Medical physicists in radiology - present status in AFOMP region

The wide use of ionization radiation in healthcare and increasing high radiation procedures like computed tomography [CT] and interventional radiology [IR] procedures have raised serious safety and health concerns for both patients and health professionals necessitating establishment of a radiation protection culture. Responsibilities for radiation protection in the imaging team lies on the radiologists, radiation technologists and medical physicists. However the role of the medical physicist [MP] in radiology imaging is not as well established as it is in radiation oncology. In radiation oncology, clinical medical physicists are mandatory by law but many radiology departments currently operate without MP, though international standards and requirements mandates the role of the MP in radiation protection in radiology. The Asia Oceania Federation of Organizations for Medical Physics [AFOMP] has 19 National Member Organizations [NMO] as members and 2 NMO's as affiliate members from Asia-Pacific region covering about 4.5 billion population with majority of countries are less-developed countries with lack of appropriate infrastructure and funding, lack of regulations regarding requirement of MPand, awareness of radiation protection. We have carried out survey by sending a questionnaire to AFOMP member countries to get the information about number of MP in radiotherapy, radiology and related details. We have received response from 21 countries, the data collected is analyzed and found that 16/21 counties have MP in radiology and number of MP vary from 0.94% to 69.9% as compared 21/21 countries having MP in radiotherapy varies from 16.7% to 94.4%.