The shortage of radiotherapy physicists.

The difficulties many radiotherapy facilities have in hiring new medical physicists indicate a shortage in the production and supply of these specialists. It appears that about 130 out of 350 new positions go unfilled each year. This projection matches well with the estimate that around 217 new medical physicists graduate per year. The problem is likely to become worse as a large cohort of practitioners reach retirement age in a couple of years. The radiotherapy physicists in the field tend to be working longer and harder, potentially leading to burnout or increases in errors. Addressing the difficulty in finding trained medical physicists, some facilities may start hiring untrained physicists or assigning technological personnel to perform the functions of a medical physicist, both of which could pose dangerous situations. While more physics undergraduates are showing interest in medical physics as a career, and medical physics graduate programs have increased enrollment by more than 30% over the last two years, further significant increases seem unlikely soon because of limited resources. Increasing resources (mostly faculty at the teaching universities) will require more research funding from governmental agencies--a situation unlikely in the near future. New mechanisms of funding medical post-graduate education are needed.