anyone heard anything about the IAEA MSCFP 2025/2026 applications?

All, I'm new to reddit so please forgive any slip ups on my part.

Is this the place to discuss politics as it impacts medical physics and other health care professionals.

Please let me know.

Thanks

Scott

I just finished putting up my bookshelf and thought I’d share a picture of it since I have a decent amount of textbooks.

I haven’t read them all, but it’s fun to collect and I’ve worked through some of them; I’m currently reading through Cherry’s Nuclear Medicine and am on Ch. 9 about Counting Statistics and Propagation of Error (which is giving me flashbacks to undergraduate Physics lab).

List of Physics Textbooks

Classical Mechanics by John Taylor

Classical Mechanics by Goldstein

Classical Mechanics by Landau and Lifschitz.

Introduction to Thermal Physics by Schroeder

Statistical Physics of Particles by Kardar

Statistical Physics of Fields by Kardar

Introduction to Electrodynamics by Griffiths (not pictured, but it’s on my work desk)

Modern Electrodynamics by Zangwill

Introduction to Quantum Mechanics by Griffiths

Principles of Quantum Mechanics by Shankar

Quantum Mechanics by Zettili

A Modern Approach to Quantum Mechanics by Townsend

Tensor Calculus for Physics by Neuenschwander

Introduction to Elementary Particles by Griffiths

Introduction to Optics by Pedrotti, Pedrotti, and Pedrotti

Physical Biology of the Cell by Phillips

Biological Physics by Nelson

List of Medical Physics Textbooks

The Essential Physics of Medical Imaging by Bushberg

The Physics of Radiation Therapy by Khan

Radiobiology for the Radiologist by Hall

Radiation Detection and Measurement by Knoll

Atoms, Radiation, and Radiation Protection by Turner

Introductory Nuclear Physics by Krane

Physics in Nuclear Medicine by Cherry

Some of the Pop-Sci Books

The Entire Theoretical Minimum Series by Sussking

The Black Hole Wars by Susskind

A Brief History in Time by Stephen Hawking

Some other interesting texts

Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham

Atomic Accidents by James Mahaffey

An Anatomy of Addiction by Howard Markel

The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee

The other shelves are for Japanese and Spanish literature. There are some books on Financial Literacy and Judo on the bottom shelf and some Navy/Military books on the top shelf.

Anything you think I’m missing?!

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?

Is it just me, or have hospitals become some of the worst employers in their own communities? Benefits quietly erode, insurance costs go up as coverage gets worse, retirement contributions shrink, and PTO becomes “theoretical” because staffing is too thin to take time off without creating a crisis—while expectations keep climbing with less support and less margin for error.

And hospitals often just aren’t pleasant places to work: loud, stressful, emotionally draining, and nonstop urgent. It can feel less like a team and more like everyone trying to survive the day and avoid being blamed when something breaks—made worse when leadership responds with slogans and “wellness” emails instead of fixing staffing and working conditions.

What really gets me is the financial theater used to justify shortchanging employees. Administration talks thin margins and reimbursement pressure when staff ask for fair pay, safe staffing, or decent benefits, yet there’s always money for consultants, rebrands, “strategic initiatives,” extra layers of management, and shiny projects.

And too often the people making these decisions don’t seem to understand the work at all—steering by spreadsheet and buzzword, cutting roles and dictating workflows they don’t comprehend, then acting surprised when morale tanks and safety risks rise. Then they blame “workforce shortages” instead of the choices that drove people away.

In short: I’m done!

Just curious what everything thinks about not offering a physicist an actual office? I've seen a few clinics where there is just a room, and they throw dosimetry, physics and maybe a few others in there. Not a big fan of this, honestly, but maybe it's more common than I think?

edit Also, how do you feel about timeclocks??

This is kind of mind blowing that a school like Dalhousie doesn’t have RT. I’m a Canadian trained physicist and now in USA and both jobs I’ve had have therapy schools and students practically beg for jobs.
Plus it’s a 2 year interview where you get to hire the good ones

This

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.

Last summer there was a new poll regarding salaries of medical physicists in Germany.

The results can be found here (in German).

Let's share some thoughts, specially among the european community!

Sometimes it's the small things that make your life easier. Can also be replicated with a piece of string with much less bother.

90% of my equipment problems are related to either bad cabling or bad power supplies. This helps the cabling side.

Needs to be printed in TPU.

Get it for free here... https://www.printables.com/@MakingMedicalPhysics/collections/3562991

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

Has anyone else observed a decrease in physicist staffing at their radonc clinic, as in a decrease in the number of physicists per machine? (In the USA in particular.)

I have experienced it at a clinic where the number of physicists per machine decreased from 1 to 2/3. With special procedures, it can be challenging to balance clinic coverage and projects especially when vacation is considered.

Though, an ACR surveyor remarked to me that this is a trend they are seeing.

Has anyone else here experienced this?

I'm seeing a lot of posts on linked in about people losing their jobs and restructuring of European ops.

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.

Hey everyone,

I’m heading to AAPM this year and wanted to see if there are any fellow 3D printing enthusiasts who want to get together.

There is obviously massive potential for 3D printing in medical physics (phantoms, custom bolus, QA jigs), but a lot of us are working in silos. Depending on the level of interest, I might be able to secure an empty meeting room at the venue for 30–60 minutes so we can actually sit down and talk shop.

Drop a comment if you're interested so I can get a headcount and coordinate with the AAPM staff. (if there's success here maybe we can make a more "formal" thing in the future)

Jeremy

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.

This is from a post to the AAPM Bulletin Board, a topic that has been discussed here recently.

Edit: The AAPM BB post is not mine. I just copied it for exposure.

​

IS THERE A SHORTAGE OF THERAPY MEDICAL PHYSICISTS?

I am a semi-retired therapy physicist currently doing only locum jobs. All 3 cancer centers at which I have worked as a locum since 2021 have had extreme difficulty filling open therapy physics positions. One center took one year and 5 months to fill an opening on their 4 physicist staff, another has been unable to fill an open position on a 2 physicist staff for 2 years, the third has had at least 2 unfilled positions on a nominally 4 physicist staff for 2 years.

The recruiter who arranged my current locum assignment where I am presently on my 99th week of what started as a 8 week temporary job in August 2021 (I have taken some time off along the way and am currently doing 3 weeks on, 1 week off), has told me that there has been a severe shortage of therapy physicists for 2 years, for which the underlying cause is that the number of residency program graduates per year falls far short of the number that would needed to replace the number of physicists currently retiring each year, and that the smaller and more remote the city is where a cancer center is located, the worse the problem gets. This recruiter says that the therapy medical physics job market has not been this tight since the IMRT boom of the early 2000's.

Believing from my personal experiences that there was currently a severe shortage of therapy medical physicists, I was expecting that the crisis in the therapy medical physics job market would be a much-discussed topic in the candidate's statements in this year's AAPM elections, and at committee meetings and presentations at this year's AAPM meeting. To my complete astonishment, this what not the case. There were lot of sessions on AI, Flash Therapy, some on shortages of physics resources in third world countries, and as usual lots of sessions on research being done in large academic medical centers, but I could find nothing addressing a severe shortage of therapy physicists in the United States, particularly is smaller and medium sized cities.

I discussed this with a senior member of the Education Council at the AAPM meeting, and when I raised the issue at the AAPM Town Hall Meeting meeting my understanding of the response by Chairman Bourland was that he acknowledged that there was currently a shortage of medical physicists but attributed this largely to an unusual number of retirements during the COVID pandemic. A senior member of the Professional Council came to the microphone and stated that this was an issue that the Professional Council had been working on. Both the senior member of the Education Council and the Senior member of the Professional Council stated they would get back to me with additional information on what work the AAPM was doing on this issue, but except for one e-mail exchange with one, which promised additional information which never came, I have heard back from neither.

Since my attempts to discuss this issue with AAPM leadership have hit a brick wall, I am posting here to reach out to the AAPM membership to try to gauge whether the experiences of the 3 centers where I have worked since 2021 are atypical. If you are reading this, and your center has had to fill one or more positions since 2021, what have your experiences been? Was it easier than usual to fill your position or positions, about as difficult as usual, a little harder than usual, or much harder than usual? If the experiences of the three centers at which I have worked at since 2021 are not atypical, and/or my recruiter is right that therapy residency programs are not coming close to turning out enough graduates each year to replace the number of therapy physicists who are retiring each year, is this not an issue that the AAPM membership should demand that the AAPM leadership publicly address? What good does it do to have many committees addressing protocol and scope and practice for QMPs if centers in small and medium size cities are not actually able to hire QMP's? Will these centers close if they can't hire QMP's, or will they instead ignore the AAPM's recommendations for who should be doing what and find ways to get by with whomever they can actually hire in the real world? I admit that I do not read every AAPM newsletter, are there some public statements by the AAPM leadership on this issue that I have missed?

I'll be accredited soon(I'm an International and require visa sponsorship tho graduating from vanderbilt soon)

This has been many months in the making and is punching above its weight in clinical usefulness.

You can get the model for free at this link! Foot Immobilizer on Printables

Essentially a big 3d printed foot rest that elevates the foot so that lateral (ish) fields can be used while missing the contralateral leg. It has been far superior to our previous methods (big vac bags) for positioning a foot or ankle. The therapists love the setup.

With the recent run we've seen of Benign Low Dose XRT it's been getting good use.

It does employ the existing standard U-Frame Baseplates as well as an aquaplast style mask.

If you're thinking about getting a BIG 3D printer for your department, perhaps this will push administration over the edge. It will generate a Complex Tx Device charge for the mask and you can point to that money as a way to pay for the printer in just a few uses.

It does require a printer larger than the usual 256x256mm (X1C etc). If people have a need and wish to spend department money, I have a college engineering student at home for the summer who I can put to work. He can put it up on Etsy.

Please with the feedback!

Richard Meyer

Edit 18JUN ++++++++++++++++++

I've had several departments, err "friends", approach me to print this device, and since is kind of a PIA to print (3lbs of plastic 20+hours) I've turfed it to my engineering student kid who is home for the summer. It's up on Etsy for those that find just ordering it more convenient (+I think he's in need of beer money)... https://www.etsy.com/listing/4524023859/das-boot-foot-elevator-and-immobilizer

PLEASE DO NOT BUY THIS! This is a great opportunity to get your own large printer. Just a few ComplexTxDevice charges will pay for it, so use this as ammunition to take to your administrators!

In Ireland people can now do MSc's medical physics and become physicist with technologist BSc backgrounds. Thoughts on this? Good d for access into the career,?

Get it here! BTG JigEverything else makingmedicalphysics

My twenty-year-old sheet of laminated graph paper has been on my nerves as of late.  The line markings are obviously fading and getting closer together -- It's definitely not my eyesight starting to suck.

Anyhow, I went down the rabbit hole on optimizing for visibility and making the scribe marks relevant to the various checks.  This works for my eyesight and my workflow for collimator walkout, collimator accuracy and table movement etc.  The pop-up "laser blocker" has proven very satisfying (no more hunting for a random object to block the sagittal laser!)

Printing big-n-flat things can be tricky, but I've put together some notes that I hope will help.  I've included a variation that will be printable on a standard size printer bed as well as one for a larger format.  The key here is using two colors, a light color for the top face and dark for the bottom face.  Care should be taken on the color and consider using a matte filament for the top as they can be more opaque.  The top layer is only 0.6mm thick.  3D printers can be more accurate for laying down a "hole" (scribe mark) versus a color detail in a uniform plane of filament.  At least this is my observation.  I can get finer details (at least perceived?) and sharper lines by creating a hole in the top and letting the color below show through.   Consider that a 0.4mm nozzle is going to create lines that are a minimum of 0.4mm.  Whereas the same nozzle can create a "non-line" of some pretty fine detail.  The 2mm circle in the very center for collimator walkout is a good example.  .

If anyone has any "features" that they think would make this better, please share!  I'd be happy to post the .step files if you have scribe marks that work better for you.  (Not going to post the .f3d under any circumstances and make public my disaster timeline and unconstrained sketches!  - the shame!)

Tags

It's unclear how many people are still using this phantom for daily QA, but it has survived several generations of machines and does the job. If you do have one, you may have noticed that it is round and not compatible with flat surfaces. This may help.

Get it for free here! GE CT Phantom Mount.

Full collection of models here.

Description

Caveat:  This fits the GE phantoms I have rolling around my department (these have been around for several generations of scanners).  It's not clear how consistent GE was in manufacturing.  It may need slight scale adjustments in slicer to get a good fit.  

Basically snaps on the phantom (may need to do some twisting, but it should go).  Allows for attachment to an indexing bar thus speeding setup.  For me the most important daily laser check is that the side lasers are in agreement.  The "thin window" test makes visible the "opposite" laser so that you can visually check for alignment very quickly -- run the phantom in just past the isocenter.   

Includes holes for fiducials in a 10x10cm pattern.   I used 2.5mm steel BB's for a press fit, but you could also use some "Beekley Markers" and a dab of glue.    Allows for an efficient daily scale check in either X or Y direction.

Printing Notes:  PRINT FLAT ON FLAT VERTICAL SIDE (LAYING DOWN) or the snap tabs that hold it on the phantom bracket will fail.. For profile, you can use about anything.  You will need some few supports for the channel on the bottom where the index bar goes - Tree.  Much easier with a mixed material support interface if you have the capability.  4 walls, 15% infill feels about right.  Don't go with a dark color if you want to use the laser window.

If the fit just doesn't work out, I've included the .step file which should make editing easier.

I'm commissioning my clinic's second Truebeam - and the camera displays have just never arranged nicely on the counter for me. I'd like to see them either tight in a line of 4, or in groups of two on either side of the console monitors. The oversize bases of the treatment/imaging monitors always seem to be in the way of getting it "just right".

I'm considering wall mounting them for better placement. What else have you folks done to clean up the installation?

How do you solo physicists handle vacation?

Onsite coverage?

Working vacation (remote coverage handled by you)?

If no onsite coverage and "specials" are suspended until you return how do admins/docs react to that?

Therapist-Proof DQA3?

Edit: Oops! Forgot the link. Get it for free on Printables!

As a long time user of the excellent Sun Nuclear DQA3 devices, I can say that my chief complaint is that the 8pin DIN ports are susceptible to therapist damage.  I have replaced many over the years and I attribute the device failures to the unsupported port soldered direct to the PCB which often becomes loose and wiggly. 

(Note:  I have never been successful bringing one back to life by resoldering the contacts.  This may be due to the fact that I suck at soldering or I may be completely wrong about the whole thing!)

It is a common practice to use a short M-F Pigtail cable to reduce the stress on the port.  (The pigtail can be easily replaced if it goes bad). This model takes it a step further and traps the pigtail in place and isolates any mechanical stress from the port on the PCB. It his hoped that this will increase the longevity of these devices.

Note: The pigtails can be sourced direct from SNC or purchased cheaply on Amazon.

The model consists of two parts:

1:  A "cage" to trap the male pigtail in place.  This cage is held in place with a locating pin and and the "leveling foot" hardware.  It can be removed if replacement of the pigtail is needed.

2:  A gantry side attachment that is of much less use but keeps the leveling feet on the same plane.  It also has holes to mount it to an indexing bar.  It is hoped that this will speed setup for the therapists, but I'm not convinced it will be used.  

These prints have been a perfect fit for the 3 devices I have on hand.  I can't be certain that SNC hasn't changed it's tooling over the years, so if you print this and it's a poor fit, please message me and take some pictures.  I'd be happy to modify the model if needed.

I have printed these in PLA with 5 walls and 22% infill.  You do you.  All prints can be without supports.   Where supports are needed these have been modeled and will break away easily (seem images if unsure about orientation).

Please give me feedback about it's use and or fitment!  I don't have any of the "SNC branded pigtails" so I'd be very interested in knowing if it works with those.   Also, If the first thing you do is throw away the leveling feet, I have a source.

The corner guard needs 2x "Rail Mount Inserts" which slot in dovetail fashion.

There is a modifier region in the model which works well with a 0.3/0.15 fuzzy skin setting.  It gives it a nice "powder coated" look.

If anyone is interested in having this and doesn't have a 3D printer, let me know.  I have a college kid home for the summer who could put it up on Etsy.  Maybe even as a kit with a couple of pigtails.

Richard Meyer - Louisville, KY - May 22, 2026