About Japanese Board for Medical Physicist Qualification (JBMP)

The purpose of Japanese Board for Medical Physicist Qualification (JBMP) is to qualify Medical Physicists, and conduct activities related to Medical Physicist qualification and certification, and to contribute in a major way to the evolution of medical science and medical services through those activities. In order to serve the objectives, the activities and projects have been implemented as listed below:

1. To issue and maintain certification of Qualified Medical Physicists working in the hospitals, and medical and academic institutions in Japan.
2. To accredit educational organizations for education and training of Medical Physicists, and to maintain the accreditation of educational organizations.
3. To formulate guidelines for education curriculum of Medical Physicist education and training.
4. To hold seminars and workshops to educate Medical Physicists and expand their capability.
5. To conduct activities and projects related to 1 to 4 above.

What is Medical Physicist?

Medical Physicists are playing a leading role to resolve physical and technical problems. They have passed the certification evaluation and examination held by JBMP.
They correspond to ‘Medical Physicist’ which is classified as a part of physicists and astronomers by the International Standard Classification of Occupations 2008 (ISCO-08), issued by the International Labour Organization (ILO), as “They apply scientific knowledge relating to physics and astronomy in industrial, medical, military or other fields.”¹⁾
The roles of Medical Physicists are, i) clinical contribution, ii) research and development, and iii) education. More specifically, they have contributed to the fields listed below:

• The field of Radiation Oncology Medical Physics:
  Medical Physicists have contributed to control tumors effectively with minimized side effects, through the development of radiotherapy system using X-rays and heavy particles and its quality assurance work. They also have contributed to optimization and verification of patient-specific radiotherapy plans.
• The field of Radiology Medical Physics:
  Medical Physicists have contributed to the development of imaging devices for the diagnosis of diseases, improvement of image quality, and quality assurance work about radiation dose and image quality in the field of Radiology.
• The field of Nuclear Medicine Physics:
  Medical Physicists have contributed to the development of imaging system and treatment system using radioisotopes, improvement of image quality, and quality assurance work about radiation dose and image quality in the field of Nuclear Medicine.
• The field of Radiation Protection and Radiation Safety:
  Medical Physicists have contributed to minimize radiation dose and radiation damage.

To become an examinee or a candidate of qualified medical physicists, one must finish medical physics education program in graduate courses, and complete clinical training for a certain period.²⁾

References

1) The International Standard Classification of Occupations 2008 (ISCO-08)

2) Constitution of qualification system of Medical Physicists (in Japanese)