General Radiological Medical Physics Certificate

The field of Radiological Medical Physics is the study of the use of radiation to diagnose and treat human diseases and is a relative newcomer in medically-related scientific disciplines. The first “radiological physics” practitioners were trained in the basic sciences, typically physics. Dedicated radiological medical physics education programs are a recent phenomenon. These programs strive to combine the scientific and medical aspects of the field but they remain small and few in number. To help meet the demand for workers in radiological medical physics, it has been common over the past 40 years to accept persons with closely related scientific backgrounds into the field and provide them with on-the-job training. Even today, a large fraction of practicing radiological medical physics have degrees in fields other than radiological medical physics. Many of these are leaders in the field and their contributions have been and will remain very important. Their work experience has traditionally provided the pathway into certification for these radiological medical physicists. However, given the recent changes adopted by the medical physics education community, these potential outside candidates must document completion of a basic core curriculum in radiological medical physics in addition to a Ph.D. Degree received in a closely related discipline in order to qualify for certification by the American board of radiology (ABR) in radiological physics. The curriculum credit hours required for the graduate certificate in radiological medical physics totals 16.