Clinical training residency programs in Mexico: Next step in the formation of medical physicists

Abstract

At present, two Mexican universities offer academic programs in medical physics leading to Master of Science degrees. During the last 18 years, these medical physics programs have graduated over 180 medical physicists total. Both programs offer academic activities based on basic courses that include a (320 – 400 h) hospital residency. Although this residency covers some of the fundamental tasks performed by clinical medical physicists, the number of hours for practical training possible to include within a university master program is insufficient to provide all the abilities needed to perform as an independent health professional. It is recognized that academic education alone does not make a clinical medical physicist; supervised clinical practice is also essential. This clinical practice may be acquired through a one- or two-year long traineeship in a hospital, following an appropriately defined and evaluated work-plan, under the supervision of a senior medical physicist. In this presentation we describe the experience in 2015 of a first initiative implemented in Mexico under the auspices of the CONACyT Medical Physics Network aimed at providing four clinical training residencies of medical physicists in radiation oncology and nuclear medicine services at three of the most recognized health centers in Mexico City.