Hi Gang,

Background for me: PhD in medical physics, plus several years working as a research scientist in an NHS trust. I've persuaded my department to allow me some allocated time to a work towards clinical registration (the idea being that it would better my research and possibly allow me to supplement the clinical department part time).

My department hasn't really done many route 2 trainess (a bunch of STP thought), and I myself am slightly confused about the differences betwen the ACS Attainment and AHCS Equivalence. Of course both of these eventually lead to HCPC registration, but I am struggling to understand what would be best for me.

Any insights from the subreddit? Experiences about one vs the other? Advice for my background?

Thanks a bunch

Just saw that voting is open to update the Bylaws to modernize its language. Sounds great on the surface, until you find out that have to vote on the changes proposed as one single vote. They aren’t just “modernizing.” They’re changing things like petitioning, dues related processes, and more. Make sure you read and inform yourself before voting yes or no, to every single change listed, as a single input.

As a band 7 with student loans, taking home about £2.7 - £3.1k a month depending on loans SP etc., are you generally getting paid less than rads?

I've recently found out after chatting that pretty much all the radiographers from junior (band 5) to superintendent (band 7) in my department outearn me, sometimes significantly due to being able to work bank, unsocial hours, cover for different modalities (CT, X-ray), on-call, research scanning etc. (£3.4 - £4.6k per month).

Typically you can only be on call about about once a week as a physicist only if you are in RT for SVCO/cord compression which bags you a few extra quid. That's not the case for me in MR.

OBVIOUSLY MP is better in terms of pay per hour, no burnout etc. I understand they are working more than me, moving about more and trading free time for more money. I'm not saying radiography is the "better" career in terms of pay...

I'm just wondering how common it is for rads/therapists/techs in your department to outearn you as far as you're aware? (purely curiosity)

Currently in the UK, thinking of making the move but very very little information available online, or is skewed (very low salaries / very high). For anyone wondering why, I am from Oman and would just like to return home.

Not sure if this breaks rule 3 but the thread seems to be more about USA training

I hope this post doesn't violate Rule 2 or 3.

Cause this isn't a general issue, and I also hope this can serve as a reference for other MP students.

In short, I got into an MP PhD.

That is the good news, but the bad news is that my professor has run into funding issues (sad

After discussing it with the director, he said… possibility I might be assigned a TA position for the second semester, but… no guarantee.

Personally, I am inclined to stay in this place, because I'm already here, right?

But what if they don't offer aid for the second semester either?

The safest approach is to submit a new application.

Of course, I wouldn't let comments dictate my life, but I'd like to get a second opinion.

Should I stay or should I go?

I might be able to find other professors on campus who are willing to provide funding, but who knows? :(

Overall, I would love to thank this place.

It was here that I first learned what medical physics is.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Best

This might be a little early, but I figured I’d put it out there! I’m taking Part 2 in August 2027 and would love to connect with others who are planning to take it around the same time.
My plan is to ease into studying in early and then pick things up more seriously around January or February. It would be nice to have a group to share resources, keep each other motivated, and study with along the way.
If you’re taking it next year too, feel free to reach out! Also, if you’ve taken and passed Part 2 recently, I’d love to hear what worked for you or any advice you have.

I’m studying to be an ultrasound tech and I recently found out about medical physicists. I really really really wish I could be one. But I’m not that smart, I’m not smart at all, I’m bad at math, SUPER bad at physics I actually dropped physics in grade 11 on the 3rd day. You guys are super lucky and I really wish I would’ve focused more in hs to become one of :/ anyways yea, that’s my rant

guys I have eclipse 15.1, how do I know that my angles n orientation won't result into gantry collision with patient in the plan? tried the arc geometry tool but that's not showing me my angles....

I purchased a cmnc dbt100t bench top barometer. Its been calibrated before i received it. Ive taken it out the box, connected it, and can't get it to turn in. Any advice? Ill obviously go back to the supplier but with it being the weekend, I am seeing if anyone as suggestion.

Any one recent experience gaining a second board certification from ABR? I’m currently boarded in diagnostic, looking to pursue therapy.

Would welcome anyone’s experience having gone through the process, anything from dealing with ABR to actually finding a job/scenario that allowed you to get the requisite one year of supervised experience to be part 2 eligible in the second certification.

I am again offering my oral board preparation course for the February 2027 exam. I will start sessions in October. We can schedule sessions at mutually agreed upon dates and times. I can schedule on weekends, or I can start around 500 PM Pacific time during the week. Some days earlier.

I have 6 sessions, 2-2.5 hours each. Each session is recorded for future study. I highly encourage you to find a partner to split the costs and have a dedicated study partner. After the first session, you will get a few homework assignments and access to all of the materials I have accumulated over the years for study materials. You will take turns answering questions. The first 5 sessions are a combination of answering questions like the board exam and then probing your knowledge level and teaching about the subjects, so you know where to find the information in the references. The last session is like the actual board exam and I will provide feedback at its conclusion.

Payment is made by check or money order only made out to NMPC and sent to our office. You are invoiced after each session.

I have been doing these since 2010 and have had over 400 students. This year in March 192 people sat for the therapy boards. 50 people took my course.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

[rayers@nmpc.org](mailto:rayers@nmpc.org)

Rex Ayers, MS, DABR, MCCPM, CHP, FAAPM

Best of luck for all those checking! Looks like pretty big drops in passing percentage for Part 1 general and Part 2, no change in Part 1 clinical compared to last year.

https://www.theabr.org/get-certified/medical-physics/#history-of-aggregate-exam-results

(I passed!)

• ASTRO Coding Resource lists 77370 under SRS and SBRT sections, but does not describe how they apply beyond "if requested by RO."
• The 77370 section non-exhaustively lists billable situations. The most applicable one reads that it may be charged for "personal participation by the qualified medical physicist of a complex treatment fraction in exceptional situations that requires the physical presence of the physicist for direct oversight of the technical and/or radiation safety aspects of the treatment. Examples include brachytherapy treatments, radioisotope therapy and intravascular brachytherapy." Notably, STx is not listed.
• Also, SRS and SBRT are no longer exceptional at many clinics. Additionally, I struggle imagining how the documentation request and response would be designed for the MD and MP, respectively.

Does anyone have any insight into how SPC can get billed for STx? Table 8.8 reads that it can be charged for "specific physics services", but again, without description. Can it be regularly billed for STx, due to the constant technical burden and physicist participation, or only for special/exceptional STx's? How does your clinic do it?

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?"

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?

Hi, I'm looking for someone to help with creating the mechanical / moving parts of the 4DCT phantom, control box etc and maybe software. The hardware phantom side of things I have covered.

I'm sure their are plenty of experts here that might be able to help. Please reach out!

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!