Therapeutic Medical Physicist

Job Description

Job DescriptionDescription:

An excellent opportunity exists to work for a government contractor with competitive compensation and work-life balance. Posterity Group is seeking experienced Therapeutic Medical Physicist at the G.V. Sonny Montgomery VAMC.

Therapeutic Medical Physicists (TMPs) work in Radiation Oncology and have responsibilities that include: protection of the patient and others from potentially harmful or excessive radiation; establishment of adequate protocols to ensure accurate patient dosimetry; the measurement and characterization of radiation used for radiotherapy; the performance and supervision of treatment planning; the determination of delivered dose; advancement of procedures necessary to ensure delivered dose integrity; the assessment and monitoring of image quality; development and direction of quality assurance programs; assistance to other health care professionals in optimizing the balance between the beneficial and deleterious effects of radiation; and compliance with applicable federal and state regulations. The advanced level TMP can perform the most complex of these tasks, and has the experience to commission and clinically implement novel technologies.

Specific tasks include but are not limited to the following:

• Recommending an optimal modality and treatment technique for the patient.
• Evaluating the quality, safety, and accuracy of radiation treatments planned and delivered to patients, thus ensuring that radiation dose is carried out correctly and completely.
• Safely operating all radiation planning and delivery devices.
• Implementing radiation therapy of outstanding technical difficulty and responsibility, providing knowledge-based solutions to resolving issues where no rule-based solutions exist.
• Planning and directing a specialized program encompassing all physics and clinical aspects of external beam and brachytherapy (if applicable) treatment procedures from treatment simulation to treatment planning to the actual treatment delivery.
• Providing technical oversight for the work of entry level TMPs, medical dosimetrists and radiation therapists.
• Overseeing radiation therapy treatment planning.
• Designing and approving treatment plans.
• Monitoring the accuracy of treatment data recorded in the patient's medical records.
• Providing consultation to the radiation oncologist regarding difficult treatment cases.
• Performing patient-specific treatment validation measurements.
• Developing medical physics policies and procedures for the delivery and quality assessment of advanced treatment modalities such as intensity modulated radiation therapy, stereotactic body radiation therapy, and brachytherapy.
• Developing, operating and fully documenting the medical physics quality assurance program and ensures regulatory compliance within the Radiation Safety Officer's radiation safety program.
• Safely utilizing and properly operating all radiation oncology equipment, and is therefore qualified and responsible for educating radiation oncology team members including radiation oncologists, radiation therapists and dosimetrists in safety issues that relate to radiotherapy planning and delivery.
• The employee performs the following actions to assist in the implementation of new equipment and processes:
  • Assesses radiation therapy equipment needs
  • Performs acceptance testing and commissioning of new radiation therapy equipment
  • Evaluates the adequacy of room shielding
  • Performs radiation surveys
  • Develops and implements treatment processes.
• The advanced level TMP will be a knowledgeable user and subject matter expert in the use of the Pinnacle, Eclipse and Cyberknife Precision treatment planning systems, Truebeam and Cyberknife delivery systems, and Sun Nuclear QA equipment and software.
• The advanced level TMP will also be an expert in the following special procedures: stereotactic radiosurgery, stereotactic body radiation therapy, and surface-guided radiation therapy.
• Provide support for clinical research trials, including submission of radiation plans, DICOM datasets as needed.

Requirements:

• United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.
• Education: Master's degree or higher in a physics, science, or engineering discipline recognized by an accredited college or university with at least 30 semester hours in medical physics, health physics, radiological science, physics, engineering, chemistry, or biology; or an equivalent foreign degree and coursework substantiated by the National Association of Credential Evaluation Services.
• Board Certification: Persons hired or reassigned to TMP positions in the VHA must be board certified in the field of therapeutic medical physics by an approved certifying body. The board certificate must be current and the applicant must abide by the certifying body's requirements for continuing education. Approved Certifying Bodies:
  • The American Board of Radiology (ABR) in any of the following field titles:
    • Therapeutic Medical Physics
    • Therapeutic Radiologic or Therapeutic Radiological Physics
    • Radiologic Physics or Radiological Physics
  • The American Board of Medical Physics (ABMP) in the subfield of Radiation Oncology Physics.
  • The Canadian College of Physicists in Medicine (CCPM) in the subfield of Radiation Oncology Physics.