Medical Physics Residency Overview

Located in the Streeterville neighborhood of downtown Chicago, Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) is an 894-bed academic medical center that is the primary teaching hospital for Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine (NUFSM). It has nearly 1,900 affiliated physicians representing virtually every medical specialty. The hospital is ranked No. 1 in Chicago and Illinois, as well as No. 9 in the nation according to the U.S. News & World Report 2022-23 Honor Roll of America's Best Hospitals, which ranks the hospital in 10 out of 16 clinical specialties. Northwestern Memorial Hospital is recognized for providing exemplary patient care and innovative advancements in a variety of clinical areas including Oncology. Department is also part of the Lurie Cancer Center of Northwestern Medicine which is ranked 6th among the Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the USA.

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine (NUFSM) has a national reputation for excellence and a long history of collaborative, interdisciplinary medical education and research. For the last 15 years, it has ranked among the nation’s top 20 research-intensive schools of medicine by U.S. News & World Report, and in 2022-23, it ranked 17th among research-oriented institutions. 

Department of Radiation Oncology at NMH is housed in two adjacent buildings; Galter Pavilion and Prentice Women’s Hospital. Both of them are accessible via underground passage and on 2^nd floor over bridge. Access to both places is unrestricted to staff.

The department of Radiation Oncology houses a ACGME accredited Medical Residency, JRCERT accredited Radiation Therapy School, along with CAMPEP accredited two-year clinical Medical Physics Residency Program in Therapy based on CAMPEP standards. Even though program is highly clinical training, it fosters patient care, education and research as part of being tripartite academic center. 

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The two-year Medical Physics training program is divided into multiple clinical rotations, divided into 1-3 month clinical rotations as outlined below:

• Orientation and Ethics
• Treatment Planning & Dosimetry
• Linac Calibration & Quality Assurance
• CT Simulation, Patient Immobilizations, and Pre-treatment Imaging (CT, MRI, PET-MR, etc.)
• Radiation Dosimetry and Detectors
• Image-Guided Radiation Therpy, IGRT (kV, MV imaging, CBCT)
• MR-Linac/Adaptive therapy
• Special procedure: SBRT, TBI, TESI
• SRS/SRT (Linac/Gamma Knife)
• Brachytherapy (HDR; interstitial for GYN; Prostate Seed Implant & Eye-Plaque and GammaTile)
• Radiation Protection & Shielding Design
• Elective (Research, Proton Beam, Tomotherapy, etc)

Medical physics residents receive hands-on clinical training in Northwestern’s state-of-the-art facilities under the supervision of faculty, mentors, and instructors including 10 board certified physicists and 9 dosimetrists. The Radiation Oncology Department treats 120-140 patients each day using cutting edge therapeutic machines including 4 linear accelerators with onboard imaging, MR-Linac for (MRgRT), 2 CT-simulators, and a Gamma Knife. Medical physics residents will gain exposure in modern radiation therapy treatment techniques and special procedures including: 3D Conformal, TBI, IMRT, IGRT, SBRT, VMAT, OBI, XVI, CBCT, adaptive radiation therapy, Gamma Knife, Linac-based Radiosurgery, Hyperthermia, and Low Dose Rate (LDR) and High Dose Rate (HDR) Brachytherapy.

Medical physics residents are mentored by the distinguished faculty/staff of Medical Physics section in the Department of Radiation Oncology. All faculty members are involved in clinical practice, research, and resident education and training.

The Program only admits candidates that meet one of the following conditions:

A:   Hold an MS or a PhD degree from a CAMPEP-accredited graduate program or

B:   Have completed a CAMPEP-accredited certification program after a PhD in Physics or related Sciences or Engineering with an equivalency of Physics minor or

C:   Have completed a PhD in physics or related discipline and have satisfactorily completed courses equivalent to those in a CAMPEP-accredited certificate program, as determined by the CAMPEP Graduate Education Program Review Committee (GEPRC).  Further details, including their latest policies, can be found at  CAMPEP.

The Program participates in CAMPEP Medical Physics Match program. Applicants apply for the program in late Fall through AAPM Medical Physics Residency Application Program (MP-RAP). After the deadline, all applications are sent to the mentors/staff for evaluation where approximately 20 of the top applicants are chosen for the interview (physical/virtual). A score of 1-10 (10 equaling best) is ranked and entered in the Match system. The Match provides the top candidate for the program who starts residency around July 1 of each year.

Northwestern Medicine seeks to admit a diverse student body who are committed to patient care, innovation, and advancing scholarship in their professional discipline. Each application is reviewed individually and holistically and without regard to age, race, color, national origin, religion, culture, physical or mental disability, or any other protected trait.