Medical Physics

Radiation oncology physics (also known as therapeutic radiological physics) is a subspecialty of medical physics related to the treatment of cancers and other benign diseases with high doses of ionizing radiation.

Responsibilities
Medical physicists are involved in three main activities: 

1. Clinical service and consultation
2. Research and development
3. Teaching

Education and Clinical Training

Most medical physicists have an MS or Ph.D. in medical physics, physics, engineering, nuclear science or related fields.  Clinical training may be obtained through a hospital based residency and/or post-doctoral program, with the goal of eventually becoming clinically certified by a national certification board (i.e. the American Board of Radiology).

University of Michigan Health Systems

The University of Michigan Health System includes three hospitals (C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, University Hospital and Women’s Hospital), with a total of 865 licensed beds. The department of radiation oncology is located on level B2 of University Hospital. The main department is affiliated with several radiation oncology clinics, including the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Ann Arbor and several community hospitals.  The main department is equipped with four Varian EX linacs with MLCs, a 600CD Varian linac, a GammaMed Plus HDR unit, a GE single slice CT simulator and a Philips 16 slice CT simulator.

Radiation Physics Faculty

The University of Michigan has a large physics group, eighteen faculty physicists in the main department, with clinical and research responsibilities.  In addition to conformal external beam treatment delivery, other special clinical treatments include:

• Total Body Irradiation (TBI)
• Total Skin Electron Therapy (TSET)
• High Dose Rate (HDR) brachytherapy
• Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS) and Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT)
• Image Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT)
• Cone Beam CT (CBCT)
• Breathe hold gated treatments

• 3D treatment planning
• Clinical dose escalation studies
• Computer-controlled treatment delivery
• IMRT delivery
• IMRT plan optimization
• Study of treatment accuracy
• Uncertainties and organ motion
• Development and use of amorphous silicon flat panel imagers.
• Enhanced use of MRI, PET and other imagining for treatment planning.

Medical Physics Residency Program

The Radiation Oncology Physics Residency Program was established at the University of Michigan in 2002 under the directorship of James Balter, Ph.D. In June of 2006, a co-director, Joann Prisciandaro, Ph.D., was appointed to assist initiate the CAMPEP application process.  The objective of the residency program is to provide high quality and professional education and training to physicists in the following areas of clinical radiation oncology physics:

• 3D conformal treatment planning and delivery.
• Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) treatment planning, quality assurance (QA) and delivery.
• Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS)
• Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT)
• Total body irradiation (TBI)
• Total skin electron therapy (TSET)
• Image Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT)
• Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT)
• Linac commissioning, acceptance, quality assurance (QA) and usage.
• Brachytherapy – high dose rate (HDR) and low dose rate (LDR)
• Phantom and in-vivo dose delivery measurements
• Radiation safety

Graduates from the program will be familiar with advanced techniques in clinical treatment and have a sound understanding of the principles of cancer therapy.

Below, please find a list of current and past residents.

In addition to the medical physics residency program, we have developed an ancillary training program in collaboration with Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center. Below is a list of past and present Israeli physicists who have received clinical and didactic training at the University of Michigan.

Program Duration

The clinical residency program provides two years of full-time clinical training divided into 12, two-month rotations, via two training tracks, designated as the standard and academic tracks.

The standard clinical residency program is designed to provide both didactic and clinical training over a continuous two year period.  This track concentrates predominately on clinical training under the supervision of a faculty mentor, and allows residents to become involved in several clinical projects to improve the efficiency of clinical flow, implement new clinical protocols, and integrate new technology.

The academic clinical residency program is a new training option offered at the University of Michigan.  Academic clinical residents are presented didactic and clinical training as well as research opportunities over the course of three years.  This group of residents will receive concentrated, full-time clinical training for eight months of each year (2 years total dedicated clinical time over the 3 year period), while spending the remaining four months of each year concentrating on a faculty-mentored research project. 

During their clinical training, the resident will be expected to complete rotations in seven areas of radiation oncology physics a minimum of once, under faculty supervision. 

Coursework and Teaching

To complement their clinical training, medical physic residents will take courses in radiobiology, clinical oncology, and diagnostic radiology.  Residents will also be expected to attend weekly treatment planning conferences, weekly physics seminars, and monthly physics journal clubs. 

Medical physics residents will expected to provide teaching assistance for the radiation therapy technician’s physics course, nominally in their first year, and the radiation therapy medical resident’s physics course in their senior year.  As a teaching assistance, they will be expected to attend all medical physics lectures.

Requirements for Admission

The department of radiation oncology typically advertises for candidates twice a year. Candidates should have a Ph.D. in medical physics, physics, engineering, or related fields, and must be willing to commit two years to the residency program.  Resident’s performance and progress will be documented monthly by the program director and following each rotation by the faculty mentor.  Following a review of these documents, the program director and residency committee reserve the right to dismiss residents who fail to demonstrate competency, responsibility, industriousness and ethical behavior.

Contact and Apply

The University of Michigan medical physics residency program is currently seeking applicants for an opening in May of 2008, the deadline for applications is December 31, 2007 (note: applications will not be accepted after deadline) . For details on this position and how to apply, please see the links below.

• Adverstisement for residency position
• Application requirements

The University of Michigan is a non-discriminative, affirmative action employer. The difference is YOU.

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