Building and Strengthening the First MS

program in Medical Physics in The Gulf Region

N Maalej1*, A Al-Karmi1, J Al-Sadah1, W Abdel-Rahman2, (1) King Fahd University of
Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, (2) King Fahd Specialist
Hospital, Dammam, Saudi Arabia

Abstract
The first medical physics MS program in the gulf region was started in 2002 at King Fahd
University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM). After consulting with national and
international organizations including representative from the AAPM, IOMP , the
university of Wisconsin-Madison , King Faisal specialist Hospital and research center
(KFSH@RC) we constructed a versatile and rigorous curriculum for educating and
training medical physicists. The program requirement for graduation comprised 7 core
courses, 7 required labs, a minimum of 3 elective courses, a Master’s research project, a
4 months clinical rotation and an MS qualifying exam. The success of the program
required very close collaboration with local and national hospital such as King Fahd
specialist hospital in Dammam (KFSH-DMM), KFSH@RC and Riyadh Military Hospital
(RKH). We cemented the collaboration with a formal agreement between KFUPM and
KFSH-DMM, whereby the clinical medical physicists are actively involved in teaching
lectures and labs, evaluating students’ performance and co-supervising their clinical
rotation and research projects. In order to prepare our graduates for their medical
physics careers, we emphasize innovative teaching methods such as students centered
learning, execution of course projects, experiential learning with authentic exercises and
acquiring research skills and tools such as Monte Carlo simulations. Our graduates have
succeeded in securing clinical positions in some of the best hospitals in the region; some
have gone to do their Ph.D. s in North America and Europe. Many of our students
succeeded in publishing their MS projects in international Journals and in national and
international conferences. One of our students was instrumental in obtaining a US
patent (US Patent # 785298) for an innovative x-ray tube design. We are presently
working to acquire IAEA approval of our program and we are targeting CAMPEP
accreditation to make it possible for our graduates to obtain American Board
Certification.
Introduction
Medical physics program in KFUPM was started in 2002 as the first graduate program in medical physics. So far, the
program has graduated more than 25 students. Most of them are working in the major hospitals around Saudi Arabia
and some went for PhD. The program succeeded in building good reputation through the high quality of its graduates.

This paper will introduce the program in terms of history and design goals at the planning time. Later, an overview of the
program content will be given together with some admission issues. The last section will address the future plans for the
program which include seeking certification of international bodies including IAEA and CAMPEP. This move will increase
the trust of local hospitals in the program and attracts more students to the program

History and Design Philosophy

In late 1990s, the physics department wanted to diversify the general physics with the applied field of medical physics.
After contacting the ministry of health, an estimate of 100 medical physics job positions was proposed. The main
challenge for the ministry of health at that time was to attract medical physicists from abroad competing with US and
Europe for the few available medical physicists. No sufficient numbers were willing to choose Saudi Arabia over other
places. At that time, the country was opening and expanding the cancer treatment centers that included radiation
therapy and advanced imaging. So, there was a consensus on the need to open a medical physics graduate program.

In the design stage, consulting with several national and international organizations including representative from
the AAPM, IOMP, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, King Faisal specialist Hospital and research center
(KFSH&RC) was conducted. The courses contents were selected on basis of the good model of UW-M where
the student is taught a solid self-contained radiologic physics and imaging with no assumed pre-known pieces
except general physics, calculus and computation skills.

Lack of any local or regional residency programs as well as limited capacity of majority of hospitals to conduct
effective on-job training, was recognized. Thus a large emphasis on the practical aspects was placed by
incorporating lab components within radiological physics, radiation therapy, health physics and nuclear
medicine courses. Some elective courses, like ultrasound imaging, also included lab components. Three
independent lab courses, from a set of 6, were required. On top of these 7 labs, the students were required to
take 4 months clinical training.

The issue with the labs was that KFUPM only has a good primary care clinic but not a hospital. Only one of the
labs could be conducted but not others. The solution was to make an arrangement with local hospitals to
conduct the medical physics labs in their facilities. This matured later to be a formal agreement between
KFUPM and King Fahd Specialist Hospital in Dammam (KFSH-D). We acquired accessory equipment like
phantoms, QA equipment and dosimetry equipment for the different imaging modalities, radiation therapy,
nuclear medicine and health physics. The clinical training was conceived to happen in KFSH&RC. Later, training
was also conducted in Riyadh-Kharaj Military Hospital and KFSH-D.

The master program, excluded the thesis option to keep the duration of the program reasonably fit within 2-
2.5 years. However, the thesis was replaced with a research project course (3 credits) done during the 2nd year
or during the clinical training. Master projects resulted in publication of several journal and conference
publications both local and international.
Current Program
The medical physics program includes the requirements categories stated in Table 1. These include courses, labs &
clinical training and research project. A total of 7 labs are required from each student (4 within courses and 3
independent labs). The clinical training and the labs have been effective in helping the students be effective clinical
medical physicists in a relatively short time. This was the design objective in light of lacking clinical residency program.

COURSE CREDITS
1. Completion of core courses 22
2. Completion of elective courses 10
3. Completion of clinical training 6
4. Completion of Med Phys Project 3
5. Passing the comprehensive examination –
TOTAL 42
Table 1 : Degree requirments

The core course requirements are shown in Table 2. The courses cover the fundamental science behind the main
imaging modalities and radiation therapy. These courses were designed to be self-contained with general physics,
calculus and computation background. Due to diversity of the student in-take, the courses review all basics
needed to handle medical physics tasks.

COURSE # TITLE CR
MEPH 500 Human Anatomy and Physiology 3
MEPH 510 Radiobiology 2
MEPH 561 Radiological Physics and Dosimetry 3
MEPH 563* Radioisotopes in Medicine and Biology 3
MEPH 566* Radiotherapy Physics 3
MEPH 567* Diagnostic Radiology Physics 4
MEPH 569* Health Physics 4
Total 22
(*) contains a lab component

Table 2 : Core courses

The tradeoff in the design of the program was to emphasize the practical aspect and reduce the formal thesis option.
The research skills were partly covered by requiring students to do class projects and performing medical physics
research project. Many research projects succeeded in publishing journal and conference papers. Some of the students
participated in local and international conferences. One of our students was instrumental in obtaining a US patent (US
Patent # 785298) for an innovative x-ray tube design.

Admission, Enrollment and Graduates

Being the only graduate program in medical physics in the country and generally in the region, sufficient numbers of
applicants are expected. The background is preferred to be physics but we were also willing to take engineering
background with a course in modern physics. The program, as well as the rest of campus, is taught in English and thus
TOFEL is required for admission. The program content includes advanced concepts where calculus, Fourier analysis and
programming skills are required.

For the nationals, Saudis, the large number of applicants’ expectation has held up. However, the applicants’
backgrounds were mostly not physics BS. They could be classified into the following categories:

1. Health colleges’ graduates where some were practicing technologists: their science and calculus background is
not adequate. If they are to take sufficient deficiency courses, they would take 1-2 additional years which is not
reasonable from their side as well as the university.
2. Teaching college physics graduates: it turns out that the physics and calculus background is not strong in
addition to English language barrier. We generally ask from a course in mathematics (MATH 301) which contains
advanced calculus and geometry content and Fourier analysis; it would serve both as background builder and a
quality checkpoint.
3. Physics graduates from other universities: the background is quite acceptable and we were satisfied with them.
The English barrier is fixed with an intensive course in one academic semester. A recent change in the university
admission is to require the TOEFL before the admission thus forcing the training at an earlier stage. Generally
the numbers are not many, a general symptom of science departments and physics in particular. The physics
teaching market also is a strong competent
4. Physics and engineering from KFUPM: generally very few enters physics and out of the few who does they go for
higher studies in general physics or study abroad. The engineering students are a fair fraction from the student
body with sufficient skills in math and computation. The science insight builds up slowly within the program.
5. Medical physics undergraduates: There are two programs of medical physics undergraduates in Saudi Arabia and
Jordan. We took several graduates from these programs. Generally, they are weak in physics with some
superficial knowledge of medical physics. We had success with those who practiced clinical medical physics for a
few years after their BS. However, they were not able to go deep into theoretical aspects of medical physics. It is
our judgment that medical physics should not be taught at undergraduate level.
6. Female students: The campus tradition held as all males; unlike other campuses with girls’ colleges and medical
schools. There were many female applicants over the years some of whom were practicing medical physicists.
The administration recently stated that the issue is being investigated.

The expatriate applicants were not many but mostly do meet the admission criteria. This is reasonable because we are
selecting from a larger students body. The issues are different for these students. For example, these are considered as
workers, research assistants, and thus subject to visa quotas by governments.

We had been taking 2-7 students per year which is quite comparable to other graduate programs in College of Sciences.
These numbers need to be a little bit higher but not much higher due to training, labs and market considerations. Table
3 shows some statistics, 2010, about medical physics graduates. Our graduates have succeeded in securing clinical
positions in some of the best hospitals in the region; some have gone to do their Ph.D. s in North America and
Europe.

Nationality Saudi Arabia Egypt Jordan Nigeria Bangladesh Pakistan Sudan Syria Uganda
Numbers 7 2 4 2 2 2 2 1 1
Table 3 : Student Distribution as per Country of Origin
Future Plan
In the planning stage for the program, consultants from AAPM, UW-M and IOMP contributed in setting up the design
strategy. AAPM report 44 (1993) and 79 (2002) were used as guide lines. The program worked very well and achieved
good local reputation. Now we feel that formal certification is due.

We are quite confident about the didactic content of the program. It has been kept up-to-date and has been regularly
compared and pinch marked to UW-Madison and McGill programs. The clinical side which included labs and the formal 4
month training part is much improved with the formal agreement with KFSH-D which offsets lack of our own teaching
hospital. This agreement also allows the clinical experience from the hospital to flow directly in the program with
revisions of the course contents against clinical needs and realities.

The selection of international certifying bodies will start from IAEA, then UK then CAMPEP. This will allow us to gain
experience from perceived to be less challenging bodies then end with CAMPEP. The perceived difficulty with CAMPEP is
their requirement of ABR certification of faculty teaching the medical physics. Although, all three members who
currently teach medical physics were graduates from certified institutions, they are not themselves ABR certified. We
are working on getting ABR certified PhD holder from KFSH-D as adjunct professor in our program.

Conclusion
The medical physics master program has done well in graduating more than 25 medical physicists in 8 years and building
a good reputation among local hospitals. The research output of the student body and faculty was also satisfactory. The
next step is to seek international certification of the program and slightly increase the enrollment rate.