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Diagnostic radiology involves numerous modalities for acquiring images of a patient's anatomy or physiology. The medical physicist plays an important role in the quality assurance of equipment and ensuring optimum image quality. For applications involving ionising radiation, the medical physicist is crucial in ensuring that the dose to the patient is the minimum possible while achieving images of diagnostic quality.
The medical physicist is an integral member of a wider team including radiologists, management and radiographers (medical imaging technologists).
Diagnostic Radiology Modalities
The medical physicist may be involved with physics applications associated with the following areas:
- General X-ray (radiography) equipment, including dental units
- Digital and computed radiography applications
- Fluoroscopy
- Mammography
- Computed Tomography (CT)
- Ultrasound
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
Radiology Medical Physicist
The tasks of a radiology medical physicist can include:
- Acceptance testing of equipment
- Commissioning of equipment
- Equipment quality assurance programs
- Radiation safety
- Patient and staff dosimetry
- Tutoring of radiology registrars
- Shielding calculations and assessments
- Compliance with radiation regulatory requirements
- Review of research applications involving exposure of volunteers to ionising radiation
- Radiation safety courses / talks / training
- Dose estimates in the case of accidental exposure to ionising radiation
- Foetal dose estimates and advice regarding exposure during pregnancy
- Advice to pregnant staff members
Qualifications
Most radiology medical physicists have a university degree in physics (typically four years, including honours). Some medical physicists will continue with postgraduate education and a Masters in medical physics or a PhD. To start working clinically and gain experience, these postgraduate qualifications are often undertaken part-time. After 4-5 years of clinical experience, application can be made to ACPSEM for accreditation as a Radiology Medical Physicist.
Typical day in the life of a Radiology Medical Physicist
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8:00 am
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Arrive at work
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8:00 - 10:00 am
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Check emails and find three urgent requests for review of research projects involving ionising radiation (and also MRI). These include calculating the dose for:
- Right heart catheterisation
- Gated cardiac scan (nuclear medicine procedure)
- Chest X-ray
Information regarding patient safety during MRI scans was also required.
Made a start on the dose estimates, but more information from the researchers was required, so need to put the final reports on hold until I can get in touch with them.
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10:00 - 11:00 am
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Received phone call from supervisor radiographer that the imaging plate for the mobile digital radiography unit had been dropped and that the image quality needed to be tested. Started carrying out the testing and found a fault in the plate. Called the service engineer.
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11:00 am - 12:00 pm
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Continued some work on regulatory licensing requirements. Discussed licensing with the Respiratory and the Gastroenterology units. Also provided some answers to one of the on-site research institutes after discussing some of the requirements with the regulatory authority. Will need to put together a radiation safety course to be approved by the regulatory authority so that the medical specialists have the appropriate training to apply for licences. A big job for another day. The regulatory authority has advised that doctors must receive the training within the next 12 months.
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12:00 - 12:30 pm
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Received a query from a pregnant nurse in Endoscopy. Discussed the low risks associated with radiation exposure and changed her personal monitoring badge to a more regular changeover period so that I can keep an eye on her occupational exposure. She left feeling much more reassured and knowing that she can come back to ask questions at any time.
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12:30 - 1:00 pm
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Lunch
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1:00 - 2:00 pm
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Provided a tutorial on computed tomography (CT) to the radiology registrars. We covered physics, operation, image quality and radiation dose. We went through multiple choice questions together and had an open discussion about the risks for the foetus when a pregnant patient requires a CT scan.
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2:00 - 3:00 pm
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The service engineer for the mobile X-ray unit has arrived. He assisted with checking a number of items on the unit, but found that some of the parts need replacing. The X-ray unit is needed daily for intensive care unit rounds and will be out of service for a couple of days while we wait for parts. The radiographers will need to use a back-up older unit for the next couple of days.
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3:00 - 3:30 pm
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Provided a dose estimate and advice on regulatory reporting requirements for an incident involving the mobile X-ray unit. Some of the patient images were lost in the problems we are having with it. The dose for a chest X-ray is very low and hence this incident was not reportable to the regulatory authority, but is logged in our hospital incident database.
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3:30 - 4:00 pm
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Received a request regarding testing the level of radioactivity at the sewer discharge point from the research laboratories. Have scheduled a meeting to discuss this further and will need to consult Engineering also.
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4:00 - 4:30 pm
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Received an email from a patient who requires a CT abdomen scan, but is concerned about the radiation dose and risk of cancer. Provided information regarding the risks and related these to natural background radiation.
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4:30 - 5:00 pm
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Visited the Catheterisation Laboratory to speak to the radiographers regarding the parameters used in right heart catheterisations. This is to assist in the dose estimate for the research project from this morning. Had a brief discussion with one of the researchers. I will need to finish these reports as soon as the additional information is provided by the researchers as the Ethics Office have advised that the projects may miss this month's deadline to go to the Ethics Committee for review.
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5:00 pm
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Time to go home.
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Not all days are as fun and varied as this, but a job as a Radiology Medical Physicist is guaranteed to be diverse and interesting.
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