Residency Program Overview
The residency is structured as follows:
- Research year (YEAR 01)
The resident will work on a research project at either MGH or BWH under the supervision of a faculty research mentor. Projects are chosen to facilitate substantial progress within a single year. Residents typically publish one to two manuscripts as a result of their research efforts. Research projects are assigned taking into account both resident and faculty preference and with the constraint that one position will be at BWH and one at MGH. In addition, incoming first year residents will be expected to join the morning conferences, especially the summer series, and begin to shadow QA on the linacs during the final two months of the research year.
- Clinical Rotations (YEAR 02-03)
Clinical training is organized in to seven clinical rotations, as listed below. In the first clinical year, training includes radiation safety, treatment planning, and treatment equipment and dosimetry. Primary resident duties include machine and patient specific quality assurance. Treatment planning progresses from training cases and observations to actual clinical plans. The second clinical year includes brachytherapy rotations at both MGH and BWH, a dedicated stereotactic physics rotation at BWH and a Cyberknife rotation at BIDMC, a one month rotation at a suburban outreach location to gain exposure to radiation oncology physics in a smaller setting, and a two month proton physics rotation at MGH.
- Module 1 — Treatment machines and simulators
- Module 2 — Treatment planning
- Module 3 — Brachytherapy and Radiation Safety
- Module 4 — Radiation Dosimetry
- Module 5 — Special treatment procedures
- Module 6 — Outreach Clinic operation
- Module 7 — Education and professional experience
During each rotation, residents will work closely with a primary mentor and also interact with many of the staff and faculty physicists at each institution.
- Conferences, Rounds, and seminars (YEAR 01-03)
Residents are also expected to attend and participate in patient chart rounds, selected departmental conferences, seminars, lectures, journal clubs and meetings that are relevant to their training. Support is also available to attend the annual AAPM meeting as well as New England AAPM Chapter meetings.
- Didactic Courses
- Residents with a CAMPEP accredited PhD are asked to take the core courses (Physics I and Physics II) but may opt out of the other courses.
- Residents who have completed CAMPEP accredited courses in their postdoctoral years may opt out of the equivalent courses within our program.
- Most of the courses will be taken in the first research year, and then at most one course is taken per clinical year, as required by CAMPEP. Residents need not apply separately to the Certificate Program and are not responsible for tuition payments.