Author: Ashley Cetnar, Emily Y. Hirata, Cassandra Stambaugh 👨🔬
Affiliation: University of California San Francisco, Tufts Medical Center, The Ohio State University - James Cancer Hospital 🌍
Purpose: To provide results from the first four years of the Medical Physics Leadership Academy (MPLA) Fundamental of Leadership Cohort program
Methods: The MPLA Cohorts program began with the Fundamental of Leadership (fundamentals cohort) curriculum highlighting the top 10 areas of need for medical physicists. The curriculum presents these ten topics each year and provides the foundational leadership skills for members to proceed to advanced leadership cohorts. The cohorts meet regularly with the same members, allowing for close connections within the group and in-depth discussions within the protected space. Members were surveyed at the mid-year point and at the end of the program using a 5-point Likert scale (1-Needs Improvement to 5-Great) for “Content for Discussion”, “Topics”, “Facilitation”, “Respect”, “Size of Group”, and “Value of Participating”. Additionally, they were asked 3 yes/no questions and open ended questions to provide feedback and assess take-away points and changes that cohort members implemented as a result of the program.
Results: The Fundamentals cohort launched in 2021 and has continued each year. A total of 239 AAPM members have participated to date, with a median of 61 per year. The mid-program survey [from 2021-2024] had an overall response rate of 60%. The overall median score of was 4.57(±0.05), with 4.37(±0.03), 4.56(±0.08), 4.54(±0.05), 4.87(±0.03), 4.55(±0.06), and 4.54(±0.13) for individual respective questions. At the end-of-year survey, the response rate was 23% with an overall score of 4.71(±0.12). The individual topic scores similarly ranged from 4.57-4.86. At both time points participants felt that their voices were heard (99%), they were respected (100%), and they had opportunities to develop relationships with others in AAPM (91%).
Conclusion: The MPLA Fundamentals cohort provides a productive forum for members to explore leadership topics in the context of medical physicist careers. Results from member surveys indicate high satisfaction from the program.