Curriculum

Our training curriculum broadly spans clinical practice from the classic techniques to highly specialized procedures. Medical physics residents gain hands-on experience with cutting-edge technology in brachytherapy, electron, photon and proton beam radiation therapy. Structured training is designed for a comprehensive understanding of clinical workflows. Residents will train one-on-one with many of our physicists and dosimetrists, the vast majority of whom are certified by the ABR, ABMP or MDCB. Clinical training is enhanced by interactions with the faculty, staff and students in our affiliated medical physics graduate program at the Georgia Institute of Technology, dosimetry graduate program in partnership with Southern Illinois University and our physician residency program.

In addition, a research mentor aligns residents with high-impact projects that are likely to be completed during the residency period. There are many opportunities for collaborations with clinicians and scientists from a broad range of subspecialties at the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University. Our goal is to prepare you to be a leader in developing new technology.

The resident will work on a research project under the supervision of a faculty research mentor. Resident research projects are designed to have a high probability of success within a single year. Residents will select research projects which are proposed by faculty after an opportunity to discuss potential projects with each faculty member. Residents typically publish one to two manuscripts as a result of their research efforts.

Clinical training is organized into eight rotations, typically three months in duration. Training across multiple Emory campuses provides exposure to a broad range of special procedures and in some cases to solutions from different vendors. Stereotactic radiosurgery training includes both Gamma Knife and Varian Edge machines. Intraoperative brachytherapy is performed using electronic or radioactive sources. One rotation is at the Emory Proton Therapy Center. After intensive training and demonstration of clinical competencies, residents are integrated more into the clinic. For example, treatment planning initially consists of only retrospective test cases, but after meeting certain benchmarks, the resident is expected to be able to craft clinically acceptable treatment plans. Residents are expected to assist with machine quality assurance and patient-specific quality assurance. While residents are pushed towards clinical independence, there is a strong safety net in place from their direct supervision by board-certified dosimetrists and physicists.

The 24-month clinical training is divided into rotations and covers the following topics.

• Monthly and daily quality assurance (QA) of linear accelerator (or LINAC), CT simulator, four-dimensional computed tomography (4DCT), MRI, and intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) plan QA
• Annual quality assurance of LINAC, and CT simulator
• Radiation output calibration of LINAC
• Commissioning/Annual Verification of treatment planning system
• Treatment planning: manual, computer aided two-dimensional and three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy and IMRT
• Comprehensive Chart Quality Assurance
• Design and fabrication of patient specific treatment aids
• Stereotactic radiosurgery, stereotactic radiation therapy and stereotactic body radiotherapy
• Image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) / Surface-guided radiation therapy (SGRT)
• Low-dose-rate (LDR) brachytherapy
• High-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy, QA, source calibration and procedure
• Brachytherapy eye plaque
• Other special procedures: total skin electron irradiation (TSEI)/total body irradiation (TBI), intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT), commissioning and procedures for each specialty, in-vivo dosimetry, applications of optically stimulated luminescent dosimeter (OSLD) and other dosimeters.
• Radiation safety and imaging

During each rotation, residents will work closely with a primary mentor and also interact with many of the staff and faculty physicists at each institution

Residents are also expected to attend and participate in patient chart rounds, selected departmental conferences, seminars, lectures, journal clubs and meetings that are relevant to their training. Support is also available to attend the annual AAPM meeting.

In conjunction with clinical rotations the medical physics resident will attend two didactic course:

1. Radiation Therapy Physics
2. Radiobiology

The applicants are expected to have finished most or all of the courses (equivalency is determined by the residency program) prior to start of the residency. The rest will be made up during the residency.

Medical physics residency training will take place at Winship Cancer Institute locations at:

• Emory University Hospital
• Emory University Hospital Midtown
• Emory Saint Joseph's Hospital
• Emory Proton Therapy Center

External beam delivery and treatment planning equipment across the campuses include:

• 12 LINACs (1 Trilogy, 8 TrueBeams, 1 Edge, and 2 Elekta LINACs)
• 5 Varian ProBeam proton treatment rooms
• 1 GE Advantage CT-simulator
• 1 Phillips Big Bore CT Simulator
• 1 Siemens SOMATOM CT-simulator
• 2 Siemens TwinBeam DECT-simulators
• 1 Siemens 1.5-T MRI simulator
• 2 Nucletron HDR Source
• 2 VariSource HDR
• 1 Elekta Gamma Knife, Intrabeam IORT, Varian Eclipse and Raystation TPS platforms, Brainlab and Velocity

Specialized techniques include:

• Proton therapy
• Intensity-modulated radiation therapy volumetric modulated arc therapy
• Rapid Arc
• Stereotactic radiosurgery and stereotactic body radiotherapy
• Image-guided radiation therapy
• 4D computed tomography and cone-beam computed tomography
• HDR Brachytherapy
• LDR Brachytherapy
• Intraoperative radiation therapy
• Total body irradiation
• Total skin electron irradiation
• Stereotactic body radiation therapy
• Stereotactic radiosurgery
• Radiopharmaceuticals (Xofigo)
• Gamma Tiles

Dosimetry and quality assurance equipment includes a variety of hardware and software platforms across different sites: 3D beam scanning systems, a variety of ionization chambers (arrays), diode array, OSLD/TLD, film dosimetry, Total QA, analysis software, survey meters, readout instruments, anthropomorphic and solid-water phantoms.