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<title>[Training Tuesday] - Weekly thread for questions about grad school, residency, and general career topics 10/05/2021</title>
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<h1>[Training Tuesday] - Weekly thread for questions about grad school, residency, and general career topics 10/05/2021</h1>
<p>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.</p>
<h2>Examples:</h2>
<ul>
<li>"I majored in Surf Science and Technology in undergrad, is Medical Physics right for me?"</li>
<li>"I can't decide between Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics..."</li>
<li>"Do Medical Physicists get free CT scans for life?"</li>
<li>"Masters vs. PhD"</li>
<li>"How do I prepare for Residency interviews?"</li>
</ul>
<h2>Comments:</h2>
<ol>
<li>
<p>I’m currently an undergrad nursing major but am heavily considering changing majors. I have a bunch of questions, mostly about the actual day-to-day of being a medical physicist. I know there’s a lot so any answers you could give me would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<ol>
<li>How much time does the user spend at a desk vs being up on their feet?</li>
<li>How involved is the user in determining treatment? Are they just checking the MD orders are possible, or are they actively involved in treatment decisions?</li>
<li>Does the user actually perform procedures?</li>
<li>How much interaction does the user have with patients?</li>
<li>It seems like the vast majority of medical physics is radiation oncology based. What if any, other areas are there?</li>
<li>What made the user decide to go into medical physics, as opposed to other science or medical fields? Are they happy with their decision?</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>
<p>I'm an assistant so I can't properly answer the user's other questions, but for question 5: imaging physics is the other "major" branch of clinical medical physics, and it is growing in importance in practice as more and more image guidance is used in medical procedures, including radonc. Any MRI, CT, X-ray, ultrasound, nuc med, mammography scan or procedure ever has had a diagnostic physicist's input in it, directly or indirectly.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The general consensus on this sub is no with regards to DMP being worth it (it being money in most contexts).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Adding to a question in this thread: Does applying early to residency increase the user's chance of matching, or at least getting an interview? The user plans to apply between Oct 15-30 (application cycle starts Oct 11)</p>
<p>Are applications in the med phys residency match processed on rolling admission? (Like how med school apps are)</p>
<p>I don't think they are. The user should watch this: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvgfgGmemdA">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvgfgGmemdA</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Can anyone speak on the quality of Hofstra's MS program?</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Are there any PhD programs that include Proton therapy research? The user is finishing their MS this year while also working at a proton center, and they’ve realized they want to learn more about protons and focus their PhD on proton therapy. However, they know that there are not many proton centers so it has been difficult to find solid programs that also have proton research opportunities.</p>
<p>The user would start by cross-referencing places that have proton therapy and places that have a CAMPEP program. They should also look at publications and see where the authors are. For instance, Mayo clinic has a lot of proton therapy research but their PhD program isn't CAMPEP.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Medical physics assistant positions usually just require a bachelors in a physical science or engineering, but positions like that are not plentiful.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Is it possible to switch research interest during the user's med phys career? The user is applying to graduate programs this year and trying to narrow down their research interests. They will probably stick to something in radiation therapy for their graduate thesis. They are also interested in brachytherapy and radiation biology research. Will they be pinned to radiation therapy for their entire career if they choose to write their graduate thesis on radiation therapy?</p>
<p>Take the advice with a grain of salt since the person doesn't have decades of experience like many others here do.</p>
<p>That said, in their experience, absolutely not. In general, being able to switch research focus is mainly a function of having access to the resources and training wherever they work/study. They personally did their MS thesis in a topic related to cardiac SBRT, but thanks to the help of their program's faculty, they're now doing research mainly in photodynamic therapy, with some potential cherenkov imaging stuff down the line. Of course, there are some caveats regarding clinical work, rather than research. Mainly, if the user wants to do clinical imaging work after getting certified in therapy physics, they'd need to go through an imaging residency, stuff like that.</p>
<p>But as far as research goes, in their experience, it's all about having access to the right people and resources to get their foot in the door.</p>
<p>This was very helpful! Thank you!</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Are there any graduate schools with a big focus on computational research, especially artificial intelligence? So far the user has found that UChicago and MD Anderson both have a few people who do that type of research, but they weren't sure if there were any other schools that "specialize" in that type of research (and by specialize, they mean more than one or two faculty members).</p>
<p>For UChicago, the user should specifically look at Maryellen Giger's lab. Not only is she a leader in the field of computer-aided diagnosis but she's a wonderful mentor and goes to bat for her trainees. She's an awesome person to have in their network (former AAPM president, former SPIE president, has successful experience with startups).</p>
<p>I wasn't even in her lab but I could tell from her students how great of a group it is.</p>
<p>The user is part of the Center for Computer Vision and Imaging Biomarkers (<a href="https://cvib.ucla.edu">CVIB</a>) at UCLA and they do lots of stuff with AI. There are 5 faculty members part of the group that deal with both CT and MRI image processing that implement AI in different ways.</p>
<p>If the user is interested in therapy applications of AI, then there are lots of labs at UCLA that focus on that like Ke Sheng, or for neuroscience applications look at Allan McKenzie Graham or David Shattuck. Dan Ruan also does a lot of computational research and modeling/simulating. The user can PM them if they’d like to know more about the program at UCLA!</p>
<p>They should also check UT Southwestern. They have a huge AI research group.</p>
<p>The centers the user listed are big names and probably have a decent number of people working on AI, however, it'll be a stretch to say that any one place "specializes" in AI research.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>Original URL: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/MedicalPhysics/comments/q1u1g0/training_tuesday_weekly_thread_for_questions/">https://www.reddit.com/r/MedicalPhysics/comments/q1u1g0/training_tuesday_weekly_thread_for_questions/</a></p>
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