Should Engineers Be Licensed Like Doctors?

Medical Physicist  “Medical Physicist  “Some people do nuclear medicine, others do diagnostic radiology (CT, x-rays, magnetic resonance), others do radiation protection, and other (like me) do radiation therapy physics (for cancer treatment).” (Gonzalez, J. Sept. 10 th, 2003)

Radiation Therapy  “Among other things, I have to calculate if the amount of radiation it was delivering was in agreement with measured data.”  “An incorrectly calibrated machine may cause serious side effects, including death.”

Radiation Therapy  For this machines, we have a series of daily checks, weekly checks, monthly and yearly checks. For the daily checks, you could be a technician or a dosimetrist. For the weekly checks, you could be a dosimtrists or a physicist with training in using the equipment. For the monthly checks, you must be a medical physicist. The certification usually depends on national regulations. For example, in the US, to be a certified Medical Physicist you must have a masters degree and 2 years of experience working with a senior medical physicist. Then you have to pass board exams.

Prostate Seed Implants  In my case, we also do treatment planning, dose calculation, dose verification, Brach therapy for cervix, cancer treatment simulation and maybe one or two other things.  Brachytherapy is a treatment modality on which we place radioactive isotopes very close to the target tissue. There are prostate implants, for example, or cesium capsules that are placed inside the vaginal cavity to treat some forms of vaginal and uterine cancer. In Panama we use cesium and we got a new machine called a High Dose Rate machine that works with Iridium.

Death vs. Disaster  Direct Effect on Human Life  Responsibility  Individual Life  Lives of many  Example  2003 Blackout

DISASTER  On August 24th 1992, Hurricane Andrew struck an unprepared South Florida and demolished entire neighborhoods. Poorly designed houses were torn apart. 250,000 people were left homeless. Ten years later, a new building code was put in place.

Mechanical Engineering

Energy Industry

Automobile Industry

Aeronautic Industry

Nuclear Engineering        Aspects of Nuclear Engineering are well regulated  Operator License is required to transport, store, and operate nuclear fuel  Design of is restricted concerning nuclear material.

Nuclear License  Designed structures affecting public safety must be certified by a P.E.  Operators are licensed but other engineers are not.  There are maintenance engineering jobs as well as some design work that do not require P.E. certification.     

The Melt-Down  Having licensed engineers or certified P.E’s improves the integrity of the designed or maintained product and reduces costs.  Design work concerning public and environmental safety should require a license.  Other design engineers should not have to be licensed to prevent over-regulation.