MRI availability in 32 (59 %) of the 54 African countries. South Africa and Egypt have the most dominant MR systems. Number of MR systems in the 4 northern countries (Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Libya) alone constitute 53 % of the total number of machines in the studied countries. Less than one-third of the countries have 1 MR system serving less than a million population. Libya recorded the most MR systems per million population. The studied countries altogether have an average of 1 machine per million population. The private sector far dominates number of installed MR systems across the region, making up two-thirds of the distribution. A major challenge was revealed where less than 3 % of Medical Physicists in the studied countries are engaged in MRI facilities. Review of MRI published studies in the last 5 years indicates dominance of literature on brain studies and most of such published works coming from Nigeria. Only 7 out of 27 published studies reviewed were quantitative. The African region has no dedicated MRI physics societies; however, the regional medical physics body and national associations have big roles to play in developing MRI through education, research, training and leveraging on awareness creation. This review is the first of such wide scale study on MRI availability and quantitative studies in the African region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brachytherapy (BT), especially in high dose rate (HDR), has become increasingly complex owing to the use of image-guided techniques and the introduction of advanced applicators. Consequently, radiotherapy technologists and medical physicists (RTMPs) require substantial training to enhance their knowledge and technical skills in image-guided brachytherapy. However, the current status of the RTMP workload, individual abilities and quality control (QC) of BT units in Japan remains unclear. To address this issue, we conducted a questionnaire survey from June to August 2022 in all 837 radiation treatment facilities in Japan involving RTMPs. This survey focused on gynecological cancers treated with HDR-BT (GY-HDR) and permanent prostate implantation using low-dose-rate BT (PR-LDR). The responses revealed that the average working time in the overall process for HDR varied: 120 min for intracavitary BT and 180 min for intracavitary BT combined with interstitial BT. The QC implementation rate, in accordance with domestic guidelines, was 65% for GY-HDR and 44% for PR-LDR, which was lower than the 69% observed for external beam radiation therapy (EBRT). Additionally, the implementation rate during regular working hours was low. Even among RTMP working in facilities performing BT, the proportion of those able to perform QC for BT units was ~30% for GY-HDR and <20% for PR-LDR, significantly lower than the 80% achieved for EBRT. This study highlights the vulnerabilities of Japan's BT unit QC implementation structure. Addressing these issues requires appropriate training of the RTMP staff to safely perform BT tasks and improvements in practical education and training systems., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Japanese Radiation Research Society and Japanese Society for Radiation Oncology.)

The use of mobile devices and applications dedicated to different medical fields has improved the quality and facilitated medical care, especially in the last 10 years. The number of applications running on the software platforms of smart phones or other smart devices is constantly growing. Radiotherapy also benefits from applications (apps) for TNM staging of cancers, for target volume delineation and toxicity management but also from radiobiological apps for calculating equivalent dose schemes for different dose fractionation regimens. In the context of the increasingly frequent use of altered fractionation schemes, the use of radiobiological models and calculations based on the linear quadratic model (LQ) becomes a necessity. We aim to evaluate free radiobiology apps for the Android software platform. Given the global educational deficit, the lack of experts and the concordance between radiobiology education and the need to use basic clinical notions of modern radiotherapy, the existence of free apps for the Android platform running on older generation processors can transform even an old smart device in a powerful „radiobiology station.” Apps for radiobiology can help the radiation oncologist and medical physicist with responsibilities in radiotherapy treatment planning in the context of accelerated adoption of hypo-fractionation regimens and calculation of the effect of treatment gaps, a topic of interest in the COVID-19 pandemic context. Radiobiology apps can also partially fill the educational gap in radiobiology by arousing the interest of young radiation oncologists to deepen the growing universe of fundamental and clinical radiobiology.

Medical physics is a dynamic and constantly growing field of applied physics mainly directed towards the applications of physics principles to health care. Among the technological novations there is the optimization of image quality for magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound diagnostics, and computer tomography; development and use of high energy linear accelerators with sophisticated options for dose delivery; computerized treatment planning systems, record and verification systems; overall integration of computers into the routine clinical work. The key role of the medical physicist is widely recognized to ensure the safe and effective use of modern equipment for medical exposure. Medical physicists are involved in four basic activities: clinical service, research, and development, teaching, and management/administration. In addition, they should be familiar with the safety culture and promote this principle among the medical staff for the improvement of radiation safety, setting an example by their behaviour. There is no the best practice for the certification of medical physicists in international experience. The paper presents an attempt to analyse international standards and propose recommendations for the implementation of medical physicist’ certification in Ukraine. According to the authors, this will strongly influence on nation’s health.

• Professional Ethics: conducting a survey to evaluate French MP feeling. • Training in Professional Ethics for Medical Physicists in France is too low. • Creation of a working group to address the highlighted problem areas. • Providing a professional code of ethics. Since 2017, in France, medical physicists (MP) are finally defined by law as health professionals and as such, the roles and responsibilities of an MP lean on those medical professional ethics but MPs lack initial or continuing training in this subject. In order to find out how our colleagues feel about this subject, the following survey was conducted. French Society of Medical Physics (SFPM) designed a web survey addressed to its members and non-members concerning ethics based on the 2013 AAPM work; experience and training were highlighted as particularly important within the survey structure. 249 answers were collected and showed a pronounced concern at the lack of initial and continuous training in this subject. Professional experience of non-ethical behaviour was attributed to the lack of training, resources or competences and hostile work environments. To address the shortcomings highlighted in the survey, SFPM has created a dedicated voluntary working group aimed at producing a professional code of ethics for MP and training modules to be applied at entry level or as continuing professional development for education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The coronavirus infectious disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread over 213 countries around the world and two international conveyances. This has become a cause of public health emergencies as well as a crisis internationally. Realising its deadlier effects the World Health Organisation has already declared this crisis as a pandemic on 11th, March, 2020. Material and Methods: Hospitals authority mostly do not provide complete personal protective equipment (PPE) for medical physicists every day as in general, they do not come in direct contact with patients frequently, shortages of PPE and economic barriers. Results: In this commentary, we have highlighted different aspects of fear psychosis dominantly acting on medical physicists working in the hospital where both confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients are being treated during this pandemic. Further, a series of novel methods are proposed to reduce the risk of viral exposure for medical physicist community and other health care workers, and patients. Conclusion: In the absence of proper PPE, medical physicists should maintain proper physical distancing along with wearing the available protective devices (gloves and face mask) avoid casual touching of the mouth and nose to reduce the risk of infection.

Background and purpose: The professional quality of life of radiation oncology professionals can be influenced by different contributing factors, including personality traits. Alexithymia involves deficits in emotion processing and awareness. Empathy is the ability to understand another’s ‘state of mind/emotion’. We investigated professional quality of life, including burnout, in radiation oncology, exploring the role of alexithymia and empathy and targeting the population of medical physicists (MPs), since this professional category is usually underrepresented in surveys exploring professional well-being in radiation oncology and MPs may experience professional distress given the increasing complexity of multimodal cancer care. Material and methods: An online survey was addressed to ESTRO members. Participants filled out three questionnaires to evaluate alexithymia, empathy and professional quality of life: a) Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20); b) Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI); c) Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQoL). Professional quality of life as per ProQoL was considered as dependent variable. The three domains of the ProQoL, namely compassion satisfaction (CS), secondary traumatic stress (STS) and burnout were correlated with alexithymia (as per TAS-20) and empathy (as per IRI with three subcategories: empathic concern, perspective taking and personal distress) and demographic/professional characteristics as independent variables. Generalized linear modeling was used. Significant covariates on univariate linear regression analysis were included in the multivariate linear regression model. Results: A total of 308 medical physicists completed all questionnaires. Alexithymia as per TAS-20 was correlated to decreased CS (β = −0.25, p

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has now become the largest global health issue. The World Health Organization on March 11, 2020, declared COVID-19 disease as a global pandemic. We have formulated certain strategies based on published evidences to help medical physicists to formulate their own protocols to carry out planning and treatment. Social distancing, sanitization, and segregation are crucial for all. Time, distance, and shielding are essential criteria for radiation safety and it remains unchanged for COVID-19 too, as quarantine time, social distancing, and face/body shielding are important.

Magnetic resonance‐guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) is a completely non‐invasive technology that has been approved by FDA to treat several diseases. This report, prepared by the American Association of Physicist in Medicine (AAPM) Task Group 241, provides background on MRgFUS technology with a focus on clinical body MRgFUS systems. The report addresses the issues of interest to the medical physics community, specific to the body MRgFUS system configuration, and provides recommendations on how to successfully implement and maintain a clinical MRgFUS program. The following sections describe the key features of typical MRgFUS systems and clinical workflow and provide key points and best practices for the medical physicist. Commonly used terms, metrics and physics are defined and sources of uncertainty that affect MRgFUS procedures are described. Finally, safety and quality assurance procedures are explained, the recommended role of the medical physicist in MRgFUS procedures is described, and regulatory requirements for planning clinical trials are detailed. Although this report is limited in scope to clinical body MRgFUS systems that are approved or currently undergoing clinical trials in the United States, much of the material presented is also applicable to systems designed for other applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of mobile devices and applications dedicated to different medical fields has improved the quality and facilitated medical care, especially in the last 10 years. The number of applications running on the software platforms of smart phones or other smart devices is constantly growing. Radiotherapy also benefits from applications (apps) for TNM staging of cancers, for target volume delineation and toxicity management but also from radiobiological apps for calculating equivalent dose schemes for different dose fractionation regimens. In the context of the increasingly frequent use of altered fractionation schemes, the use of radiobiological models and calculations based on the linear quadratic model (LQ) becomes a necessity. We aim to evaluate free radiobiology apps for the Android software platform. Given the global educational deficit, the lack of experts and the concordance between radiobiology education and the need to use basic clinical notions of modern radiotherapy, the existence of free apps for the Android platform running on older generation processors can transform even an old smart device in a powerful „radiobiology station.” Apps for radiobiology can help the radiation oncologist and medical physicist with responsibilities in radiotherapy treatment planning in the context of accelerated adoption of hypo-fractionation regimens and calculation of the effect of treatment gaps, a topic of interest in the COVID-19 pandemic context. Radiobiology apps can also partially fill the educational gap in radiobiology by arousing the interest of young radiation oncologists to deepen the growing universe of fundamental and clinical radiobiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, patient management generally requires a multidisciplinary approach. However, due to the growing knowledge base and increasing complexity of Medicine, clinical practice has become even more specialised. Radiation oncology is not immune to this trend towards subspecialisation, which is particularly evident in ablative radiotherapy techniques that require high dose fractions, such as stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), and stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT). The aim of the present report is to establish the position of the Spanish Society of Radiation Oncology (SEOR), in collaboration with the Spanish Society of Medical Physics (SEFM), with regard to the roles and responsibilities of healthcare professionals involved in performing SRS and SBRT. The need for this white paper is motivated due to the recent changes in Spanish Legislation (Royal Decree [RD] 601/2019, October 18, 2019) governing the use and optimization of radiotherapy and radiological protection for medical exposure to ionizing radiation (article 11, points 4 and 5) [1 ], which states: "In radiotherapy treatment units, the specialist in Radiation Oncology will be responsible for determining the correct treatment indication, selecting target volumes, determining the clinical radiation parameters for each volume, directing and supervising treatment, preparing the final clinical report, reporting treatment outcomes, and monitoring the patient's clinical course." Consequently, the SEOR and SEFM have jointly prepared the present document to establish the roles and responsibilities for the specialists—radiation oncologists (RO), medical physicists (MP), and related staff —involved in treatments with ionizing radiation. We believe that it is important to clearly establish the responsibilities of each professional group and to clearly establish the professional competencies at each stage of the radiotherapy process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Professional quality of life is crucial for radiation oncology professionals. • Alexithymia increases compassion fatigue and decreases compassion satisfaction. • Professional category impacts well-being at work. • Professional profile has a moderator role on secondary traumatic stress. • Teaching emotional awareness should be fostered. Cancer care can be taxing. Alexithymia, a personality construct characterized by difficulties in identifying and describing feeling and emotions, an externally-oriented thinking style and scarcity of imagination and fantasy, is significantly correlated with higher levels of both secondary traumatic stress (STS) and burnout and lower levels of compassion satisfaction in medical professionals in radiation oncology. In this study, we aimed to assess the difference in professional quality of life (QoL) and the association with alexithymia in this multidisciplinary field depending on the specific profession (radiation/clinical oncologist, RO; medical physicist, MP; radiation therapist, RTT). The study was conducted via an online questionnaire, receiving 1500 submissions between May and October 2018. Alexithymia was assessed via the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and professional QoL was evaluated using the Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQoL) version 5. Comparisons between the RO, RTT, and MP groups were performed by ANOVA or MANOVA, followed by Bonferroni corrected ANOVAs for continuous variables, and Pearson's chi-square test for categorical variables. The effect size was determined by calculating partial eta-squared (η2). Profession had a moderator role on the correlation between alexithymia and STS, with RO being at a higher risk than MP and RTT. Further, the results of this study demonstrate the relevant point prevalence of decreased well-being at work even for professional categories such as MP despite the more technical profile and reduced interaction with patients. This study demonstrates the importance of alexithymia as a factor contributing to decreased professional QoL amongst radiation oncology professionals. Alexithymic ROs are impacted to a higher extent compared to MPs and RTTs by the indirect exposure to patients suffering. It is worth addressing these observations in professional education, aiming to improve QoL for healthcare personnel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medical physics is a dynamic and constantly growing field of applied physics mainly directed towards the applications of physics principles to health care. Among the technological novations there is the optimization of image quality for magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound diagnostics, and computer tomography; development and use of high energy linear accelerators with sophisticated options for dose delivery; computerized treatment planning systems, record and verification systems; overall integration of computers into the routine clinical work. The key role of the me dical physicist is widely recognized to ensure the safe and effective use of modern equipment for medical exposure. Medical physicists are involved in four basic activities: clinical service, research, and development, teaching, and management/ administration. In addition, they should be familiar with the safety culture and promote this principle among the medical staff for the improvement of radiation safety, setting an example by their behaviour. This is no the best practice for the certification of medical physicists in international experience. The paper presents an attempt to analyse international standards and propose recommendations for the implementation of medical physicist’ certification in Ukraine. According to the authors, this will strongly influence on nation’s health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We developed a Medical Physicists Curricular Program regarding AI. • It can be considered as a supplement to all sub-speciality curricula of EFOMP. • It is recommended to be utilised by national training and regulatory bodies. • It can also be implemented via the European School of Medical Physics Expert modules. To provide a guideline curriculum related to Artificial Intelligence (AI), for the education and training of European Medical Physicists (MPs). The proposed curriculum consists of two levels: Basic (introducing MPs to the pillars of knowledge, development and applications of AI, in the context of medical imaging and radiation therapy) and Advanced. Both are common to the subspecialties (diagnostic and interventional radiology, nuclear medicine, and radiation oncology). The learning outcomes of the training are presented as knowledge, skills and competences (KSC approach). For the Basic section, KSCs were stratified in four subsections: (1) Medical imaging analysis and AI Basics; (2) Implementation of AI applications in clinical practice; (3) Big data and enterprise imaging, and (4) Quality, Regulatory and Ethical Issues of AI processes. For the Advanced section instead, a common block was proposed to be further elaborated by each subspecialty core curriculum. The learning outcomes were also translated into a syllabus of a more traditional format, including practical applications. This AI curriculum is the first attempt to create a guideline expanding the current educational framework for Medical Physicists in Europe. It should be considered as a document to top the sub-specialties' curriculums and adapted by national training and regulatory bodies. The proposed educational program can be implemented via the European School of Medical Physics Expert (ESMPE) course modules and – to some extent – also by the national competent EFOMP organizations, to reach widely the medical physicist community in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a branch of computer science dedicated to giving machines or computers the ability to perform human-like cognitive functions, such as learning, problem-solving, and decision making. Since it is showing superior performance than well-trained human beings in many areas, such as image classification, object detection, speech recognition, and decision-making, AI is expected to change profoundly every area of science, including healthcare and the clinical application of physics to healthcare, referred to as medical physics. As a result, the Italian Association of Medical Physics (AIFM) has created the "AI for Medical Physics" (AI4MP) group with the aims of coordinating the efforts, facilitating the communication, and sharing of the knowledge on AI of the medical physicists (MPs) in Italy. The purpose of this review is to summarize the main applications of AI in medical physics, describe the skills of the MPs in research and clinical applications of AI, and define the major challenges of AI in healthcare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a branch of computer science dedicated to giving machines or computers the ability to perform human-like cognitive functions, such as learning, problem-solving, and decision making. Since it is showing superior performance than well-trained human beings in many areas, such as image classification, object detection, speech recognition, and decision-making, AI is expected to change profoundly every area of science, including healthcare and the clinical application of physics to healthcare, referred to as medical physics. As a result, the Italian Association of Medical Physics (AIFM) has created the “AI for Medical Physics” (AI4MP) group with the aims of coordinating the efforts, facilitating the communication, and sharing of the knowledge on AI of the medical physicists (MPs) in Italy. The purpose of this review is to summarize the main applications of AI in medical physics, describe the skills of the MPs in research and clinical applications of AI, and define the major challenges of AI in healthcare.

On 5 December 2013 the European Council promulgated Directive 2013/59/EURATOM. This Directive is important for Medical Physicists and Medical Physics Experts as it puts the profession on solid foundations and describes it more comprehensively. Much commentary regarding the role and competences has been developed in the context of the European Commission project “European Guidelines on the Medical Physics Expert” published as Radiation Protection Report RP174. The guidelines elaborate on the role and responsibilities under 2013/59/EURATOM in terms of a mission statement and competence profile in the specialty areas of Medical Physics relating to medical radiological services, namely Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Radiation Oncology and Nuclear Medicine. The present policy statement summarises the provisions of Directive 2013/59/EURATOM regarding the role and competences, reiterates the results of the European Guidelines on the Medical Physics Expert document relating to role and competences of the profession and provides additional commentary regarding further issues arising following the publication of the RP174 guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]