Medical Physics Residency Overview

Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) is Academic Medical Center of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine located in the Streeterville section of the city in the heart of Downtown Chicago. NMH is one of 11 hospitals in the Northwestern Medicine (NM) healthcare system. Chicago is ranked one of the best city in the US, full of culture, sports, architecture, lake, river, public transportation and universities. NMH is one of the best hospital in the USA which is ranked in the top 10 eleven years in a row by the US News & World Report https://health.usnews.com/health-care/best-hospitals/articles/best-hospitals-honor-roll-and-overview. NMH is also ranked number 1 in the state of Illinois continuously in eleven years. The Lurie Cancer Center of NM is ranked 6 in the Comprehensive Cancer Center in the US.

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Along with ACGME accredited Radiation Oncology Medical Residency and the Radiation Therapy School, NMH offers a CAMPEP accrediated two-year clinical Medical Physics Residency Program based on CAMPEP standards https://campep.org/ResidencyStands.pdf. Even though it is highly clinical training, as part of being tripartite, we foster eduation and research.  The two-year clinical training program is divited into multiple clinical rotations including but not limited to the followong topics that varies between 1-3 months long:

• Orientation and Ethics
• Treatment Planning & Dosimetry
• Linac Calibration & QA
• CT Simulation, Patient Immobilizations, and Pre-treatment Imaging (CT, MRI, PET-MR, etc.)
• Radiation Dosimetry and Detectors
• 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)
• Radiation Protection & Shielding Design
• Elective (Proton Beam, Tomotherapy, etc)

Hands-on clinical trainings are provided to the residents through working with the staff/faculty medical physicists as a mentor and instructor. The department is currently staffed with 9 physicists and 8 dosimetrists. Department treats 120-150 patients per day. It provides an extensive external beam treatments and imaging modalities, such as 3D Conformal, TBI, IMRT, IGRT, SBRT, VMAT, OBI, XVI, CBCT, Gamma Knife, Linac-based Radiosurgery, IntraOp and Hyperthermia besides various Low Dose Rate (LDR) and High Dose Rate (HDR) Brachytherapy. An MR-Linac (ViewRay) real-time IGRT treatment machine is being used.

Medical physics residents are mentored by a distinguished faculty of medical physicists in the Department of Radiation Oncology. All faculty members are involved in clinical practice, research, and resident education.

Faculty members:

• Indra J. Das, PhD
• Gocha Khelashvili, PhD
• Chithra Kumaran Nair, PhD
• Plato C. Lee, PhD
• Sara Lim, PhD
• Jussi K. Sillanpaa, PhD
• James J. Sohn, PhD
• Poonam Yadav, PhD

Program only admits candidates that meet the following conditions:

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

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

C:   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).

If a residency program conditionally admits applicants with deficiencies in their academic background, the remedial education of such residents shall be well-defined.  Courses used for remediation must have been assessed and approved by CAMPEP. This is consistent with the standards set forth by CAMPEP. Further details, including their latest policies, can be found at the CAMPEP website.