Texas Administrative Code › Title 22 - EXAMINING BOARDS › Part 9 - TEXAS MEDICAL BOARD › Chapter 160 - MEDICAL PHYSICISTS › Section 160.2 - Definitions

Current through Reg. 49, No. 28; July 12, 2024
The following words and terms, when used in this chapter,
				  shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates
				  otherwise.
(1) Act--Title 3, Subtitle
				K, Texas Occupations Code Annotated Chapter 602.
(2) Active duty--A person who is currently
				serving as full-time military service member in the armed forces of the United
				States or active duty military service as a member of the Texas military
				forces, as defined by §
									437.001, Government
				Code, or similar military service of another state.
(3) Address of record--The mailing address of
				each licensee or applicant as provided to the agency pursuant to the
				Act.
(4) Advisory committee--The
				Medical Physicist Licensure Advisory Committee, an informal advisory committee
				to the board whose purpose is to advise the board regarding rules and the
				licensure, enforcement, and discipline of medical physicists.
(5) APA--Administrative Procedure Act, Texas
				Government Code, Chapter 1601 as amended.
(6) Applicant--A person seeking a medical
				physicist license from the board.
(7) Armed forces of the United States--Army,
				Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, or Marine Corps of the United States or a reserve
				unit of one of those branches of the armed forces.
(8) Board--The Texas Medical Board.
(9) Diagnostic radiological physics--The
				branch of medical physics that deals with the diagnostic application of x-rays,
				gamma rays from sealed sources, ultrasound radiation, or radiofrequency
				radiation and the use of equipment associated with the production and use of
				that radiation.
(10) License--A
				certificate issued by the Board that authorizes the holder to engage in the
				practice of medical physics.
(11)
				Licensed medical physicist--A person who holds a license issued under the
				Act.
(12) Medical health
				physics--The branch of medical physics that deals with the safe use of x-rays,
				gamma rays, particle beams, radionuclides, and radiation from sealed
				radionuclide sources for both diagnostic and therapeutic purposes in humans and
				the use of equipment required to perform appropriate radiation tests and
				measurements.
(13) Medical nuclear
				physics--The branch of medical physics that deals with the therapeutic and
				diagnostic application of radionuclides, except those used in sealed sources
				for therapeutic purposes, but including therapy with radiolabeled microspheres
				and with the use of equipment associated with the production and use of
				radionuclides.
(14) Military
				service member--A person who is on active duty.
(15) Military spouse--A person who is married
				to a military service member.
(16)
				Military veteran--A person who served on active duty and who was discharged or
				released from active duty.
(17)
				Physician--A person licensed to practice medicine by the Texas Medical Board
				under Texas Occupations Code, Chapter 152, or if out-of-state a person who
				holds a valid license to practice medicine in that state or
				territory.
(18) Practice of medical
				radiological physics--The use of principles and accepted protocols of physics
				to assure the correct quality, quantity, and utilization of radiation during
				the performance of a radiological procedure prescribed by a practitioner that
				will protect the patient and others from harmful radiation. The term includes
				radiation beam calibration and characterization, quality assurance, instrument
				specification, acceptance testing, shielding design, protection analysis on
				radiation-emitting equipment and radiopharmaceuticals, and consultation with a
				physician to assure accurate radiation dosage to a specific patient.
(19) Practitioner--A doctor of medicine,
				osteopathy, podiatry, dentistry, or chiropractic who is licensed in this state
				and who prescribes radiologic procedures for other persons.
(20) Provisional license--An authorization to
				practice medical physics for a period not to exceed 180 days for individuals
				currently licensed or certified in another jurisdiction.
(21) Quality assurance--An all encompassing
				term that includes data recording, patient management, outcome analysis and
				equipment performance monitoring.
(22) Quality control--A subset of quality
				assurance that concerns monitoring the performance of imaging, treatment and
				associated radiological equipment.
(23) Radiation--Ionizing and/or nonionizing
				radiation above background levels used to perform a diagnostic or therapeutic
				medical or dental radiological procedure.
(24) Radiological physics--The branch of
				medical physics that includes diagnostic radiological physics, therapeutic
				radiological physics, medical nuclear physics, and medical health
				physics.
(25) Radiological
				procedure--A test, measurement, calculation, or radiation exposure used in the
				diagnosis or treatment of disease or other medical or dental conditions in
				humans that includes therapeutic radiation, diagnostic radiation, nuclear
				magnetic resonance, or nuclear medicine procedures.
(A) The activities and services which fall
				within the definitions in the Act of the practice of medical radiological
				physics, diagnostic radiological physics, therapeutic radiological physics,
				medical nuclear physics, or medical health physics are not radiological
				procedures.
(B) The activities and
				services which fall within the Texas Regulations for Control of Radiation, as
				defined in 25 TAC §
										289.201(b)
				(relating to General Provisions for Radioactive Material) and §289.231(c)
				(relating to General Provisions and Standards for Protection Against
				Machine-Produced Radiation), concerning radiographic entrance exposure rates;
				entrance exposure rates for fluoroscopy; dose measurements of the radiation
				output of computed tomography (CT) x-ray systems; equipment performance
				evaluations; surveys, calibrations, and spot checks for therapeutic radiation
				systems operating above 150 kVp up to 1MeV, and surveys, calibrations, and spot
				checks for therapeutic radiation systems operating at energies of 1MeV and
				above, are not radiological procedures.