Society News Archive

In December 2016, the Board of Directors of the American Board of Medical Physics (ABMP) voted to extend the ABMP's reciprocity agreement with the American Board of Health Physics (ABHP) to allow certified health physicists (CHPs) wishing to enter the ABMP certification process to proceed directly to the ABMP Part III (oral exam) for medical health physics (MHP), given that they meet additional requirements applicable to all MHP candidates. In order to apply directly to the ABMP Part III (oral exam) in MHP, the additional requirements for health physicists already certified by the ABHP are:

• Proof of certification by the ABHP must be submitted as part of the application.
• The CHP must possess a graduate degree in physics, medical physics, or other appropriate and related field from an accredited university. An official transcript must be submitted as part of the application.
• The CHP must have an acceptable amount of clinical medical physics experience, which is determined by the degree and whether or not he/she participated in a clinical residency. This information is documented on the ABMP website (www.abmpexam.com).
• The CHP must submit endorsements by both a board-certified medical physicist and a board-certified physician. In order to have the words "RSO Eligible" written on the ABMP certificate, a preceptor radiation safety officer (RSO) must endorse the candidate's experience with radioactive material handling, safety, shipping and receiving, etc. The preceptor RSO and the board-certified medical physicist can be the same person.
• All candidates in the ABMP certification process have 10 years to complete the exam process. Any candidate who does not complete any part of the exam sequence in three attempts must start the sequence again. Any CHP who does not pass Part III (oral exam) in three attempts will be required to take and pass Part II of the MHP exam before being allowed to apply for Part III (oral exam) again.

Candidates meeting the above criteria are invited to apply for this year's ABMP Part III (oral exam)—Medical Health Physics. The MHP oral exam is a two-hour examination conducted by three ABMP-certified MHPs.

Application deadline is 25 August 2017. The exams will be held in Baltimore, Maryland, on Tuesday, 3 October, and Wednesday, 4 October. Only a limited number of slots are available this year; please indicate desire to apply to the ABMP executive director at abmpexam@gmail.com.