RE: Medical Physics -Reply

[loneill@Haysmed.com]

Say what you will about being qualified as a "health physicist", but any 
state government can call anyone they wish (for the sake for their 
convenience) a health physicist or a radiation safety expert.  This, of 
course, is primarily for the convenience of the state, so that their 
inspectors (who are often x-ray techs who've had some training on how to do 
inspections) can have a repectable sounding title.  This may sound petty, 
but my credentials were questioned a few years ago by young, inexperienced, 
former x-ray tech that had absolutely no formal training in radiation 
safety or health physics or medical physics outside of x-ray school.  [I 
have a B.S. in radiation protection engineering and a M.S. in radiological 
sciences from an "approved" medical physics (AAPM) graduate program.] I 
questioned _her_ credentials (what makes you a health physicist?) to which 
she replied that the state had bestowed upon her that title. Of course, my 
state people aren't like that, this was a different state.
Now, I feel better.

-------------------------------------
Name: Laura O'Neill
E-mail: loneill@Haysmed.com
Date: 4/18/97
Time: 8:10:40 AM