Curriculum
The University of Rochester’s Medical Physics Residency curriculum provides residents with the experience, knowledge, and skills required to perform clinical procedures and emphasizes patient safety. Based on current guidelines from the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Physics Education Programs (CAMPEP) and the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), our curriculum includes clinical rotations, teaching and presentations, conferences, and research.
Program Overview
Clinical Rotations
As a resident, you spend the majority of your time in clinical rotations, during which you receive hands-on training supervised by mentors. Mentors in each rotation evaluate your performance and help you meet training objectives. The eight, three month long, rotations are based on specific areas within medical physics. Topics covered in the rotations include:
- Patient setup, positioning, and immobilization
- 2D, 3D, and 4D imaging techniques
- Treatment planning
- Linear accelerator quality assurance, acceptance testing, and commissioning
- Adaptive Radiation Therapy
- Special procedures, including stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), and stereotactic radiation therapy (SRT)
- Total body irradiation
- High-dose rate (HDR) and low-dose rate (LDR) brachytherapy
- Radiation safety and protection
- Radiation detection and in-vivo dosimetry
- RT Informatics
- Ethics and professionalism
- Proton Therapy
Conferences and Meetings
Conference participation is considered an essential part of your training. Department conferences include journal club; new patient conferences, or chart rounds; physics and dosimetry meetings; morbidity and mortality conferences; an outside speaker series; and research meetings. Residents are required to give at least two presentations per year.
Residents are encouraged to attend national and regional meetings and symposia. They are provided with funding to attend a major professional meeting and one local meeting of their choice during residency. Funding for additional meetings may be granted if an abstract is accepted for presentation.
Research Opportunities
As a resident, you are encouraged to take up one or more research projects. Projects should be in line with your research interests or career goals. Current resident research projects include investigating the attenuation of patient support devices and the use of extended body contours for superficial VMAT treatments.
Evaluation
Clinical aptitude is assessed through clinical goals and competencies which are evaluated by the rotation mentor and other faculty and staff. Residents are also evaluated through monthly oral exams, modeled on the ABR part 3 board exam. In addition, residents must submit a rotation-specific written report at the end of the majority of rotations.