A strategic development model for the role of the biomedical physicist in the education of healthcare professionals in Europe

Being an excellent scientist is not enough to succeed! Soft skills for medical physicists

PURPOSE

To provide a review of the literature and commentary regarding soft skills for Medical Physicists.

METHOD

A comprehensive search in PubMed was carried out using the searchwords 'medical physics' coupled separately ('AND', both in Title) with each of the following terms: leadership, teamwork, communication, pedagog*, teach*, marketing, conflict resolution, negotiat*, qualitative research, organizational psychology.

RESULTS

The total number of PubMed references was extremely low (total 6 relevant articles for all of leadership, communication, pedagog*, teach*, with the rest of the searchwords giving zero hits) which is quite disturbing. For an improved perspective, we compared the search for 'leadership AND medical physics' to 'leadership AND medical' and 'leadership AND nursing' we only had 4 hits for Medical Physics as opposed to 564 for 'leadership AND medical' and 1419 for 'leadership AND nursing'.

CONCLUSIONS

It seems that Medical Physicists give an extremely low priority to soft skills as opposed to scientific skills. In a world of austerity economics and sometimes over commoditization such a situation is not only disturbing it is actually very risky for the profession. Medical Physicists must learn to provide strategic and robust leadership, be able to market their profession to all stakeholders (in particular to decision makers, other health care professions and the general public), be able to communicate their role, negotiate effectively for their profession, and boost their abilities for teambuilding and conflict resolution. The setting up of education programmes to overcome this soft skill deficit among medical physicists by national, regional and international medical physics organizations must be given priority.

A generic curriculum development model for the biomedical physics component of the educational and training programmes of the non-physics healthcare professions

The objective of the study was the construction of a generic curriculum development model for the use of biomedical physics (BMP) educators teaching the non-physics healthcare professions (HCP) in Europe. A comprehensive, qualitative cross-sectional Europe-wide survey of the curricula delivered by BMP in Faculties of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS) was carried out. Curricular content was collected from faculty web-sites, curricular documents and textbooks. The survey data was supplemented with semi-structured interviews and direct observation during onsite visits. The number of faculties studied was 118 from 67 universities spread all over Europe, whilst the number of onsite visits/interviews was 15 (geographically distributed as follows: Eastern Europe 6, North Western Europe 5, and South Western Europe 4). EU legislation, recommendations by European national medical councils, educational benchmark statements by higher education quality assurance agencies, research journals concerning HCP education and other documents relevant to standards in clinical practice and undergraduate education were also analyzed. Best practices and BMP learning outcomes were elicited from the curricular materials, interviews and documentation and these were subsequently used to construct the curriculum development model. A structured, comprehensive BMP learning outcomes inventory was designed in the format required by the European Qualifications Framework (EQF). The structures of the inventory and curriculum development model make them ideally suited for use by BMP involved in European curriculum development initiatives for the HCP.

Medical physicists in Malaysia: A national workforce survey 2019

OBJECTIVE

Medical physics in Malaysia is still considered a young profession. This workforce survey aims to understand the status, aspirations, motivation and experiences of medical physicists (MPs) in the country. A subsection of this survey also aims to understand the role of women.

METHOD

A survey was carried out between April 20 and May 30, 2018 by a working group under the Medical Physics Division of the Malaysian Institute of Physics (IFM). The survey form was designed using Google Form and sent to various public and private institutions nationwide that employed MPs registered with IFM.

RESULTS

A total of 106 responses (28% men and 72% women) were analysed. This represented 30% of the medical physics workforce. Majority of them had postgraduate degrees, but their clinical training is mostly obtained on the job with no certification. The number of low-ranking female MPs was disproportionately high. MPs worked long hours and achieving work-life balance (WLB) was a challenge. Factors that improved their WLB included working close to home, having a supportive manager and flexible working hours. Most MPs aspired to become professional and mentor younger compatriots, besides contributing to patient care and research. Gender discrimination was reportedly low.

CONCLUSION

Medical physics in Malaysia is growing and has a strong representation of women. In future, they would probably take over the top management from their male counterparts, whose number had stagnated. A united effort was essential to set up a proper clinical training system to train clinically qualified MPs.

Participation of women medical Physicists in European scientific events: The European experience

PURPOSE

Though the number of women scientists is increasing over the years, studies show that they are still under-represented in leadership roles. The purpose of this work is to establish the percentage of women Medical Physicists (wMPs) that have participated in European scientific events and evaluate it as an indication of the current position of women in the field of Medical Physics in Europe and to propose possible ways to encourage their participation.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Data regarding the participants in European scientific events of Medical Physics were collected. The participants were divided into categories according to the program of the events and their gender was identified. The percentage of wMPs in each category was evaluated.

RESULTS

The participation of wMPs attending courses is greater than 50%. The categories with the greatest participation are "Organizing Committees", "Chairpersons-Moderators" and "Oral Presentations". The categories with the lower participation of wMPs are "Scientific Committee", "Symposiums" and "Invited Speakers". None of wMPs were represented as "Course Directors".

CONCLUSIONS

The attendance of wMPs in courses is slightly greater than average. However, wMPs do not have an equally important recognition in special invited roles in conferences. They are still under-represented in "Scientific Committees", "Invited Speakers", "Symposiums" and "Course directors". wMPs should be encouraged to participate even more actively in European conferences and the organizing committees should invite more wMPs in special roles. More studies concerning the status of female MPs in each country separately should be encouraged as they will help in understanding the position of wMPS in Europe.