Medical physicists certification process and examination in the middle east

Abstract

Certifying medical physics is becoming an essential part in recruiting medical physicists in hospitals across the Middle East region. Due to the lack of a comprehensive post graduate programs in MP in most of ME countries; hospitals find it very difficult to hire MP without the proper credentials and clinical experiences. Also, MP in the region find it very difficult to apply and travel for certification in Europe or North America due to visa and other related issues. So, if these certifying bodies are welling to cooperate with MEFOMP and/or similar organizations in the ME region so that certifications will be offered in the region for the region in a way to ease the process and save efforts and resources from the burdens of MP. Certifying Medical Physicist requires an individual to obtain a university degree at the level of Master degree in Medical Physics, this is followed with at least a one year of clinical residency program in the Medical Physics fields applied in a Hospital. The existing local/national certifying organization exam models are utilized as reference to design the final exam structure which can be customized for the medical physicists that will be working in the Middle East. Three Exam Model proposals will be discussed here, all of which aim to evaluate the competencies of the individual medical physicist knowledge and skills by following various examination approaches.