A survey of the Australasian clinical medical physics and biomedical engineering workforce

Abstract

A survey of the medical physics and biomedical engineering workforce was carried out in 2006. 495 positions (equivalent to 478 equivalent full time (EFT) positions) were captured by the survey. Of these 268 EFT were in radiation oncology physics, 36 EFT were in radiology physics, 44 were in nuclear medicine physics, 101 EFT were in biomedical engineering and 29 EFT were attributed to other activities. The survey reviewed the experience profile, the salary levels and the number of vacant positions in the workforce for the different disciplines in each Australian state and in New Zealand. Analysis of the data identifies staffing shortfalls in the various disciplines and demonstrates the difficulties that will occur in trying to train sufficient physicists to raise staffing to an acceptable level.

WIMPs = ½ × (ROMPs + DIMPs)

“…Howell Round has published the results from surveys of the Australasian clinical medical physics workforce [5,6]. Some of his data, from surveys conducted 6 years apart, on the numbers of radiation oncology medical physicists (ROMPs), diagnostic imaging medical physicists (DIMPs) and nuclear medicine medical physicists is presented in Table 1.…”

Technical developments in radiology in Australasia dating from 1977

“…That said the major problem we have is one of manpower shortage, as highlighted recently by Round 65 . The implementation of our TEAP training scheme is a key step forward but even if the various state and national governments could be persuaded to fund this training scheme fully now, it will be years before sufficient numbers of experienced radiological medical physicists will be available to undertake the work implicit in dose surveys, other optimization processes outlined above and teaching.…”

Medical physics workforce modelling: do we need what we want?

“…Previous medical physics workforce surveys have been conducted in 2006, 2009 and 2012 by Howell Round [7][8][9]. These surveys were very comprehensive, covering not only radiation oncology but also diagnostic imaging and nuclear medicine.…”

“…Ideally, it would be fantastic to be able to continue gathering this important workforce data and I would gladly help anyone who wishes to volunteer for this massive task. In 2006, there was a shortfall of qualified physicists of 32% in Australia and 15% in New Zealand based on the simplified F2000 ratio of 1.7 qualified physicists per linac [7]. In 2009 this shortfall grew to 35% in Australia and 23% in New Zealand [8].…”