QMP
Qualified Medical Physicist — board-certified clinical medical physicist (American Board of Radiology, American Board of Medical Physics, or equivalent). Required clinical role in radiation oncology (linac commissioning and QA, treatment-planning-system validation, patient-specific QA) and mammography (annual physicist survey under MQSA); recommended / required for advanced diagnostic imaging accreditation, nuclear medicine programs, and CT dose-monitoring leadership.
Why it matters to buyers: TG-142 linac QA, MQSA mammography physics testing, NRC / Agreement-State dose programs, and ACR accreditation physicist surveys are all physicist-signed. Without qualified physicist coverage, programs cannot operate clinically. Recruiting an in-house QMP versus contracting through a consulting group is a multi-year program decision.
Why it matters to engineers: Staff / contract / consultant physicist is a real operational cost line — plan for it. Physicist-availability constraints often gate go-live timelines on commissioning events; book physicist time months ahead for new-platform commissioning.