Dear colleagues!
On May 17, 2018, the working meeting was held at the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine (SNRIU), which was attended by the Ukrainian Association of Medical Physicists.
As a result of the discussion, a plan of measures aimed at improving the state of radiation safety in medicine and the implementation of international safety requirements, EU legislation, national legislation on medical exposure will be formed.
By the end of the week, it is necessary to form specific proposals that will be included in the action plan and will be implemented by the SNRIU together with NGOs, the Ministry of Health, the Academy of Medical Sciences, scientific institutes, and medical institutions.
At the working meeting Ruslan Zelinskyi provided preliminary proposals from UAMP:
- Organize mandatory control over the launch of new devices (before the commissioning of new equipment to check a group of medical physicists – calibration, quality control of the planning system, correct use of calibration factors, correctness of the table of conversion of Hounsfield numbers to electronic density, etc.)
The goal is the safe commissioning of ionizing radiation sources with subsequent quality treatment of patients.
- Organize periodic audits of the devices in the existing departments of radiation therapy (verification of calibrations, quality control of planning systems, etc.). (Something similar to IAEA TLD audits, but more comprehensive).
The goal is to detect errors in the treatment process in radiation therapy departments, which are related to the improper functioning of the equipment, detection of radiation accidents.
- To organize an open information process by the SNRIU about the possibility of participation in certain courses, trainings, working meetings organized in Ukraine and abroad by international organizations (IAEA, ESTRO, ESMO, etc.), and to hold an open reception of applications (and possibly initial selection ) to participate in them.
The goal is the maximum efficiency for Ukraine from participation in events, participation in events of specialists who have knowledge on the subject of the event and will be able to transfer the acquired knowledge to other specialists in Ukraine.
- Organization, together with the IAEA, of a project to integrate medical physicists into diagnostic and interventional radiology.
The goal is to train Ukrainian specialists (teachers, medical physicists working in radiation therapy, engineers, other specialists who have some knowledge and are interested in radiation safety in diagnostic and interventional radiology) in methods of dose control and optimization in radiological procedures, with subsequent organization of these specialists of the control and optimization system in Ukraine.
- Carrying out changes in the legislation aimed at recognizing medical physicists as specialists with higher non-medical education working in the health care system.
The goal is to provide the representatives of the specialty “medical physicist” with their rights, to improve the financial support that corresponds to the level of their knowledge and important role in the process of ensuring quality diagnosis and treatment.
There are still many issues that you have raised before (at the Forum of Medical Physicists, in e-mails), such as the licensing process, the training of category A employees, but these issues need to be studied in more detail. If you have studied this or that problem, and are ready to offer clear ways to solve them, then let us know, and this question will be included this time.
The list of proposals is still being formed, so if you have specific proposals, you have a clear vision of how to implement your proposals, please send them to uamphs@gmail.com (preferably by 05/23/18)
But we also ask you to note that interdepartmental working meetings in the SNRIU will be repeated periodically. And on them it will be possible to announce new offers, to discuss a condition of realization of the earlier submitted, etc.
We hope that the process of cooperation with the authorities will continue and that we will have an impact on decision-making.
We also ask you to take part in writing and discussing the qualification characteristics of the specialty “medical physicist”. At the moment, the Association of Radiologists of Ukraine plans to make a request to make changes to the classifier of professions in order to harmonize Ukrainian legislation with European. In particular, new qualification characteristics for the specialties “radiologist” and “radiation oncologist” will be submitted for approval. Therefore, we believe that it would be appropriate to add to this list the qualifications of the specialties “medical physicist” and “radiologist” (laboratory radiologist, or other translation RTT), because the approval process is quite long and then will be approved separately. much harder.
The Ukrainian Association of Medical Physicists has developed an initial draft of qualification characteristics for medical physicists based on “Roles and Responsibilities, and Education and Training Requirements for Clinically Qualified Medical Physicists” IAEA Human Health Series No. 25.
Please note that the specialties “radiologist engineer”, “radiophysics engineer” and others will not be excluded from the classifier.
Medical physicist qualification characteristics
RTT qualification characteristics
At the moment, UAMP members are continuing to develop these documents. Join, because more thoughts and ideas are the best result.
Sincerely,
Ukrainian Association of Medical Physicists
uamphs@gmail.com
