I'm from italy and i chose to study physics in university. I haven't started yet but i think I'll specialize in medical physics, however i doubt that italy will be a good country to work as a medical phycics. I would prefer to work in other european country, to have better working conditions and not be overqualified, so i was wondering: which country in europe is the better to work as a medical physics? both for salary and for opportunities. And also: is the expertise of an italian medical physics good enough or is it better to study abroad?

Genuine question, not trying to attack. I am a radiation therapist working with two medical physicists. One does all the QA, HDR, approves the treatment plans, approves imaging for SBRT. The other physicist does non-clinical tasks. What does that entail? I have asked in the past and was told it’s none of my business.

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?"

All graduate medical physics programs should have an original research component

https://aapm.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1118/1.3533902

Revisiting this one since its been a while. What do people think? Have the changes 15 years later caused any new food-for-thought regarding this as vendors take more control from their end of things?

Is focusing on the clinical aspect more than enough. Is Rogers downplaying the complexity of everyday clinical QA and plan checking as well as image quality tests and the actionable results that come from them? Is he downplaying the every day practical technical skills as "mindless technical practice." Does research actually take time away from completing important quality assurance/plan checking etc.: the population and cancer rates have increased significantly since the article was published, and demands on throughput cause increased general risk that is mitagted by the physicist. Should we move away from research *outside the scope of immediate service improvements* and focus on the trade of the clinical medical physicst?

Conversely, are things even more black-boxed by vendors now such that when radiographers and techs do the automated daily QC of a CT or MRI it's actually enough to phone the vendor engineer and get a coil/x-ray tube replaced when needed? Will the "when things go wrong call the physicist," problem solving argument shift more to "the tech can figure out when somethings wrong and call the vendors engineer?" With things like Philips new MRI haptics they can sense from their end when MRI coils are degrading. Will this lessen the value of our role in any way?

Will automated checking make the physicists check any less valuable? Can a senior dosimetrist do the human checks in the future with AI generated treatment plans and automated initial checking for less pay? With vendors providing MRI pulse sequences and AI acceleration packages already pre-tuned to perfection with all parameters values uploaded to their cloud based systems to be changed remotely reduce the need for the physicist to optimise pulse sequences?

If vendors absorb more R&D and AI handles complex planning and assisting in checks, how do hospital administrators view the value of a clinical physicist in ~40 years? If the value lessens should physicists lean more into research more?

Should pathways that offer a formal branch for graduate and/or doctorate-level medical physicists focused purely on advanced clinical service/applied quality improvement without requiring a traditional original research thesis? Should it be an option either way, or is fundamental research at the vendor level, a skill that *should* be required from a scientist?

​Curious to hear thoughts from both academic and clinical physicists across therapy and imaging.

Hi! Have anyone of you tried testing lead gown integrity using CT scans? What protocol do you use and what data do you gather for quantitative assessment? If there are any studies you can share for this, it would be really helpful. thank you!

We are currently looking into replacing / purchasing a dedicated CT scanner for radiotherapy treatment planning, and I would be very interested in some real-world experience from other medical physicists.

We are considering the usual suspects: Siemens, GE, Canon and Philips. Rather than comparing brochures, I am particularly interested in the things you only discover after actually using the system in an RT department.

Some of the points that matter to us:

- True large/big bore geometry and usable FOV for RT patients and immobilization devices

- Stable HU and reconstruction algorithms suitable for dose calculation

- Good image quality at ~1 mm slice thickness for thorax/SBRT/SRS workflows

- Rotation speed and motion artefacts

- 4D-CT and respiratory gating

- DIBH workflow, especially for breast treatments

- Metal artefact reduction

- RT flat tabletop/indexing solutions, couch sag and reproducibility

- Integration into an existing ARIA/Eclipse environment

- Easy transfer of positioning information, respiratory traces etc. without awkward USB/manual workflows

- Reliability, service and the small workflow annoyances that are never mentioned in the specifications

One additional issue for us is couch and immobilization compatibility. We will potentially have a mixed linac environment with a Varian TrueBeam and a Halcyon, and at the moment I don't have a good picture of how different the two treatment couches/indexing systems actually are.

For those working with such a mixed setup: are there compatibility issues we should consider when selecting the CT tabletop? Can the same indexed immobilization equipment, baseplates/boards, vacuum cushions etc. realistically be used for CT simulation and subsequently on both TrueBeam and Halcyon. Are there differences in indexing, tabletop dimensions, rails, load limits or couch geometry that become annoying in daily practice?

Basically, I would like to avoid buying a CT/tabletop combination now and discovering later that our immobilization workflow only works nicely with one of the two linac platforms.

I am also wondering how much AI-based auto-contouring should influence the decision today.

Some vendors offer their own AI segmentation solutions, but there are also independent systems such as Limbus, MIM and others. I would prefer actual deep-learning/model-based segmentation rather than something that is essentially an advanced atlas-based solution.

So I am curious:

If you were buying a new dedicated RT planning CT in 2026, which system would you choose – and why?

And perhaps even more importantly: what would you absolutely make sure is written into the specification/tender before signing the contract?

Experiences with Siemens / GE / Canon / Philips, particularly regarding RT workflows, mixed TrueBeam/Halcyon environments, immobilization/indexing compatibility and AI auto-contouring, would be very welcome.

I’m studying Medical Physics in Türkiye. At my institute, we receive training in areas such as dosimetry and radiation measurements, but Treatment Planning Systems (TPS) are not covered in much detail.
I’d like to improve myself in TPS and I’m looking for good resources, courses, tutorials, or textbooks that could help me learn the fundamentals and eventually gain some hands-on experience.
If you have any recommendations or advice on how to get started with TPS, I’d really appreciate it. Thanks in advance!

Is there a way to find out the treatment duration for a patient whose treatment we’ve planned in the Varian Eclipse v18 planning system?

I’m asking if there’s any other way besides Mu/min.

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!

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?"

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