The current status of education and career paths of students after completion of medical physicist programs in Japan: a survey by the Japanese Board for Medical Physicist Qualification

Educational outcomes of a medical physicist program over the past 10 years in Japan

The promotion plan for the Platform of Human Resource Development for Cancer (Ganpro) was initiated by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan in 2007, establishing a curriculum for medical physicists. In this study, we surveyed the educational outcomes of the medical physicist program over the past 10 years since the initiation of Ganpro. The Japan Society of Medical Physics mailing list was used to announce this survey. The questionnaire was created by members of the Japanese Board for Medical Physicist Qualification, and was intended for the collection of information regarding the characteristics and career paths of medical physics students. Students who participated in the medical physics program from 2007 to 2016 were enrolled. Thirty-one universities (17 accredited and 14 non-accredited) were represented in the survey. In total, 491, 105 and 6 students were enrolled in the Master's, Doctorate and Residency programs, respectively. Most students held a Bachelor's degree in radiological technology (Master's program, 87%; Doctorate program, 72%). A large number of students with a Master's degree worked as radiological technologists (67%), whereas only 9% (n = 32) worked as medical physicists. In contrast, 53% (n = 28) of the students with a Doctorate degree worked as medical physicists. In total, 602 students (from 31 universities) completed the survey. Overall, although the number of the graduates who worked as medical physicists was small, this number increased annually. It thus seems that medical institutions in Japan are recognizing the necessity of licensed medical physicists in the radiotherapy community.