A 2012 survey of the Australasian clinical medical physics and biomedical engineering workforce

The Italian young medical physicist scenario: Results from the young AIFM group survey

PURPOSE

The young working group of the Italian Association of Medical and Health Physics (AIFM) designed a survey to assess the current situation of the under 35 AIFM members.

METHODS

An online survey including 65 questions was designed to gather personal information, educational issues, working and research experience, and to evaluate the AIFM activities. The survey was distributed to the under 35 members between November 2022 and February 2023, through the young AIFM mailing list and social media.

RESULTS

160 answers from 230 affiliates (70%, 31 years median age) were obtained. The results highlighted that 87% of the respondents had a fixed term/permanent employment, mainly in public hospitals (58%). Regarding Medical Physicists (MPs) training, 54% of the students left their region of origin due to the training plan (40%) and the availability of scholarships (25%) in the chosen university. Most of the respondents have no Radiation Protection Expert title, while the remaining 20%, 6%, and 3% are qualified to the first, second, and third level, respectively. Several young MPs (62.2%) were involved in research activities; however, only 28% had teaching experience, mainly within their workplace (20%, safety courses), during AIFM courses (4%), or university lectures (3%).

CONCLUSIONS

This survey reported the current situation of the under 35 AIFM members, highlighting the "brain drain" phenomenon from the south to the north of Italy, mainly due to the lack of post-graduate schools, scholarships, and job opportunities. The obtained results will help the future working program of the AIFM.

Survey on the interest and commitment of AIFM members to scientific activities (SicAS) - The initiative of the FutuRuS working group

PURPOSE

The "FutuRuS" working group of the Italian Association of Medical Physics and Health Physics (AIFM) designed a survey (SicAS) to get feedback from its members regarding their interests and their experience in taking part in scientific activities and events, with the objective of focusing future efforts of the AIFM towards increasing the scientific activity of the medical physics expert (MPE).

METHODS

SicAS was sent out in March 2022 to all AIFM members by newsletter and official communication. SicAS was structured into three sections: personal information and institution of affiliation information, involvement in scientific activities, interest in and commitment to scientific activities. Responses were collected in a fully anonymised mode from the Google Forms platform and analysed with descriptive statistics.

RESULTS

Out of 1289 members (active at the end of 2021), 467 responded to the Survey (response rate of 36%). The Survey results highlighted that AIFM members ranked the involvement of the MPE in scientific activities as highly relevant to the profession. However, 34.7% indicated devoting less than 10% of their working time to scientific activities. 67.5% of the respondents were dissatisfied with the time spent on scientific activities. The primary barrier was the lack of time (77%), followed by a lack of mentoring (32%).

CONCLUSIONS

SicAS highlighted the need for AIFM initiatives to support members' scientific activities. National societies should help develop and support networks between members, create links among universities, hospitals, research institutions and industries, and provide guidelines and learning platforms for enhancing the MPEs' involvement in scientific activities.

Report of the ACPSEM radiation oncology medical physics workforce modelling project task group

The ACPSEM radiation oncology medical physics workforce modelling project task group was formed to acquire a snapshot of practices in Australia and New Zealand and to develop an activity-based workforce model. To achieve this, two surveys were carried out, capturing the work practices of 98 radiation oncology departments and 182 college members. The member survey provided a snapshot of the current workforce: their demographics, work conditions, professional recognition, and future plans. The facility survey provided an Australian and New Zealand contextualisation of the volume-based activities defined in the International Atomic Energy Agency activity-based radiation oncology staffing model at a granular level. An ACPSEM ROMP workforce model was developed to be a modelling tool applicable at both the facility and sector levels.

Medical physics workforce: A global perspective

PURPOSE

The International Organization for Medical Physics (IOMP) performed a detailed study following the first survey published in 2015 with the particular objectives: 1) gather data on global medical physicists (MPs) workforce, 2) identify differences between geographical regions and, 3) investigate whether there is a gender dimension in higher hierarchy positions.

METHODS

An online questionnaire was send to IOMP members and contact points in countries where no professional MPs society existed. Information requested: total number (N) of MPs (men and women), N of current elected executive board (EB) of societies and women proportion in the board, president gender and number of women presidents for the last 10 years. IOMP archives were also investigated for data on gender composition related to chairs of committees, officers and IOMP awardees.

RESULTS

Ninety three countries reported 29,179 MPs, from which 8702 were women (29.8%) and 20,477 men. The most dense MPs population was in Europe (34%), followed by North America (33%) and Asia/Oceania (24%). Societies EB women members constitute 21-40%, but rarely reach the presidential position. The IOMP archived data show that women MP representation decreases in higher hierarchy positions.

CONCLUSIONS

Global MPs production does not meet clinical needs especially in Latin America/Caribbean and Africa (6% of total MPs workforce and small number of MPs/million of population). Rough estimations showed that approximately 58,950 MPs will be required by 2035. Women representation is away from the United Nations and European Commissions goals. Women representation in higher hierarchy position is low.

Women in medical physics: a preliminary analysis of workforce and research participation in Australia and New Zealand

Although the participation of women within the science, technology, engineering and mathematics workforces has been widely discussed over recent decades, the recording and analysis of data pertaining to the gender balance of medical physicists in Australia and New Zealand remains rare. This study aimed to provide a baseline for evaluating future changes in workforce demographics by quantifying the current level of representation of women in the Australasian medical physics workforce and providing an indication of the relative contribution made by those women to the local research environment. The 2015 Australasian College of Physical Scientists and Engineers in Medicine (ACPSEM) member directory and list of chief physicists at ACPSEM-accredited radiation oncology and diagnostic imaging training centres were interrogated to identify the gender balance of medical physicists working in Australia and New Zealand. A specific investigation of the employment levels of all medical physicists in Queensland was undertaken to provide an example of the gender balance at different levels of seniority in one large Australian state. Lists of authors of medical physics presentations at ACPSEM annual conferences and authors of publications in the ACPSEM's official journal, were used to provide an indication of the gender balance in published research within Australia and New Zealand. The results of this study showed that women currently constitute approximately 28 % of the medical physics workforce in Australia and New Zealand, distributed disproportionally in junior roles; there is a decrease in female participation in the field with increasing levels of seniority, which is particularly apparent in the stratified data obtained for the Queensland workforce. Comparisons with older data suggest that this situation has changed little since 2008. Examination of ACPSEM conference presentations suggested that there are similar disparities between the gender-balance of proffered and invited or keynote speakers (28 % and 13 % from female authors) and the gender balance of certified and chief physicists (28 % and 21 % female). The representation of women in the ACPSEM journal does not differ substantially between authorship of proffered versus invited work (22 % and 19 % from female authors). While this work was limited to evaluating the membership, annual conference and official journal of the ACPSEM (rather than evaluating the entire medical physics workforce and the contributions of male and female physicists to international conferences and publications), this study nonetheless led to the following recommendations: that a longitudinal study analysing correlations between age, period of service, seniority and gender should be undertaken and that future ACPSEM workforce surveys should include analyses of gender representation.