Held annually on 7 November – on the birthday of the world’s first medical physicist, Marie Salomea Skłodowska–Curie – the International Day of Medical Physics raises awareness of the field’s important role within radiation medicine, celebrating the profession’s contributions to patient care. This year’s theme is “Inspiring the next generation of medical physicists”, realized by the IAEA’s efforts to address the growing need for medical physicists globally. The IAEA facilitates the education and training of medical physicists, including through several key publications and guidance documents. The recently published Postgraduate Medical Physics Academic Programmes resource offers updated guidance on structuring postgraduate academic programmes, and this week, 24 specialists from Europe are participating in a workshop in Cyprus to develop sustainable medical physics academic programmes in their respective countries.
Recognised as a health profession by the International Labour Organization, medical physicists work closely with radiation oncologists, imaging specialists and other scientists and health professionals as part of multidisciplinary hospital teams. They apply their expertise in physics principles, methods and techniques to support the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases, through clinical practice or research. To ensure medical procedures involving ionizing radiation are both safe and effective, medical physicists assess radiation doses and associated risks, perform accurate measurements and calculations, and contribute to the development and implementation of quality assurance programmes. Thanks to medical physicists, patients around the world can be diagnosed and treated safely and effectively with ionizing radiation.
“There is a pressing global need to train more medical physicists, especially in light of their essential role in facilitating the safe and effective use of some complex diagnostic and therapeutic technologies within clinical environments,” said Mauro Carrara, Head of Dosimetry and Medical Radiation Physics in the IAEA’s Division of Human Health. “By 2050, the world will need more than 18 600 additional clinically qualified medical physicists working in radiotherapy just to meet the surge in global cancer cases,” he pointed out, citing the recently published, IAEA-led Lancet Oncology Commission on Radiotherapy and Theranostics.
To support countries in expanding their medical physics workforce, the IAEA has published Postgraduate Medical Physics Academic Programmes (“TCS-56 (Rev 1)”). This resource offers updated guidance on structuring postgraduate academic programmes – from admissions criteria, academic faculties, and teaching syllabi, to quality management and long-term sustainability. It also outlines key requirements to ensure students gain the foundational knowledge necessary for clinical training in medical physics, careers in industry and metrology, or further academic study at the doctoral level.
“The TCS-56 (Rev 1) document sets a high standard for medical physics education and provides a flexible framework that can be adapted to different local needs. It has become a fundamental resource for Member States seeking to improve the accuracy and reliability of medical physics practice,” said Professor Renata Longo, Director of the Master of Advanced Studies in Medical Physics programme jointly run by the University of Trieste and the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics. “We used it to develop the Master of Advanced Studies in Medical Physics programme, and now our graduates are working around the world, improving patient care and strengthening healthcare systems.”
Building on this resource, the IAEA is conducting a week-long workshop in Cyprus from 4 -8 November 2024 to support European countries in developing or refining their own postgraduate medical physics programmes. Through didactic lectures, theoretical discussions, and practical exercises, the workshop is equipping the region’s medical physicists with the skills to design and sustain programmes tailored to their respective country’s unique needs and infrastructure. As they create medical physics modules, participants are defining training objectives, outlining requirements, curating relevant content, identifying suitable methodologies, and specifying critical competencies.
“This workshop has been invaluable in helping me understand how to implement TCS-56 (Rev 1) in my country,” said Borislava Petrovic, a qualified medical physicist from the University of Novi Sad and Oncology Institute of Vojvodina in Serbia. “The knowledge and practical skills I’ve gained here will directly support us in building stronger medical physics practices, ultimately improving patient care and healthcare quality at home."
