Healthcare scientist
A healthcare scientist or medical scientist is a scientist working in any of a number of health related disciplines. Healthcare scientists may work directly for health service providers, or in academia or industry. Healthcare scientists typically refers to those contributing directly to clinical services, and not scientists working solely in health related research and development.{{cite news |last1=Johnson |first1=Sarah |title='The NHS is not just doctors and nurses': five hidden roles |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/sep/12/nhs-not-just-doctors-nurses-five-hidden-roles |work=The Guardian |date=12 September 2018}}
Disciplines
{{See also|Outline of health sciences|Health professional}}
Boundaries between healthcare science and other related fields are not strictly defined. There are more than 50 different specialisms.{{cite news |last1=Simmons |first1=Alan |title=So what does a healthcare scientist do, exactly? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/careers/healthcare-scientist-job-description |work=The Guardian |date=17 March 2013}} Healthcare scientists work in clinical bioinformatics, life sciences, physical sciences and physiological sciences.{{cite web |title=Roles in healthcare science |url=https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/Explore-roles/healthcare-science/roles-healthcare-science |website=Health Careers |accessdate=24 December 2018 |language=en |date=20 September 2017}} A non-exhaustive list of healthcare science roles is below.
- Medical physicist
- Biomedical scientist
- Audiologist
- Clinical cytogeneticist
- Clinical embryologist
- Neurophysiological scientist
- Vascular scientist
- Cardiac scientist
Organisation
Regulation and organisation of healthcare scientists varies significantly from country to country, and from discipline to discipline.
=Europe=
==United Kingdom==
There are over 50,000 healthcare scientists working in the NHS.{{cite web |title=What is healthcare science? |url=https://www.england.nhs.uk/healthcare-science/what/ |website=NHS England |accessdate=24 December 2018}} Biomedical Scientist and Clinical scientist are a protected title in the United Kingdom, requiring state registration.{{cite web |title=Clinical Science Professional Bodies |url=https://www.ahcs.ac.uk/one-voice/clinical-scientist-professional-bodies/ |website=The Academy For Healthcare Science |accessdate=24 December 2018}} The Health and Care Professions Council holds the register and regulates the profession.{{cite web |title=Clinical scientist registration |url=https://www.gov.uk/clinical-scientist-registration |website=GOV.uk |accessdate=24 December 2018 |language=en}} The main routes to registration and training are through courses run by the Institute of Biomedical Science or the National School of Healthcare Science.{{cite web |title=About us |url=http://www.nshcs.hee.nhs.uk/about-us |website=NSHCS |accessdate=24 December 2018}}
=North America=
==United States==
According to the bureau of labor statistics, there were 120,000 medical scientists working in the United States in 2016.{{cite web |title=Medical Scientists : Occupational Outlook Handbook |url=https://www.bls.gov/OOH/life-physical-and-social-science/medical-scientists.htm |website=U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics |accessdate=24 December 2018 |language=en-us}}