Changes and demands in the higher education sector are increasingly making advanced degree medical physics programs nonviable and the profession will have to develop a new model for delivering such education

Abstract

OVERVIEWAt universities, advanced degree programs in Medical Physics tend to have relatively few students compared to, for example, programs in other Physics subspecialties. This tends to make them relatively more expensive to operate, and since universities are always looking for ways to reduce costs, there is some concern that such programs will cease to be affordable and other ways to educate medical physicists should be developed.

Magnetic Resonance Image-Guided Radiotherapy (MRIgRT): A 4.5-Year Clinical Experience

“…In particular, sarcomas, gastric cancers, and CNS malignancies are of developing interest, as is use of MRIgRT for unique applications in radiomics [23–26]. Applications for MRIgRT for rectal cancers and head and neck cancers have been explored and are also underway at our institution [27,28]. The unique emergence of SBRT for successful ablation of ventricular tachycardia at our institution also presents an fascinating potential non-malignant MRIgRT application, given the need to precisely account for the motion of the heart from both the cardiac and respiratory cycles [29].…”

Will COVID-19 change the way we teach medical physics post pandemic?

“…Also, we may need to accept that things may never return to "normal"; and, possibly the elephant in the room acknowledge that universities are under great financial distress. Small courses are always a target for cost-cutting and for our courses to survive we must consider ways to at least maintain our current student numbers and to deliver our programs in a cost-effective way [7]. Each of the universities has historically had its own "special flavor" in the way it offers its accredited programs.…”