Medical Physicist

Medical Physicist

Requirements

• MS or PhD in Medical physics or PhD in Physics
• Completion of a CAMPEP accredited residency in Therapeutic Medical Physics OR 3 years of clinical experience
• Clinical skills covering quality assurance testing, dosimetric calibration of therapy equipment, implementation and execution of external beam and brachytherapy treatments
• Excellent teamwork within and across departments
• Good communication and presentation skills
• Strong understanding and ability to use all types of radiation measuring devices
• Knowledge of radiation rules and regulations on a State and Federal level
• General knowledge of computers and applications relevant to therapeutic medical physics
• Eligible for board certification by the American Board of Radiology in Therapeutic Medical Physics

Responsibilities

• Provision of operational aspects of Medical Physics
• Prepares and delivers continuing education to the radiation oncology staff as it relates to medical physics, equipment, and radiation safety
• Performs acceptance testing and performance verification of x-ray equipment in the radiation oncology department
• Coordinates the maintenance of instrumentation required for quality control, image quality, and patient treatment measurements
• Designs and fabricates treatment aides and treatment beam modifiers as needed
• Consults with radiation oncologists and treatment staff on the physical and radiobiological aspects of patients’ treatments and development of treatment plans
• Acquires and stores data needed for treatment and treatment plans in the planning computer
• Calculates dose distributions and machine settings for patient treatments
• Develops techniques (hardware, software, or procedures) to improve the delivery of radiation treatments
• Acquires beam data for patient dose calculation
• Perform measurements that will lead to a calibration when needed
• Use appropriate measuring devices to calibrate the radiation sources
• Perform annual calibration of all diagnostic and therapeutic radiation producing equipment in the department of radiation oncology
• Coordinate the calibration of all necessary equipment by a standards laboratory at required energies and at appropriate intervals for said device
• As needed, verifying the calibration of radioactive sources and materials
• Develop and implement QC programs and policies for radiation equipment and patient treatment at the discretion of the manager of medical physics
• Review, critically evaluate and approve dosimetrists’ treatment plans for accuracy and appropriateness
• Perform weekly chart checks of patients under treatment
• Performs in-vivo measurements to verify the dose delivered to patients as needed
• Keep records of quality assurance measurements and generate reports as needed
• Perform weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual quality assurance test of radiation oncology equipment per manufacturer, AAPM and IEMA guidelines
• Assure that QC program meets the requirements of Illinois Emergency Management Agency
• Maintain, review, provide oversight and direction of all service and upgrades on all radiation oncology equipment
• Perform annual absolute dose output of the linear accelerators with independent 3rd party institutions such as the RPC and RDS
• Stay abreast of new radiotherapeutic treatment delivery and treatment delivery techniques
• Read and report on medical physics literature as it relates to radiation oncology
• Attend such training courses or refresher courses as appropriate to maintain skills and knowledge
• Actively participate in chart rounds, process improvement and any other departmental or site meetings related to practice improvement
• Actively participate in physics conference calls
• Assist in planning for resource allocation with radiation oncology, radiology and other areas that use radiation producing equipment
• Suggest replacement equipment when evaluations indicate that the useful life has been reached
• Help in developing systems that are efficient in utilizing personnel in medical physics to accomplish necessary tasks in a timely manner
• Participates in patient – discussion conferences
• Implement, maintain and supervise radiation safety aspects within the radiation oncology department to meet or exceed all State and Federal laws and rules
• Meet all radiation safety and licensing requirements in compliance with state and federal regulations and accrediting organization requirements for all facilities and operations in radiation oncology
• Act as radiation safety officer designee, as directed by either the manager or director of medical physics
• Assist in preparation of State and Federal licenses and amendments for use of radioactive materials
• Registered as a therapeutic medical physicist with the Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA)

Preferred Qualifications

No preferred qualifications provided.