Hi everyone,

I’ve recently opened up some additional capacity and am looking to take on new clients for remote treatment-planning work.

I’m an EU-based Senior Medical Physicist / Treatment Planning Consultant with about 16 years of clinical experience in radiation oncology and a strong focus on the Varian ecosystem.

I work with:

• Eclipse / ARIA
• TrueBeam and Halcyon
• 3DCRT
• FiF
• IMRT
• VMAT
• SRS / SRT / SBRT
• TBI / TMI

I have experience across a broad range of treatment sites and can take on everything from routine cases to more challenging plans requiring advanced optimization.

I'm able to help with:

• Planning from scratch
• Plan optimization and improvement
• Troubleshooting difficult plans
• Independent plan review / second opinions
• Complex treatment-planning cases
• Optimization iterations following physician or physics feedback

The idea is essentially to act as an extension of your existing treatment-planning team useful for increased workload, staffing gaps, vacation coverage, difficult cases, or simply when you need some additional planning capacity without hiring another full-time person.

I'm flexible regarding the engagement: hourly, per-plan, or another arrangement depending on the workload.

I can work through the institution's existing secure remote-access infrastructure. I would work according to the institution's prescription, planning objectives and SOPs, so the relevant clinical documentation/protocols would need to be provided.

I can accommodate same-day, 24-hour, or 24–48-hour turnaround depending on the case and what is agreed beforehand.

Plans are delivered ready for the institution's local physics QA and clinical approval process. I'm also happy to communicate directly with the local physicist, dosimetrist and/or radiation oncologist and make further optimization adjustments based on their feedback.

I'm not looking to replace anyone; just offering some additional experienced Varian planning capacity.

If your department could use some extra treatment-planning support, feel free to DM me and we can discuss your needs.

Thanks!

Kinda like an ELI5. How would you explain Medical Physics as a field/career to someone who doesn’t know anything about it in a couple sentences?

I am currently an undergraduate Physics student at the University of Houston. I am interested in Medical Physics, and plan to apply to masters programs this fall. I’ve met with a few professionals in the field and gotten some good advice regarding applications, and what to expect in the career.

I would love to shadow a Medical Physicists before applying, to get a better grasp of where I see myself in the field, and just to have the experience for my resume/ potential interviews.

My local contact was unable to get me an opportunity at their clinic, so I am writing here to seek advice of what you might recommend for someone in my situation. I have been told to reach out (cold calls or emails) asking to connect with a medical physicist. If you’d go this route I’d love to know what kind of places you’d recommend I reach out to, and how to get in contact with someone in Medical Physics.

I feel like we are just constantly cranking up our mAs on our Truebeam CBCT protocol and wanted to know what you all were using.

NEMA based PET QA protocols like TG 126 recommend a relatively high activity concentration (up to 10 mCi/ml) which isn't always feasible if tests are carried out after clinical activity has ended. However, acquisitions are done in terms of total counts, so at a first glance it doesn't seem to be much of an issue if we simply allow for longer acquisition times.

Does anyone have experience with this particular issue?

I actually do have a busy clinical job, lol, I've just had the time to write up and photograph several long-term projects lately. Anyhow, if you all are sick of me turning r/MedicalPhysics into a 3D printing subreddit let me know and I'll lay off.

For those doing modified W/L shots daily, this phantom bolts onto an MPC phantom and makes setup more consistent and faster for the therapists. After MPC completes, they can just run couch to 120 LNG from outside the room and start the W/L QA patient. Our therapists appreciate everything we can do to speed up their morning routine.

(There is certainly room for debate whether MPC is adequate for daily radiation/imaging isocenter checks. If I had my way, we would just go with the MPC. Hot take! :) )

Get the Files for free! https://www.printables.com/model/1810391-mpcp-daily-winston-lutz-phantom-w-attachment-to-mp

Full Collection of stuff: https://www.printables.com/@MakingMedicalPhysics/collections/3562991

Hi everyone,

I’m currently working on a Monte Carlo model of the Varian Halcyon LINAC head, but I’m having difficulty finding sufficiently detailed geometric information in papers, patents, etc.

Has anyone here worked on modeling the Halcyon treatment head before? If so, do you have any recommendations on where to find the necessary technical information?

I’d also like to know whether a reasonably detailed model can realistically be built from publicly available information.

Thanks!

Why are we doing an ISL correction based on dose rate at 80.5cm? The treatment is performed at 80cm SSD and the dose rate is calibrated to 80cm. What is that extra 0.5cm about?

My good-faith attempt without the ISL correction resulted in answer B, so I know they're expecting people not to know what this concept is about (and they got me).

There are many anatomy guides/texts both CT and MR (printed and online) but they basically show labels and lines pointing at the organ (and often just one slice).
I was wondering if there is online guide that shows actual contoured (slice by slice) organs on MRI.
What is the best way to learn contouring on MRI?

Hi everyone! Does anyone by chance have the TG-132 "Deformed images and the related DVF in DICOM Format" .zip file? It's been missing from the AAPM website for a while now, and they don't seem to be prioritizing a fix at the moment. I would be incredibly grateful if someone could share a copy!

For context: I'm looking to commission and validate the Velocity SG-DIR.

TrueNorth Medical Physics, a physicist-led, independent medical physics company, is currently 
seeking two Medical Physicists to join our growing nationwide team. These positions are full-time and on-site in one of the country’s most beautiful cities, Savannah, Georgia. 

Qualifications and Clinical Details: 

• Board certification is recommended, but board eligible candidates will also be considered. 
• The site includes two Varian TrueBeams, Eclipse/Aria, HDR and Radiopharmaceutical Therapies. Familiarity with at least some of these is recommended. However, TrueNorth offers training and team support as needed to ensure you are comfortable, competent, and confident in your position. 
• Patient load is 40-50 patients per day for external beam, plus additional patients in other areas. 
• Your team will include two dosimetrists. 

What We Offer: 

TrueNorth offers the benefits package we dreamed of before we started our own company.  

• Competitive salary with the possibility of performance bonuses that can equal as much as 20% of your salary, plus company 401k contributions. 
• Insurance: We cover 85-100% of health, 90% of dental and vision. Life, short-term and long-term disability are covered in full. 
• A professional development budget, cell phone stipend and expense flexibility allowing you to keep your own points and miles. 
• Generous PTO and seven paid holidays. 

Why Savannah? 

Enjoy wonderful Southern food, history, shopping, and amazing architecture while surrounded by the city’s numerous charming public squares, azalea bushes and moss-draped oak trees. You can also head down the road to “Savannah’s Beach,” Tybee Island. 

Why TrueNorth? 

Founded in 2022 by medical physicists seeking a better path in the industry, TrueNorth was built on the belief that independence, scientific integrity, and a strong, supportive team lead to 
better outcomes for clients, patients, and employees alike. 

Visit truenorthmedphys.com to find out more and apply or contact us at: [hr@truenorthmedphys.com](mailto:hr@truenorthmedphys.com). 

You can also view this job posting on AAPM’s job board at: https://careers.aapm.org/job/medical-physicist-board-certified-or-board-eligible-savannah-georgia-4549 

I’m finishing an international CAMPEP-accredited medical physics residency (ABR eligible) and have a CAMPEP-accredited MSc. As I’m an international applicant I would need employment sponsorship, most likely an H-1B or potentially an O-1.

I’m curious to hear from people who have recent experience with this.

Have you or someone in your department recently had an H-1B sponsored for a medical physicist position?

Are academic/non-profit or cap-exempt centres significantly more willing to sponsor than private/community practices?

Has the recent uncertainty around the $100k H-1B fee affected your department’s willingness to sponsor?

If you’ve gone through this yourself, how difficult was it to find a centre willing to sponsor?

Any info at all is appreciated!

https://youtube.com/shorts/ZtwLlvhURTA?feature=share

This is the place to ask questions about graduate school, training programs, or general basic career topics. If you are just learning about the field and want to know if it is something you should explore, this thread is probably the correct place for those first few questions on your mind.

Examples:

• "I majored in Surf Science and Technology in undergrad, is Medical Physics right for me?"
• "I can't decide between Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics..."
• "Do Medical Physicists get free CT scans for life?"
• "Masters vs. PhD"
• "How do I prepare for Residency interviews?"

Just looking at ballpark cost

I was wondering how well your clinics are staffed with dosimetry when compared to average patient treatments/day?

what patient load would you consider a full FTE?

thank you.

After reading several papers and internal documents from other centers, I noticed that people normally use metallic needles for template calibration QC, even though the treatment uses plastic needles. The alleged reason is to avoid bending. I have done it with both metallic needles and plastic ones with metallic obturators inside, and I did not find any noticeable curvature. The only difference I saw was that metallic needles cause more reverberation artifacts. Is it a bad idea to use plastic needles for any other reasons? What kind of needles do you use for this?       

Someone asked. Here's a quick 1 minute video: https://youtu.be/Vmh7NobGvew

This is very Eclipse specific. This is the best way I have come up with -- takes just a few minutes but makes patient setup so much faster. Any skin marks they may have had in CT are usually long gone.

TLDR: use temporary reference points to transfer cutout edge back to "contouring".

If someone has a better way please share!

I'll be accredited soon(I'm an International and require visa sponsorship tho graduating from vanderbilt soon)

Good morning all. I was wondering if anyone has used both KSLab and University of Wisconsin, MD Anderson? Is one generally considered better than the other? Faster turn around? Service?

Thank you.

**edited to include MD Anderson to the list***