Requirements for radiation oncology physics in Australia and New Zealand

Navigating the 2021 ACPSEM ROMP workforce model: insights from a single institution

Workforce modelling for Radiation Oncology Medical Physicists (ROMPs) is evolving and challenging, prompting the development of the 2021 Australasian College of Physical Scientists and Engineers in Medicine (ACPSEM) ROMP Workforce (ARW) Model. In the exploration of this model at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, a comprehensive productivity exercise was conducted to obtain a detailed breakdown of ROMP time at a granular level. The results provide valuable insights into ROMP activities and enabled an evaluation of ARW Model calculations. The findings also capture the changing ROMP role as evidenced by an increasing involvement in consultation and advisory tasks with other professionals in the field. They also suggest that CyberKnife QA time requirements in the data utilised by the model may need to be revised. This study emphasises features inherent in the model, that need to be understood if the model is to be applied correctly.

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.

Regional cancer centre demonstrates voluntary conformity with the national Radiation Oncology Practice Standards

Radiation Oncology Practice Standards have been developed over the last 10 years and were published for use in Australia in 2011. Although the majority of the radiation oncology community supports the implementation of the standards, there has been no mechanism for uniform assessment or governance. North Coast Cancer Institute's public radiation oncology service is provided across three main service centres on the north coast of NSW. With a strong focus on quality management, we embraced the opportunity to demonstrate conformity with the Radiation Oncology Practice Standards. The Local Health District's Clinical Governance units were engaged to perform assessments of our conformity with the standards and this was signed off as complete on 16 December 2013. The process of demonstrating conformity with the Radiation Oncology Practice Standards has enhanced the culture of quality in our centres. We have demonstrated that self-assessment utilising trained auditors is a viable method for centres to demonstrate conformity. National implementation of the Radiation Oncology Practice Standards will benefit individual centres and the broader radiation oncology community to improve the service delivered to our patients.

Medical physics staffing for radiation oncology: a decade of experience in Ontario, Canada

The January 2010 articles in The New York Times generated intense focus on patient safety in radiation treatment, with physics staffing identified frequently as a critical factor for consistent quality assurance. The purpose of this work is to review our experience with medical physics staffing, and to propose a transparent and flexible staffing algorithm for general use. Guided by documented times required per routine procedure, we have developed a robust algorithm to estimate physics staffing needs according to center‐specific workload for medical physicists and associated support staff, in a manner we believe is adaptable to an evolving radiotherapy practice. We calculate requirements for each staffing type based on caseload, equipment inventory, quality assurance, educational programs, and administration. Average per‐case staffing ratios were also determined for larger‐scale human resource planning and used to model staffing needs for Ontario, Canada over the next 10 years. The workload specific algorithm was tested through a survey of Canadian cancer centers. For center‐specific human resource planning, we propose a grid of coefficients addressing specific workload factors for each staff group. For larger scale forecasting of human resource requirements, values of 260, 700, 300, 600, 1200, and 2000 treated cases per full‐time equivalent (FTE) were determined for medical physicists, physics assistants, dosimetrists, electronics technologists, mechanical technologists, and information technology specialists, respectively.

PACS numbers: 87.55.N‐, 87.55.Qr

AFOMP POLICY STATEMENT No. 2: recommended clinical radiation oncology medical physicist staffing levels in AFOMP countries

This document is the second of a series of policy statements being issued by the Asia-Oceania Federation of Organizations for Medical Physics (AFOMP). The document was developed by the AFOMP Professional Development Committee (PDC) and was released by the AFOMP Council in 2009. The main purpose of the document is to give guidance as to how many medical physicists are required to staff a radiation oncology department. Strict guidelines are difficult to define as work practices vary from country-to-country and from hospital-to-hospital. A calculation scheme is presented to aid in estimating medical physics staffing requirements that is primarily based on equipment levels and patient numbers but also with allowances for staff training, professional development and leave requirements.

Thirty year celebration of journal publications on radiation oncology medical physics

The Australasian Physical & Engineering Sciences in Medicine Journal (APESM) is an avenue for the profession to report scientific work in medicine; provide a facility for the publication of current work, new research and new techniques developed or reviewed; report on professional news from elsewhere and; publish the Australasian College of Physical Scientists and Engineers in Medicine (ACPSEM) policies and protocols. The journal is a vital instrument within the ACPSEM organisation with a worldwide circulation. This review of APESM on medical physics in radiation oncology is meant to be a progress summary of work in that specialty. Even so, it has become a lengthy appraisal due to the many years involved. In considering publications related to medical physics in radiation oncology, this review has shown the progression of the College journal to an international journal. There is an increase in the number of papers contributed from Asia and other countries world wide for this discipline. Growth in the number of contributions should continue to rise. In order to provide some appreciation of where the present medical physics activity arose from, this article commences its discussion in 1959 and progresses towards the present, describing along the way, from radiation oncology papers published in APESM, the use of linear accelerators, brachytherapy, the medical physics workforce, the formation of the ACPSEM, and the more modern developments in radiotherapy such as 3-D treatment planning and IMRT.

Development of educational image databases and e-books for medical physics training

Medical physics education and training requires the use of extensive imaging material and specific explanations. These requirements provide an excellent background for application of e-Learning. The EU projects Consortia EMERALD and EMIT developed five volumes of such materials, now used in 65 countries. EMERALD developed e-Learning materials in three areas of medical physics (X-ray diagnostic radiology, nuclear medicine and radiotherapy). EMIT developed e-Learning materials in two further areas: ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging. This paper describes the development of these e-Learning materials (consisting of e-books and educational image databases). The e-books include tasks helping studying of various equipment and methods. The text of these PDF e-books is hyperlinked with respective images. The e-books are used through the readers' own Internet browser. Each Image Database (IDB) includes a browser, which displays hundreds of images of equipment, block diagrams and graphs, image quality examples, artefacts, etc. Both the e-books and IDB are engraved on five separate CD-ROMs. Demo of these materials can be taken from www.emerald2.net.