Review of online educational resources for medical physicists

Abstract

Medical physicists are often involved in the didactic training of graduate students, residents (both physics and physicians), and technologists. As part of continuing medical education, we are also involved in maintenance of certification projects to assist in the education of our peers. As such, it is imperative that we remain current concerning available educational resources. Medical physics journals offer book reviews, allowing us an opportunity to learn about newly published books in the field. A similar means of communication is not currently available for online educational resources. This information is conveyed through informal means. This review presents a summary of online resources available to the medical physics community that may be useful for educational purposes.PACS number: 87.10.‐e

The landscape of digital resources in radiation oncology

“…Those articles pertaining to radiation oncology covered a broad range of topics such as radiation oncology curriculum development [12] , surveys reflecting current resource utilization and needs [13] , interventions using digital resources to improve knowledge and treatment planning [14] , how to use contour-specific resources [15] , and development of critical skills when using novel technologies such as virtual reality [16] . Only a few studies directly related to identification of online resources unique to radiation oncology [17] , [18] .…”

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

“…I also agree that online educational tools may offer compelling resources to our students, 16 and that some courses, or a portion of their content, may benefit from online delivery. However, I disagree with Dr.…”

Open educational resources on how to conduct randomised clinical trials: a protocol for a landscape analysis

“…At our current stage, we are not aware of relevant references. One soluBon would be to train the algorithm on overview arBcles pertaining to OER in specific medical fields [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] or to train it on arBcles describing specific OERs, such as online residency training programs. [36][37][38] As a last resort, we can train it on those arBcles and screen all retrieved arBcles.…”

“…16-19 Within some medical specialties, particularly anaesthesiology and critical care medicine, extensive online communities with freely available educational material exist, known as free open access medical education (FOAM). 20-22 Overviews and surveys of OER in various specialties, including pediatric intensive care, 23 nephrology, 24 radiation oncology, 25 anaesthesiology, 26 pediatrics, 27 critical care, 28, 29 otolaryngology, 30 and medical physics 31 report many available resources, including videos, podcasts, and tutorials. We will use this landscape analysis as a primer to build a comprehensive blended learning curriculum on randomised clinical trial conduct targeting clinicians, investigators, trialists, researchers, and anyone interested in the topic on how to make fair tests of treatments.…”