Vienna, Austria

ESTRO 2023

Session Item

Saturday
May 13
09:00 - 10:00
Business Suite 3-4
Health services research; Education and training
Eduardo Zubizarreta, Austria
1180
Poster Discussion
Interdisciplinary
Interest and commitment of medical physicists to scientific activities: a national survey
Lorenzo Placidi, Italy
PD-0082

Abstract

Interest and commitment of medical physicists to scientific activities: a national survey
Authors:

Roberta Castriconi1, Lorenzo Placidi2, Michele Avanzo3, Roberto Cirio4,5, Pasqualina Gallo6, Aldo Mazzilli7, Alessia Milano8, Tiziana Rancati9, Paolo Russo10,11, Cristina Garibaldi12

1IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Medical Physics , Milano, Italy; 2Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS, UOSD Medical Physics and Radioprotection, Roma, Italy; 3Centro di Riferimento Oncologico di Aviano (CRO) IRCCS, Medical Physics, Aviano, Italy; 4Università degli Studi di Torino, Physics, Torino, Italy; 5National Institute for Nuclear Physics, Physics, Torino, Italy; 6IRCCS Humanitas Research Hospital, Medical Physics Unit, Milano, Italy; 7University Hospital of Parma AOUP, Medical Physics , Parma, Italy; 8Università Cattolica Sacro Cuore, Physics, Roma, Italy; 9Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Prostate Cancer Program, Milano, Italy; 10Università di Napoli Federico II, Physics “Ettore Pancini”, Napoli, Italy; 11National Institute for Nuclear Physics, Physics, Napoli, Italy; 12IEO European Institute of Oncology, IRCCS, Unit of Radiation Research, Milano, Italy

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Purpose or Objective

The “FutuRuS” working group of the Italian Association of Medical Physics and Health Physics (AIFM) designed a survey on the interest and commitment of AIFM members to scientific activities (SicAS). The aim was to 'catch' the experience of the members regarding their own scientific interests, participation in scientific activities and related possible difficulties, considering their working scenario, in order to focus future efforts of the Association for increasing the scientific activities of the medical physics expert (MPE).

Material and Methods

SicAS was sent out in March 2022 to all AIFM members through a newsletter and official communication of the Association. SicAS was structured in three main sections: personal and institute information, involvement in scientific activities, interest and commitment to scientific activities. A definition of ‘scientific activity' has been shared as the introduction of the survey questionnaire. We collected the results of the questionnaire in fully anonymized mode between March and April 2022. Answers were picked up through the Google Forms platform and analyzed with descriptive statistics.

Results

Out of 1289 AIFM members (active at the end of 2021), 467 responded to the survey leading to a response rate of 36%. When asking about continuing professional development, 97% of respondents declared that they used to attend at least one refresher course per year, with 27% attending more than five courses per year. During the last 5 years, over 73% of respondents have presented a poster or oral communication at national/international conferences and in 16.9% of cases as an invited talk. Moreover, a remarkable percentage of them (85% of respondents) joined international/national congresses at least once a year. AIFM members ranked as very highly relevant to the involvement of the MPE in scientific activities. However, 34.7% indicated devoting less than 10% of their working time to scientific activities, and only 9% dedicated more than 60%. 67.5% of the respondents were unsatisfied with the amount of time spent on scientific activities. Figure 1 shows the percentage of time dedicated to research activities during working hours grouped by role. The primary barrier (figure 2) indicated in scientific activities was lack of time (77%), followed by lack of mentoring (32%).


Conclusion

SicAS highlights the need for National Association initiatives to support members’ scientific activities. National Societies could help by developing and supporting networks among all members, creating links among universities, hospitals, research institutes and industries, and providing guideline definitions and learning platforms enhancing the members’ involvement in scientific activities of the MPEs. The FutuRuS group will keep promoting and supporting such topics. Hopefully other National Associations of MP will join such a journey, identifying common barriers and figuring out solutions and collaboration possibilities.