Job Description

Sr Therapeutic Physicist, Full Time, First Shift

The senior therapeutic medical physicist ensures the safe and accurate delivery of radiation therapy for cancer and other diseases. They oversee the design, optimization, and verification of treatment plans, ensuring dosimetrists and therapy staff follow clinical protocols and safety standards. They supervise the calibration, maintenance, and quality assurance of radiation therapy equipment, and provide guidance to clinical teams to optimize treatment effectiveness and maintain patient safety. We are offering a $16,000.00 service bonus.

Linear Accelerator Quality Assurance:
The certified therapeutic physicist is responsible for the completion of monthly and annual quality assurance (QA) on linear accelerators. Linear accelerator QA involves ensuring the safe, accurate, and reliable performance of medical linear accelerators used in radiation therapy. The job function includes performing routine daily, monthly, and annual QA tests to verify beam output, energy, symmetry, flatness, and mechanical accuracy according to established protocols and regulatory standards. It also involves troubleshooting equipment issues, documenting QA results, and implementing corrective actions when performance falls outside acceptable tolerances. This role requires close collaboration with other medical physicists, service engineers, and clinical staff to maintain patient safety and treatment quality.

Initial Plan Checks:
Initial plan checks involve verifying the accuracy and safety of a radiation therapy treatment plan before it is delivered to a patient. The job function includes reviewing dose calculations, beam parameters, target coverage, and organ-at-risk constraints to ensure the plan meets the physician’s prescription and clinical protocols. It also involves confirming correct patient data, imaging, and treatment setup information within the treatment planning and record-and-verify systems. This process helps prevent errors and ensures that treatments are delivered as intended with a high level of precision and patient safety.

Patient Specific Quality Assurance:
Patient-specific quality assurance (QA) ensures that an individual radiation therapy treatment plan can be accurately and safely delivered as designed. The job function includes performing measurement-based or software-based QA to verify dose distributions, monitor units, and treatment delivery parameters for techniques such as IMRT and VMAT. It involves analyzing QA results against established acceptance criteria, investigating discrepancies, and documenting outcomes. This process provides an additional safety check to confirm that the planned treatment will be delivered correctly to the patient.

HDR Planning and Quality Assurance:
HDR planning and QA involve ensuring the accurate and safe delivery of high-dose-rate brachytherapy treatments. The job function includes creating and reviewing HDR treatment plans, verifying source strength, dwell positions, dwell times, and dose distributions in accordance with the physician’s prescription. It also involves performing pre-treatment and ongoing QA of the HDR afterloader, applicators, and treatment planning system to confirm proper system performance. These tasks are critical for maintaining patient safety, regulatory compliance, and high-quality clinical outcomes.

LDR implants:
LDR implant planning and procedures involve the preparation and delivery of low-dose-rate brachytherapy treatments using radioactive sources placed temporarily or permanently in or near the target volume. The job function includes imaging-based treatment planning to determine appropriate source strength, number, and placement to meet the prescribed dose while minimizing exposure to surrounding normal tissues. It also involves clinical support during implantation to verify accurate source positioning and geometry. Post-implant dose assessment, documentation, and quality assurance are performed to ensure treatment accuracy, safety, and compliance with clinical standards.

Physics staff oversight:
The Senior Therapeutic Medical Physicist provides leadership and oversight of the clinical physics team, ensuring the safe, accurate, and high-quality delivery of radiation therapy. They oversee and mentor physicists, dosimetrists, and support staff, ensuring adherence to clinical protocols, safety standards, and professional development.

Program oversight:
The Senior Therapeutic Medical Physicist oversees all physics programs, including quality assurance, equipment calibration, patient-specific plan verification, and commissioning of new technologies, ensuring compliance with regulatory and institutional requirements. The senior physicist collaborates with clinical leadership to optimize workflows, implement new technologies, and maintain the highest standards of treatment effectiveness and patient safety.

• Minimum Required: Master's Degree - Medical Physics or ABR approved field.
• Preferred: PhD in Medical Physics or ABR approved field.
• Minimum Required: Diplomate of the American Board of Radiology in Therapeutic Medical Physics (dABR).
• Minimum Required: 6 - 10 Years equivalent experience.

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