28 T-Q Nguyen et al .: Radioprotection 2024 , 59 ( 1 ), 26 – 29
Table 2 . Number of medical physicists obtained from different departments in Vietnam ( Vietnam Society of Medical Physics , 2021 ). Department
Number of medical physicists
Radiation therapy
Nuclear medicine
Radiotherapy and nuclear medicine
Radiation safety
Materials & equipment supplies
103 17 25 6 6 0
Diagnostic imaging
N X ¼ X w i n i ; i
where w i is the relevant weighting factor in terms of FTE per input quantity and n i is the associated input parameter including equipment , patient , radiation protection , service data , training , academic teaching and research data ( IAEA , 2018 ).
In Vietnam , the diagnostic imaging department is separate from the nuclear medicine department . Each department has different facilities , but in the same level hospital , basic facilities are equivalent . To estimate medical physicist requirements , the calculation method is based on a typical diagnostic imaging department from two different categories of health structures following Circular 08 / 2019 / TT-BYT ( Vietnam Ministry of Health , 2019 ). Tu Son District Health Center is a medium-sized hospital ( 240 beds ). Bac Ninh General Hospital is large ( ∼1200 beds ). The input parameter is shown in Table 1 .
The current results of the medical physicists ’ force are based on the 2021 statistics of the Vietnam Society of Medical Physics . This statistic is based on the supply of staff at participating hospitals .
3 Results and discussion ð3Þ
The results of the district health center workforce require ∼0.6 diagnostic medical physicists . So , their workload is lower than their ability . For district and provincial hospitals , the mandatory recruitment of medical physicists is not regulated . District hospitals should consider recruiting a diagnostic medical physicist . This employee can work in the Materials & Equipment Supplies Department additional tasks on medical equipment or in the most appropriate radiology department with technician duties . In another way , two district hospitals can hire a diagnostic medical physicist , but managing staff is difficult under Vietnamese law .
For the provincial general hospital model , the results require 1,2 diagnostic medical physicists . The recruitment medical physicist requirement is obvious because there are many complex image displays , procedures for imaging , intervention , radiation safety management , and large and diverse patients . Their workload is higher than their ability , so their job needs to be shared by radiologists or technicians .
According to the Health Statistics Yearbook , Vietnam has 20 central general hospitals , 20 central special hospitals , 162 provincial general hospitals , 177 provincial special hospitals , 712 district general hospitals , and 228 private hospitals
( Vietnam Ministry of Health , 2021 ). Ideally , to estimate the lack of diagnostic medical physicists , by mechanical calculation , Vietnam needs 912.6 diagnostic medical physicists . At the present , Vietnam urgently needs 202 employees ( 20þ20þ162 ).
According to the survey of the Vietnam Society of Medical Physics , there are 157 medical physicists ( table 2 ). There are no diagnostic medical physicists . From clinical practice point of view , diagnostic medical physicist duties are performed by radiologists , technicians , supply engineers , or medical physicists in other departments . We notice that 12 employees ( 7.6 %) are in charge of radiation safety inspection , repair , and maintenance of medical imaging equipment , although they are not in diagnostic imaging departments . This is a good premise for this workforce to develop in the future .
4 Conclusions and recommendations
The shortage of diagnostic medical physicists in Vietnam is huge . This job is still a potential profession in Vietnam . The recruitment depends on the characteristics of each radiology department as well as the hospital . For province hospital level , the recruitment for a medical physicist is reasonable and very urgent .
In the process of developing the Vietnam hospital regulation , we suggest that the Ministry of Health considers adding roles and responsibilities of Medical Physics in the diagnostic imaging department .
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest .
Funding
The authors declare that no financial support was received for the research , authorship , and / or publication of this article .
Ethical Approval Ethical approval was not required .
Informed Consent
This article does not contain any studies involving human subjects .