Author: Pedro Derosa, Joseph P. Dugas, Neven Simicevic, Hsinshun Terry Wu 👨🔬
Affiliation: Louisiana Tech Univeristy, Willis Knighton Cancer Center, Willis-Knighton Cancer Center 🌍
Purpose: To design and implement a collaborative educational effort between a regional university and unaffiliated cancer center introducing medical physics to an unaware undergraduate population at an institution lacking a medical physics graduate program, providing a partnership template that 1) raises visibility and viability of medical physics careers for undergraduate students, 2) improves foundational medical physics required for successful admittance to relevant graduate programs, and 3) stimulates needed increases in qualified clinical physicist workforce.
Methods: Via MOU between institutions, an official Emphasis in Medical Physics was created within a traditional physics undergraduate degree wherein elective courses and substitutions are prescribed to prepare the student for graduate programs in Medical Physics. Four crucial classes, specifically designed to provide foundational medical physics training, are administered via a combination of university professors and clinical cancer center medical physics. These include Radiation Physics (taught by university faculty), Introduction to Medical Physics (university faculty in conjunction with medical physicists), Advanced Medical Physics (medical physicists), and Capstone Research (supervised by either). Of note, Advanced Medical Physics, is taught by multiple clinical physicists to ameliorate stress on clinic operations. Students receive broad-spectrum introductions to clinical imaging and treatment techniques through brief didactic-, robust Q&A-, and laboratory-style classes delivered in the clinic. Topics range from traditional (e.g., brachytherapy) to cutting-edge (e.g., theranostics) including end-to-end simulation of patient treatment processes.
Results: Pilot years of program lacked metrics but yielded one student (N=5) accepted into a CAMPEP-accredited graduate program. Pending second-year cohort will be surveyed on first and last class days, assessing student knowledge of and interest in medical physics careers, along with basic didactics. Graduate program application and acceptance rates will be tracked.
Conclusion: This work provides a template for collaboration between regional universities and cancer centers to introduce medical physics to undergraduate populations, stimulating medical physics workforce growth.