Training for physical scientists in health care

The Institute of Physical Sciences in Medicine (IPSM), soon to amalgamate with the Biological Engineering Society (BES) to become the Institution of Physics and Engineering in Medicine and Biology (IPEMB), has a total membership of 1717 and is the United Kingdom's professional body for physicists and engineers with an interest in health care. The scope of the work is manifold encompassing not only the traditional areas of radiation physics and imaging but also topics such as rehabilitation engineering, instrument design and physiological measurement. The diverse range of modern Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering and the evolution of identifiable sub-disciplines within the field require that there is a formal approach to the training of new entrants to the profession so that a proper vocational foundation to their careers is ensured. The first official Training Scheme was set up in 1981 in response to the need for a more formalised training programme. At that time, the majority of persons entering the scheme were employed as basic grade physicists. Many of them were required to combine their training with the exercise of routine duties and the scheme was devised to take this into account. In 1990 following a fairly fundamental change in the way physicist's posts in the NHS are funded the concept of supernumerary posts for trainee medical physicists was introduced. This gave the authors an opportunity to review training methods, to look again at both how training should be provided and what training should be provided. The current scheme, which has an annual intake of around 32, was devised with the purpose of producing highly competent medical physicists and biomedical engineers by providing new entrants to the profession with a structured programme of education, training and experience enabling them to progress to Corporate Membership of the Institute and entry to the appropriate Practice Register. The requirement for Registration of both the medical physicist and the chartered engineer consists of 3 elements; knowledge base, training and experience. The Training Scheme attempts to provide for all 3 facets of registration.<>