Author: Abdullah A. Alshreef, Elizabeth L. Bossart, Ashley Cetnar, Leonard H. Kim, Neil A. Kirby, Anna E. Rodrigues, Xin Wang, You Zhang 👨🔬
Affiliation: University of Miami, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Loma Linda University Medical Center, MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, The Ohio State University - James Cancer Hospital, UT Health San Antonio, Duke University, 5940 forest park road 🌍
Purpose: AAPM TG-298 reported several concerns regarding the training and education of alternative pathway candidates. Medical physics postdoctoral research, though not part of the certification pathway, may be serving as alternative pathway candidates’ entrée into the field and could offer broader preparation than a certificate alone. To assess this, the AAPM Medical Physics Graduate Education Subcommittee (MPGESC) has conducted a survey of this population.
Methods: The survey, developed by the MPGESC to assess the education and activities of medical physics postdocs, was sent to 108 individuals who self-identified as postdoctoral researchers or fellows in the AAPM directory.
Results: Discarding repeats, there were 26 unique respondents (24% response rate) from 17 different institutions. Of those, 22 intended to seek residency at some point after their postdoc. Six respondents had a CAMPEP-accredited doctoral degree. All other respondents (n=19) had either completed or intended to complete medical physics graduate certificate coursework before the end of their postdoc. Five of the 19 were taking coursework at another institution. Out of 16 who responded, 11 received full tuition support for medical physics coursework, and 3 received partial support. Out of 24 responses, 9 indicated clinical medical physics duties as part of their non-research activity. The most common motivations given for doing a medical physics postdoc were to prepare for residency (n=7) and to learn more about medical physics (n=5).
Conclusion: Though not a requirement for board-certification, postdoctoral research is a way alternative pathway candidates learn about and gain entry into the medical physics profession. Institutions not already doing so should consider providing clinical experiences and tuition support for concurrent certificate coursework, which should result in stronger preparation for alternative pathway candidates than a certificate program alone.