Editorial Policy & Content Standards

Content Creation Process

Our question bank is developed through a rigorous multi-stage process designed to ensure clinical accuracy, educational value, and alignment with the current Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) syllabus:

1. Drafting: Questions are authored by medical professionals with direct FRCR exam experience. Each question is mapped to a specific RCR syllabus topic to ensure comprehensive coverage.
2. Physics Review: A medical physicist or FRCR-qualified radiologist verifies the scientific accuracy of each question, its answer options, and the accompanying explanation.
3. Syllabus Validation: Content is cross-referenced against the current RCR First FRCR Physics syllabus to confirm relevance and appropriate difficulty level.
4. Editorial Review: Questions undergo a final editorial pass for clarity, consistency of terminology, and freedom from ambiguity that could mislead candidates.
5. Publication & Monitoring: After publication, questions are monitored through user feedback and performance analytics to identify any items requiring revision.

Expert Review

All medical physics content on FRCRX is reviewed by qualified professionals before publication. Our review team includes:

• FRCR-qualified Radiologists who have passed the Part 1 Physics examination and can validate content from a candidate's perspective.
• Medical Physicists with postgraduate qualifications in medical physics who ensure the scientific rigour of explanations and calculations.
• Radiology Trainees who provide feedback on question clarity, difficulty calibration, and educational value from a learner's perspective.

Content Updates & Review Cycle

Medical physics is an evolving field, and examination standards change over time. We maintain the currency of our content through:

• Quarterly Reviews: A minimum of quarterly content reviews to verify alignment with the latest RCR syllabus guidance and any updates to examination format.
• Annual Audit: A comprehensive annual audit of the entire question bank against current textbook editions, guidelines, and published errata.
• User-driven Updates: Questions flagged by users are reviewed within 7 working days and corrected where necessary. Performance analytics help identify potentially ambiguous or problematic items.
• Syllabus Change Response: When the RCR updates the First FRCR syllabus, our content team reviews and updates affected material within 30 days.

Sources & References

Our content is grounded in established medical physics literature and official examination resources. Primary reference sources include:

• Farr's Physics for Medical Imaging (Allisy-Roberts & Williams) — the standard text for FRCR Part 1 Physics preparation.
• The Essential Physics of Medical Imaging (Bushberg, Seibert, Leidholdt & Boone) — comprehensive reference for imaging physics principles.
• RCR Official Syllabus — the Royal College of Radiologists First FRCR Physics syllabus document, updated periodically.
• IPEM Reports — relevant publications from the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine on quality assurance and radiation protection.
• ICRP Publications — International Commission on Radiological Protection recommendations on dose limits and radiation safety.

Editorial Independence

FRCRX maintains complete editorial independence. Our content is developed solely for educational purposes and is not influenced by external commercial interests:

• We receive no sponsorship or funding from pharmaceutical companies, imaging equipment manufacturers, or any other commercial entities.
• Product or vendor names are mentioned only when they are educationally relevant to understanding physics concepts (e.g., specific detector technologies) and do not constitute endorsements.
• Our editorial team has no financial conflicts of interest related to the content produced for this platform.
• Revenue from subscriptions is used exclusively to fund content development, platform maintenance, and quality improvement.