Program Information
Elective International Rotations in Medical Physics Residency Programs
D Brown1*, A Mundt1 , J Einck1 , T Pawlicki1 , (1) University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA
Presentations
SU-F-E-12 (Sunday, July 31, 2016) 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM Room: Exhibit Hall
Purpose: The purpose of this educational program is to motivate talented, intelligent individuals to become stakeholders in the global effort to improve access to radiotherapy.
Methods: The need to improve global access to radiotherapy has been clearly established and several organizations are making substantial progress in securing funding and developing plans to achieve this worthwhile goal. The incorporation of elective international rotations in residency programs may provide one possible mechanism to promote and support this future investment. We recently incorporated an elective 1-month international rotation into our CAMPEP accredited Medical Physics residency program, with our first rotation taking place in Vietnam. A unique aspect of this rotation was that it was scheduled collaboratively with our Radiation Oncology residency program such that Radiation Oncology and Medical Physics residents traveled to the same clinic at the same time.
Results: We believe the international rotation substantially enhances the educational experience, providing additional benefits to residents by increasing cross-disciplinary learning and offering a shared learning experience. The combined international rotation may also increase benefit to the host institution by modeling positive multi-disciplinary working relationships between Radiation Oncologists and Medical Physicists. Our first resident returned with several ideas designed to improve radiotherapy in resource-limited settings – one of which is currently being pursued in collaboration with a vendor.
Conclusion: The elective international rotation provides a unique learning experience that has the potential to motivate residents to become stakeholders in the global effort to improve access to radiotherapy. What better way to prepare the next generation of Medical Physicists to meet the challenges of improving global access to radiotherapy than to provide them with training experiences that motivate them to be socially conscious and equip them with the clinical and problem solving skills required to deliver effective treatments in resource limited settings?
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