Questionnaire Survey of Japanese Medical Physicists on Working Conditions in 2020

Abstract

The questionnaire survey was conducted in 2020 to investigate the working conditions of qualified medical physicists in Japan. We developed a web-based system for administering the questionnaire and surveyed 1,228 qualified medical physicists. The number of received responses was 405. We summarized the results of the survey by job category. The obtained results showed that most of the people working as certified medical physicists met the following conditions: (1) position of healthcare occupation, (2) direct supervisor is a medical doctor or a medical physicist, (3) licensed or passed an examination for a Class I Radiation Protection Supervisor, (4) without the license of professional radiotherapy technologist, (5) master's or doctor's degree, (6) being assigned to the section that is different from the radiological technologist section. The average annual salary was approximately 600,000 yen higher for those employed as medical physicists than for those employed as radiotherapy technologists. The percentage of work performed by a certified medical physicist in radiation therapy greatly varies depending on whether the physicist is dedicated to treatment planning and equipment quality control. Alternatively, the proportion of the true duties of medical physicists in charge of radiation therapy, as considered by qualified medical physicists in radiation therapy, was the same regardless of whether they were working full-time or not. The results of this survey updated the working status of certified medical physicists in Japan. We will continue to conduct the survey periodically and update the information to contribute to the improvement of the working conditions of medical physicists and policy recommendations.