Author: Hania A. Al-Hallaq, Abby E. Besemer, Jay W. Burmeister, Jessica Fagerstrom, Kristi Rae Gayle Hendrickson, Neil A. Kirby, Christine M. Swanson, Christopher Watchman, Brian D Wichman 👨🔬
Affiliation: University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Medical Physics, University of Washington, University of Louisville Brown Cancer Center, Banner, Karmanos Cancer Center, Gershenson ROC, Wayne State University School of Medicine, US Oncology, UT Health San Antonio, Department of Radiation Oncology and Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University 🌍
Purpose: To address the acute workforce shortage in medical physics by presenting a novel residency expansion model leveraging existing CAMPEP-accredited infrastructure and partnerships with underserved clinics.
Methods: Acute workforce shortages are being experienced as medical physics positions go unfilled, affecting everyone from academic centers to rural or community cancer centers. Medical physics graduates seeking a pathway to ABR certification must receive CAMPEP-accredited clinical residency training. Yet the number of training slots each year (inside and outside of the match) has been relatively flat or increasing only slowly, with the number of applicants and the need for clinically trained physicists outpacing the number of training slots. Innovative and adaptive approaches to meet this acute need for residency training positions are needed and presented here.
Results: Data illustrating the current acute shortage of medical physicists is shown. The relevant requirements, guidelines, and expectations for creating residency training slots are explained. A proposed approach that builds on existing CAMPEP-accredited infrastructure and partners with clinics with workforce needs.
Conclusion: Growing physics service groups, academic centers, vulnerable clinics in rural areas, and VA facilities all stand to benefit from an expansion of residency positions, and hosting residents for clinical training.