米国医学物理士の教育

抄録

We asked AAPM (American Association of Phyicists in Medicine) to send us list of institutes which have education program of medical physicists, and obtained the names of 40 institutes. Among them,19 institutes sent us detailed information. All of them were graduated courses (master courses or doctor courses). Faculties of the courses belong to field of medicine, health science, natural science, engineering, technology, cancer center, and public health graduated course. The courses are on radiology, radiation oncology, radiation sciences, nuclear engineering, biological physics, radiological physics and living state physics.
We have extracted from them on: 1. definition and philosophy of medical p h ysics,2. outine of the courses,3. qualification for entrance to the courses,4. curriculum,5. study theme, and 6. jobs after the courses. Research activities in the courses are as follows 1. radiation therapy,2. image diagnosis,3. biology,4. biological physics,5. radiology, and 6. medical engineering.
There are now 3300 medical physicists in USA, but the number is not sufficient. The courses do not bring enough number of medical physicists for their needs. Needs are so many because of recent growing up of new technology on advanced medical instruments and modalities. So, medical physicists seem to be very promising professoin in USA. We propose the graduated courses of medical physics here in Japan based on extended 4 years faculties for bachelors on radiological technology instead of 3 years colleges for radiological technicians.