Overview

The medical physics clinical training program at Advanced Oncology Institute is a comprehensive training program designed to educate and train physicists in all clinical aspects of modern radiation therapy physics.

Applicants are required to have completed a Master of Medical Physics (MMP) or equivalent education (CAMPEP accredited programs are preferred). An important goal of the program is to prepare trainees for success in a CAMPEP accredited medical physics residency programs, or to prepare trainees to work as a physicist assistant. The duration of the training program ranges from 3 months to 1 year. Successful trainees will gain a wide spectrum of practical clinical experiences from the program, which are prerequisites for medical physics residency programs, but are often not provided by most educational programs (such as MMP programs).

General Education Information

Trainees will be shadowing the board certified medical physicists, dosimetrists and other clinical staff in the clinical radiation oncology setting. Trainees will be given opportunity to observe and interact with clinical staff for the education purpose. Trainees will also hand on QA equipment and software under the supervision under the circumstance of with no interference of clinic.

Trainees are responsible for presenting a didactic lecture on a selected topic in a formal slide presentation for each rotation. The topics include review of the AAPM Task Group (TG) reports, review of literatures and the updates of research projects.

In addition, trainees participate in multidisciplinary conferences which include epidemiology and etiology, presentation and diagnosis, staging, treatment options and potential complications, and outlook and survival statistics.

General rotation information

The clinical component of the program consists of three required rotations and two optional rotations, and provides comprehensive training in all aspects of radiation oncology physics. The rotations are:

·         External beam treatment planning

·         External beam QA including routine QA, patient specific QA, radiation safety etc

·         Special procedures SRS/SBRT process, planning and QA

·         Optional Special procedures brachytherapy process, planning and QA

·         Optional proton therapy

requirement for graduation

For each clinical rotation the trainee is closely supervised by an assigned member of the medical physics staff and ends with an oral examination.