College
- Center City Campus
- Sidney Kimmel Medical College
Degree Earned
- Residency
Program Length
2 years
Program Type
- On Campus
Call to Actions
Leadership & Program Contact
- Program Director, Division of Medical Physics Residency
- Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology
- Associate Director, Medical Physics Therapy Residency Program
- Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology
Program Overview
The CAMPEP-accredited program is lead by Karen Mooney, PhD, with Associate Directors Hamidreza Nourzadeh, PhD (Center City), Paul Sullivan, PhD (Abington), Laura Doyle, PhD (CCHS) and Amy Harrison, PhD (CCHS).
Clinical Training
Incoming residents will participate in a two-week orientation program which includes rotations with the attending physicians, nurses, CT simulation, dosimetry, physics, radiation safety, and time at each of the major treatment machines. This will serve to familiarize them with the equipment, techniques, and safety procedures for the operation of the clinic. The residents will then use the remainder of the two month orientation rotation to learn basic physics clinical competencies including machine QA, patient-specific QA, and in vivo dose measurements.
After orientation, the resident will work closely with faculty and staff medical physicists responsible for clinical tasks. The resident is given the goals and objectives at the start of each rotation. There is a chief mentor assigned for each rotation, who has expertise in the clinical procedures for that rotation. Sub-mentors are assigned for specific tasks, and coordinate activities through the chief mentor. The sub-mentor will have daily contact with the resident, to ensure that there is good progression with the rotation objectives. The resident will discuss relevant task group reports with their mentors. Additional reading assignments may be given to strengthen theoretical understanding of various clinical procedures. The resident will keep a log documenting their participation in all clinical activities. This log will be reviewed by the Residency Program Director or Associate Directors periodically, and progress will be discussed.
The Residency Program Director, or Associate Residency Director, and the resident will meet at the end of the rotation to informally test the knowledge gained during the rotation. Each resident will be reviewed for performance and knowledge for each rotation by use of evaluation forms. These documents will become part of the resident's file.
Throughout the residency program, the residents maintain shared clinical responsibilities for all IMRT QA, HDR morning QA, completion of rotating monthly QA of all department linacs, attendance at four annual machine QAs for training, and alternating responsibility of running annual machine QA following training. By completion of the program, each resident will have completed a minimum of eight annual QAs, 20 monthly QAs, and 50 HDR morning QA checks. After completion of the Orientation, Dosimetry I, Dosimetry II, and Clinical Physics rotations, and with the approval of the Program Director, the residents may have initial and weekly chart checking responsibilities.
Conference/Seminar Attendance
Jefferson offers a variety of departmental and divisional conferences that take place on a regular basis, which are open to residents at all sites. These will help the resident to develop an in-depth understanding of the clinical problems associated with the practice of medical physics in radiation oncology. Conferences and seminars include:
- Departmental QA chart rounds twice a week
- Biweekly clinical physics meetings
- Jefferson anatomical site-specific oncology seminars
- Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center Grand Rounds
- Three named lectures in radiation oncology (the Simon Kramer Lecturer Series), medical physics (the Suntharalingam Lecturer Series), and radiobiology (the Virginia Logan Lecturer Series) given annually by prominent international scholars/clinicians
- Jefferson Medical or Physics Journal club once a month
- Jefferson dosimetry "Lunch and Learn" presentation semi-annually
- Radiation oncology medical resident presentations twice a month
- MR-guided Tumor Board weekly
There are also several opportunities to attend conferences outside of the department. The resident has opportunity to attend at least one annual meeting during the two-year period, with additional opportunities pending department approval.
Meetings include:
- American Association of Physicists in Medicine Annual Meeting
- Other radiation oncology annual meetings: ASTRO, ABS, or similar annual meetings
- Delaware Valley Chapter of the AAPM meetings
- Other local meetings
Didactic Curriculum
Residents will be required to attend courses offered by the radiation oncology department unless there is demonstrated evidence of satisfactory completion of equivalent courses from a prior program. All residents may attend any of the courses below and additional lectures provided for the radiation oncology medical residents.
- Radiation Physics
- Radiation Biology
- Anatomy and Physiology
Determination of the need for additional didactic education is at the discretion of the Medical Physics Residency Program Committee. The medical physics resident who lacks any two of the courses specified in AAPM Task Group 197S will be required to complete them during their residency but not during the hours of clinical training. Courses will be the responsibility of the resident to enroll and finance.
Requirements for Program Completion
- Demonstration of adequate medical physics education (equivalent to a graduate degree in medical physics).
- Demonstration of clinical competency in all clinical training rotations, as documented in the rotation evaluation form, completed by the chief mentor and the Residency Program Director/Associate Director.
- Competency and shared responsibility of clinical physics duties such as initial calculation checks, chart checks, and weekly chart checks. These tasks will be assigned to the resident after competency has been demonstrated by completion of the dosimetry rotations, a physics rotation, and the Residency Program Director/Associate Director signing off that the resident is capable of independently managing these clinical duties.
- Attendance at the majority of the required clinical and medical physics seminars and conferences, including medical physics seminars, dosimetry presentations, and morning chart rounds/QA conferences.
- Satisfactory assessment of progress as determined by means of an oral examination at the end of each rotation, and end of each year conducted by members of the Medical Physics Residency Program Committee.