Scheduled Hours

40

Position Summary

Radiation therapy as practiced at the Washington University’s Department of Radiation Oncology is personnel-intensive and can be highly customized and individualized for each patient, requiring extensive quality assurance (QA) and constant oversight to prevent catastrophic treatment delivery errors. It is subject to extensive and time consuming documentation imposed by current standards of practice and regulatory bodies such as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA). The Clinical Staff Physicist provides the essential administrative, organizational, and technical expertise that keeps the clinic functioning smoothly, safely, and at a state-of-the-art technical and clinical level in a technically complex environment.

Job Description

Primary Duties & Responsibilities:

• Basic calibration and quality assurance testing (equipment varies by location).
• Determination of radiation dosimetry parameters for treatment units, simulators and brachytherapy radiation sources.
• Calculation of radiation dose distribution for patients undergoing treatment.
• Monitoring or measuring the dose delivered to selected patients.
• Maintaining dosimetry standards pertaining to radiation dosimetry systems.
• Space planning and radiation shielding design for new facilities, modalities, and equipment.
• Radiation safety surveys for facilities and personnel.
• Clinical oversight of technical personnel (dosimetrist).
• Consultation with radiation oncologists regarding special clinical physics considerations for individual patients.
• Development, maintenance and implementation of calibration and quality assurance programs for all external beam treatment machines, simulators, treatment planning systems, and brachytherapy equipment/sources.
• Development, maintenance, and implementation of quality control procedures.
• Development, maintenance, and implementation of physics and dosimetry protocols.
• Responsibility for the release of treatment machines into clinical services after maintenance, and for documenting that any alterations caused by the maintenance and repair schedule do not affect the treatment unit standards promulgated in the AAPM code of practice.
• Serving as a liaison to equipment manufactures for installation, acceptance testing, and verification testing and making recommendations concerning new equipment acquisitions and upgrades of hardware and software.
• Interpreting test results and advising clinical staff on optimal equipment use.
• Overseeing compliance with U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, licensing, Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA), and other regulatory requirements governing personnel and general public safety and other issues; and attending Radiation Safety Committee meetings.
• On-site contouring or normal anatomy and processing of multimodality imaging, including image registration, deformations, and processing of respiratory motion correlated images.
• On-site treatment planning, with equipment varying by location.
• These positions could potentially cover clinical service remotely at SMH to some extent.

Working Conditions

Job Location/Working Conditions

• Normal office environment

Physical Effort

• Typically sitting at desk or table
• Repetitive wrist, hand or finger movement

Equipment

• Office equipment

Salary

We offer a competitive base salary commensurate with experience along with an attractive sign-on bonus.

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed by people assigned to this classification. They are not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all job duties performed by the personnel so classified. Management reserves the right to revise or amend duties at any time.

Required Qualifications

Education:

M.S. - Master Of Science - Physics

Certifications:

Therapeutic Medical Physics I - American Board of Radiology

Work Experience:

No specific work experience is required for this position.

Skills:

Not Applicable

Driver's License:

A driver's license is not required for this position.