Pre-service and in-service education relating to medical physics have peculiar characteristics since this is an interdisciplinary field with constant technological evolution. In countries like Brazil, several barriers exist, such as small numbers of professionals who are geographically poorly distributed, low financial resources and few options for information access, thereby hindering and delaying the incorporation and dissemination of new techniques that could have an impact on healthcare quality. This literature review evaluated the role of distance education within medical physics, and portrayed its applicability through identifying relevant experiences. Studies have shown that distance education within this field presents interesting characteristics, such as high pedagogical effectiveness and economic efficiency, which enables massive use of multimedia resources with wide geographical coverage, in a manageable way. Therefore, distance education has potential to overcome the barriers and meet the needs.
Higher education; Pre-service education; Education continuing; Distance education; Medical Physics