Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Should there be a residency match for medical physics?

The Journal of Medical Physics has published a debate on the resolution: Medical physics residents should be placed using a matching program

Stephen Sapareto, X. Ronald Zhu and Colin G. Orton, Moderator
Med. Phys. 41, 060601 (2014); http://dx.doi.org/10.1118/1.4871039

Arguing for the Proposition is Stephen Sapareto, Ph.D., arguing against the Proposition is X. Ronald Zhu, Ph.D.

Medical physicists get Board certification following a residency, but they are Ph.D.s and not M.D.'s, so they finish their degree only after writing a dissertation.

Briefly, the position in favor of a match is that graduates are facing a chaotic unraveled market that resembles the one for medical residents prior to the institution of a match.  And the position against a match rests on the observation that medical physicists don't all finish at the same time of year, and that the present rules on timing would be sufficient if only they could be enforced...

Here's an explanation of what medical physicists do, from the American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

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