(Fwd) a word of caution

["JERRY ROSEN" <ROSEN@rso.radsafe.pitt.edu>]

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date:          Thu, 14 Sep 1995 13:23:52 -0400
Reply-to:      sherouse@RadOnc.MUSC.EDU
From:          "George W. Sherouse, Ph.D." <sherouse@RADONC.MUSC.EDU>
Subject:       a word of caution
To:            Multiple recipients of list MEDPHYS <MEDPHYS@CMS.CC.WAYNE.EDU>

Colleagues,

As access to the Internet and to e-mail nd netnews become more widely
available we can expect to see more and more "civilians" making use of
these resources.  Mailing lists which are open to the public, like the
medphys list, are a good example of this kind of resource.  One way
that is seen in our context is that people who are not in any sense of
the term medical physicists can, have, and will ask questions
regarding detailed aspects of what we do in our profession, perhaps
without the background to understand the answer, and just maybe with
the intent of actually using our answers to do something that impacts
patient care.

Unless you know who you are responding to, it strikes me as prudent to
respond to questions in this forum as if they were coming from a
stranger you happened to run into at a cocktail party.  If, in such a
situation, someone asked you "Oh, you're a Medical Physicist.
Excellent.  I wonder if you could tell me what value of Ngas I should
use in calibrating my accelerator" you would hopefully react with
significant skepticism as to why this person was asking that question
and more importantly what they might be planning to do with your
answer.  It seems perhaps a good idea to do the same here.  An aspect
of this to bear in mind is that someone who is qualified to calibrate
an accelerator already *knows* how to get a value for Ngas.

The medphys list is not moderated.  Membership is open to the general
netpublic.  In the early days this list was populated mainly by
medical physicists in academic radiation oncology departments.  That
is no longer true.  Literally anybody, like maybe a nuclear medicine
tech who plans to moonlight by designing radiotherapy treatment
bunkers or a private radiology department administrator who wants to
save some money by doing her own physics checks but isn't quite sure
of what some of the terms in the former physicist's report mean or
[insert your own horror scenario] can ask questions here.  A competent
physician would not diagnose or prescribe over the net.  We should
adopt the same stance, I think.  "You need to see a physician to get
an accurate diagnosis" translates as "Your qualified radiation
physicist can help you with that."

- GWS

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