Medical Radiation Physicist, M.S. (Certified)

Overview

Legacy Health System, which operates three radiation oncology facilities in Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington, has an opening for a full time, board certified, Radiation Oncology Medical Physicist to backfill for a retirement.  The primary focus will be on external beam treatments at the single LINAC facility at Mount Hood Medical Center in Gresham Oregon but will also include participation in programs at the downtown Portland and Salmon Creek facilities both of which are within 20 miles of Mount Hood Medical Center.  The preferred candidate will have experience with all facets of an external beam facility including LINAC, CT, and surface guidance, and a history of collaboration with dosimetrists, therapists, and physicians.  

 

Currently, equipment that is common to all sites incudes: Raystation TPS v11b, 4D GE CT and Elekta IGRT LINAC. The Salmon Creek facility also provides SGRT via Vision RT.   The downtown Portland facility has active programs in Gamma Knife radiosurgery (120 patients/year), high and low dose rate brachytherapy (125 patients/year), IORT and Eye Plaque.   The external beam practices involve the extensive use of VMAT and SBRT, and patients frequently receive combined therapies with brachytherapy and Gamma Knife SRS.  This position will primarily work in an unsupervised capacity.

 

The physicist will join a team, which currently includes four physicists, six physicians and four dosimetrists.  Each satellite facility has a primary physicist, and the remaining physicists are based at the downtown facility.  All physicists assist each other at the different worksites, providing cross-cover as required, and there is an opportunity to support and receive Gamma Knife and HDR specific training and credentialling.

 

This position offers opportunities and professional challenges associated with innovative and procedure focused practices, with the feel of a community based medical center, access to the vibrant city of Portland and the amazing outdoors of the Pacific Northwest’s mountains and coast.

 

The Medical Physicist is responsible for computations, measurements and communication as necessary to ensure accurate delivery of radiation therapy treatments as prescribed by the Radiation Oncologist.  A Medical Physicist must fully understand the operations, qualities and necessary safety requirements of all treatment and treatment planning equipment.

 

Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center is East County’s full-service hospital, always expanding to meet the community’s growing needs and offering an award-winning patient experience delivered with a personal touch. We offer advanced imaging, a modern emergency department, a welcoming family birth center, surgical services, intensive care, cancer care, gastroenterology and more.

Responsibilities

 MACHINE OPERATIONS

Can perform machine warm-up and shut-down.

Can operate all machine functions from consoles, pendant and table panels.

Knows the use of the computer controls for clinical, service and physics modes.

 

SUPERVISE MACHINE MAINTENANCE/UPKEEP WITH SERVICE PERSONNEL

Assures that PMIs are timely and complete.

Maintains a call list for machine service.

 

MACHINE QUALITY ASSURANCE

Can check the mechanical stability of all machine motions.

Can check all machine interlocks that ensure accurate and safe patient treatment.

Routinely tests emergency stop buttons and machine restarts.

 

MACHINE OUTPUT CALIBRATION AND CHECKS

Understands and can appropriately use the ionization chambers and electrometers for machine output calibration.

Performs analysis of the daily PROTEA measurements for stability, flatness and symmetry in beam output.

Assures that all meters and dosimetry systems are kept in calibration.

Performs the RPC TLD verifications routinely for outside assurance of beam output.

 

MACHINE AND PATIENT DATA MEASUREMENTS

Can operate and take data with the water scanning phantom as needed for beam dosimetry and check measurements.

Can utilize TLDs for in vivo patient dose measurements and beam dosimetry.

Can use radiographic film for beam dosimetry, alignment checks, etc.

Generates machine data in hard copy form for hand calculations.

 

TREATMENT PLANNING COMPUTERS

Has a basic understanding of the underlying algorithms used by the computer for dose calculations.

Can transfer the measured data to the treatment planning computer.

Tests the data used by the computer for accuracy.

Can use the computer for any complexity of treatment planning within the computer’s limitations.  (Knows the limitations of the computer in treatment planning.)

 

DOSIMETRY