Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) is Oregon's only academic health center and is nationally respected distinguished as a research university dedicated solely to advancing health sciences.
OHSU is a community of healers dedicated to saving lives, ensuring the well-being of all entrusted to our care. We aim to recruit, retain, and develop diverse medical physics residents. At OHSU we believe that in order to deliver great health care, we must train culturally-competent physicians from diverse backgrounds - including members of racial and ethnic groups that are historically underrepresented in medicine, individuals raised in rural environments, and people who have overcome significant social and financial disadvantages.
The Department of Radiation Medicine has a long history of academic training geared toward clinicians and medical professionals. Since 1966, the department has sustained a thriving radiation oncology physics program.
The department supports a variety of educational programs including a radiation oncology residency, accredited in 1970, a medical physics graduate program, accredited by CAMPEP in 2011, the Therapeutic Medical Physics Residency Program, accredited by CAMPEP in 2015, and a radiation therapy program, accredited by the JRCERT in 2017.
The Therapeutic Medical Physics Residency Program aims to train residents to become skilled medical physicists who can work independently by the end of their two-year residency. It provides them with a complete set of technical skills and helps them understand their role in medical physics.
The training provides structured education under the supervision of board certified medical physicists. Training is structured to follow CAMPEP's published Standards for Accreditation of Residency Educational Programs in Medical Physics.
The program currently has two residents and recruits for one new resident annually.
Curriculum
Residents are provided with a residency training schedule that provides an overview of each clinical rotation, the duration of each rotation, learning objectives, evaluation points, and reading materials.
Year One: In the first-year medical physics residency, residents focus on building a strong foundation in medical physics. This first year involves close introductory work with medical physicists and dosimetrists.
Rotations include:
Dosimetry, Ethics, Professionalism, and Leadership, Informatics, Radiation Safety, Quality Assurance & Plan Review/Linac Annual QA, and SRS/SBRT
Year Two: In the second-year medical physics residency, residents focus on advancing their clinical skills, gaining the competences needed to practice independently and preparing for board certification. Residents are provided with autonomy to develop independent thinking and problem-solving skills.
Rotations include:
Acceptance and Commissioning, Brachytherapy, Radiation Shielding, Special Procedures: Total Body Irradiation and Total Skin Electron Irradiation, Therapeutic Imaging, TomoTherapy
Clinical, educational, and scholarly activities performed by the resident must be documented in an activity journal. Each resident should maintain their journal in any suitable format, which will be regularly reviewed by the program director.
Resident Research
The program does not have a research requirement but residents are strongly encouraged to develop this skillset through clinical implementation projects which require literature review, experimentation, and documentation. Residents are provided with up to four months to work on research or clinical projects.
Resident Didactics
Residents are provided protected time, in clinic and away from clinic, for didactics. Residents are required to attend and participate in:
- Physics Didactics
- Patient Rounds (Chart Rounds)
- Physics Journal Club
- Radiation Biology Course
- Image verification workshop
- Patient education workshop
Residents are encouraged to attend:
- Medical Residency Didactics
- Tumor Boards
- Graduate Medical Physics Journal Club
- Graduate Medical Physics Advanced Imaging Course
Residents may be required to teach in a lecture or seminar setting to the graduate students and medical residents.
Program Location
Marquam Hill serves as the primary training location for the program. The department is located on the fourth floor of the Peter O. Kohler Pavilion (KPV) building. Residents are provided with space in a shared resident office within the department.
Rotation Sites:
Residents are required to travel to Legacy Health in Portland, Oregon and PeaceHealth in Vancouver, Washington. Residents may travel to OHSU satellites in Beaverton, Oregon or Hillsboro, Oregon for commissioning of new technology.
Department Technology
The primary training location, Marquam Hill, treats on average 80-100 patients per day.
Treatment equipment includes:
- four external-beam treatment rooms:
- 2 Elekta Versa HD
- 1 Varian TrueBeam (Linac-based SRS)
- 1 Tomotherapy HD (HDR Brachytherapy, and LDR Eye Plaque Program)
Treatment planning systems includes:
Eclipse, Oncentra, Brainlab Elements, Tomotherapy, and MIM
SALARY & BENEFITS
Resident biweekly salary is dependent upon the level of postgraduate training the resident/fellow has completed within the United States. Incoming medical physics residents are paid at a PGY-1 level.
Residents are provided various plans from which to choose for medical, dental, vision, and life insurances.
OHSU pays for most of the costs of the monthly premium for employees and part of the costs of the monthly premium for spouses and children. On their first day of physical work at OHSU, residents receive default benefits. The default benefit plan exclusively covers the individual resident.
Benefits include a generous annual paid time off package, which includes:
- Vacation Leave
- Sick Leave
- Parental Leave
- Family Medical Leave
- Educational Leave
In accordance with CAMPEP Standard 2.14, resident may not exceed an average of eight weeks (40 workdays) per year over the duration of the residency without requiring an extension in their residency training.
Treating patients in the Department of Radiation Medicine is truly a team sport. Alongside a radiation oncologist, highly skilled medical teams collaborate with each patient to deliver the best and safest care. Each team assumes a distinct role in the treatment process. The department is made up of:
- 26 Radiation Therapists
- 12 Radiation Oncologists
- 12 Medical Physicists
- 10 Radiation Oncology Nurses
- 9 Dosimetrists
- 6 Radiation Oncology Residents
- 2 Medical Physics Residents
- 2 Medical Assistants
Portland and Oregon and the PNW
Living in Portland offers the perk of actively exploring the lush landscapes of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. This region is renowned for its outdoor adventures, green forests, breathtaking views, dramatic coastline, and snow-capped mountains. Additionally, it boasts some of the country's best coffee, craft beer, and wine. Oregon is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and Cascade Mountains, and from the balcony of Kohler Pavilion, you can see Mount Adams, Mount Hood, and Mount St. Helens on a clear day. The climate here varies, ranging from high desert landscapes like the Alvord Desert to actual glaciers.
Portland's unexpected attractions range from coffee shops and bookstores to gourmet restaurants and breweries. Downtown Portland is a bustling metropolitan, full of historic building, intimate coffee shops, hip bars, an impressive foodie scene, and all the things that “Keep Portland Weird”. When a change of scenery is needed, a two-hour drive will take you to hiking and camping in Mount St. Helens, Mount Hood, or the Columbia River Gorge. For beach enthusiasts, the coastal range is a three-hour drive away, while those seeking drier weather can reach the desert in less than four hours. And Portland is home to Powell’s City of Books, the largest used and new bookstore in the world.