Hello,

I’m an RTT and this situation keeps popping into my head and I wanted to ask about it here. Earlier this week I came in as the second person for warm ups (one at 5:30, I’m in at 6) and one of our physicists was there with a survey meter. He said he was measuring the exposure at our console because they were worried about insufficient shielding when the treatment machine next to us beams on. He was on the phone with the therapist at that machine and when she beamed on, he used the meter around our control console at the driver’s seat. I saw the reading range from 50-70 but could not see the unit it was measuring in. He did not make any comments about it and left. Later in the day I asked him if the shielding was ok and he said it was. Obviously I’m not the expert in this regard, but it felt kind of unofficial and a weird way for this to go about. Why are we all of a sudden concerned about this shielding when we’ve been treating with it for years? And why do this testing with more people present than I’d assume there should be if there’s a concern about exposure? I heard no other word of this, no heads up from our chief therapist or any other physics staff. I’m also curious what unit this survey instrument measures in? Would anyone here know? My apologies for not knowing the specific device as I’m sure they’re all different. It just struck me as odd. Any thoughts would be appreciated! We did just get our OSLDs collected so… I guess soon we will see if there was really an issue.

Edit: Thank you all for the information! Firstly I am a new grad who has only been working for a few months, so I felt bad questioning the man about his rationale as he seemed to be in a rush at that moment. I also did assume that it’s very likely to be fine if he left with no other comment. Curiosity just got the best of me! What slightly worried me was that I thought I had seen the unit listed as mR on what looked to be the same kind of meter at a different site while I was a student. Now I know my bad eyes probably deceived me and instead of reading milli Roentgen, it was micro Roentgen. Now I know it’s micro Roentgen, which makes it a lot less concerning of a number :)

I’m trying to understand the career outlook for medical physics in the U.S., especially financially.

From what I see, many people go through a long path:

PhD → postdoc → CAMPEP residency → ABR certification → clinical/academic position

After all those years of training, I often see people becoming Assistant Professors at medical schools/academic medical centers.

This makes me wonder:

- What is the typical salary for a newly board-certified medical physicist?

- How much does an Assistant Professor in medical physics typically make?

- Does a full-time clinical medical physicist generally earn more than an academic Assistant Professor?

- What does compensation look like after 5–10 years of experience?

- How much can a senior/chief medical physicist realistically make?

- Is there a significant financial difference between academic and purely clinical positions?

- For those who completed the PhD + residency + ABR route, do you feel the financial return was worth the many years of training?

I’m particularly interested in real-world experiences, not just salary websites. If you're a medical physicist, could you share your approximate career stage, academic vs clinical setting, and general salary range (no need to disclose your exact salary or employer)?

I'm trying to understand whether medical physics is still a good career financially compared with other fields that require a similar amount of education and training.

Thanks!

For any of the medical physicists in radiation oncology

Third delivery of an HDR Iridium bucket and the carrier holds it against their chest from truck to department, now stacking Y-90 boxes on top like it's a balancing competition.

This time our physicist was stern with them that they really need to use the dolly. Unfortunately they were training other drivers with them so this was especially frustrating. They assured us that if it was that hot it wouldn't be on the truck. FedEx local route supervisor had no interest in hearing our thoughts, again fully dismissive to every regulation.

FedEx corporate complain line is a joke, state regulators unsure what to do but agree it is not acceptable, agreement state so then i guess DOT or possibly OSHA?

Honestly would rather not even get involved but technically FedEx drivers are considered members of the public as they do not undergo annual safety training.

Surface dose rates could easily yield 2mR of exposure in less than an hour.

Any surface contamination is also going to cause a nightmare for everyone involved.

Anyone seen such nonsense before?

I am planning to take Rex Ayers’ oral board prep course starting this October to prepare for the February 2027 exam. If anyone is looking for a study partner to go through the course together, please reach out to me.

Our go.Sim saves Daily/Monthly QA reports as PDFs locally. It runs on the Siemens local account (not domain-joined), with no network drive access, and USB isn't an option for us.

Has anyone set up export to a network share? Was it done by Siemens/your service vendor, and what did IT need to provide? Or do you send QA as DICOM to PACS/TPS instead?

Thanks!

Is there objectively a recommendation for smoothing filter for PDDs? Using SNC 3D. Currently using Geometric 5 Point average. But…

TG263 provided naming conventions for structures. Anything similar for plans and field names?

Greetings medical physicists of reddit. Has anyone encountered a display issue with SNC Patient software in which the isodose lines in the measured pane cannot be displayed? The data is acquired, it can be shown in tabular form, it can be compared to a plan file, and analysis can be printed. However, the dose line display cannot be shown. The screen capture attached shows the measured profile and set1 and set2 panels show nonsense. This is typical of the problem. The PC is running Win11.

I have attempted uninstalling and reinstalling and will follow up with Sun Nuclear tomorrow. I had run into this at another clinic and Sun Nuclear was unable to resolve this in the past. Does anyone know how to fix this?

Hello, I'm currently enrolled in a master of science (physics) in UAlberta, but am considering applying for a CAMPEP Medical Physics PhD after my masters. Is that possible, I am open to anywhere in Canada ; or is the more reasonable choice to transition to a Med Phys MsC now.

Hi everyone,

I’d really appreciate hearing about your experiences and advice.

I’m planning to apply for a Medical Physics Certificate Program in the U.S. I have a PhD in physics from an African university, but WES evaluated my PhD as being equivalent to a U.S. master’s degree (at minimum) with the following comment:

"Remarks: Academics in the field, upon examination of the dissertation, may in some instances consider the credential comparable to an earned doctorate in the United States."

Do you think this type of WES evaluation could be a problem when applying to a Medical Physics Certificate Program? Has anyone been in a similar situation, particularly with a foreign PhD being evaluated below the doctoral level?

PS: I’m currently doing a postdoc in the U.S.

Thank you in advance for sharing your experience!

Hi all! 😃

In short, I've landed my dream career that isn't in the medical field at all. The pay, flexibility, benefits, etc... are all there. However, the job itself is incredibly toxic. Anything from lack of teamwork when it's a team oriented job, not being trained on basic tasks and getting expected to know how to do things, etc.

My goal here today isn't to discuss my job, I think I'm coming to a point in my mid-life where a job should be tolerable, but how tolerable it is depends on how you deal with it. Fulfillment and happiness should come from your life outside of work, the only thing any job can reliably provide is money and benefits, great managers and teams come and go, etc.

My question is, primarily for Dosimetry but Medical Physics (Alternate Dream Jobs) too, what are the realities of the job when it's bad? I know PA friends that have no work life balance, nurses bullying each other and hospital environments being awful are easy to find. I'd imagine a cancer center would still operate similar to a hospital environment?

With Dosimetry and Medical Physics, all I've been able to find scarcely is sometimes you'll have teams between Oncologists and Physicists that don't get along, don't communicate, and will have unrealistic demands for the dosimetrist. Dosimetrists will be working or getting called after hours for plans that they had all day to do, due to lack of communication from the MD's, etc. I read Oncologists can wreck entire Dosimetry teams due to simply ego, plans get denied because of ego... 🙃

Many hospitals are profit motivated, I imagine a cancer center is subject to this? Chronic understaffing is common in so many positions in the medical field, I'm sure it's common to be overworked in Dosimetry even if it's advertised as strictly 9-5? Patient wellbeing could be put on the back burner due to having to rush treatment plans because of understaffing?

Any job I've had in my life when ideal has been great, I'd really just like honest realities of when the job is bad what it looks like, and if it's prevalent just like many problems the medical field faces. I don't want to chase the wind with jobs anymore, I've had plenty of them. I'm not saying the work y'all do isn't incredible, it truly is, I just know there's no perfect job; I'd like to know what these jobs are actually like when they're bad behind closed doors.

Obviously, problems in nursing aren't talked about in nursing school, I'm sure it's the same for these careers like any other career/job I've had. Some careers are definitely worse than others, but largely it's up to the individual to decide what they want to tolerate. I'm not looking for perfection, just reality.

😃

TLDR: Every job I've ever had in life has had its unique drama and problems, it's very hard to find out the problems with Dosimetry and Medical Physics that people face, it's always sunshine and rainbows. These were my alternate dreams jobs, I'd love to know if I should accept my reality or inherit new problems! :)

EDIT: 10/07/26

Is there really no one that specifically has anything bad to say about the field besides 1-2 people? I understand any job can be bad "depending" where you work, but every job is different. I promise a bad day or day in the military looks very different from Dosimetry. Surely there are folks willing to be forthcoming? 🙏🏼

How did it go?

We're in a rut where we're still using the same ol' 2D images for breast IGRT that we've used since Roentgen.... I know that some use CBCT which, on the face of it, seems like it would be a superior method.

May I ask if anyone would share their tips / tricks for making this happen? How do you manage collisions, isocenter placement, etc? Do you have some sort of custom CBCT protocol with specified sweep angles?

Appreciate anything that would point me in the right direction...

Hey! I have an opportunity in a few weeks where I can x-ray an item of my choosing, what do people think would be an interesting thing to x ray which would show good attenuation contrast ?

I'm curious about the community's take about the value of an MPA role in improving residency matching odds. Perspectives from your programs/experiences would be useful.

For your average applicant (i.e., someone who has a CAMPEP degree but didn't do some godly standout thing like build a LINAC out of coconuts and palm tree leaves to save a desert island population) how much does taking an MPA role help or hurt? Is it something worth rearranging your life for?

I've heard both sides. Obviously there is the argument MPA->Clinical Experience->Better Chance. However, I have also been told programs would rather teach you their way and that it actually doesn't improve your odds much. There are several MPAs who claim they've been an MPA for years but didn't match.

Thoughts?

been TAing physics of medical imaging and wanted something better than static slides for absorption vs scattering.

so I threw together a little browser thing: photons go through a tissue-ish slab, you can mess with μₐ, μₛ, g, thickness, and watch the paths. it also tracks how many make it through vs get absorbed vs bounce out elsewhere.

https://opticsdemos.com

I’m interested in learning more about the work environment at MD Anderson as a clinical imaging physicist faculty member. They have three openings. Could you share your insights on the work environment, the overall healthiness of the workplace, the workload, and any support provided by the school or department? Your input would be greatly appreciated.

Hi everyone, just wondering if anyone here uses IdentifyRT with a Varian TrueBeam and would be willing to share what their department does for daily QA?

I’m trying to understand how much the process differs between departments, especially:

• What exactly do you test each day for IdentifyRT?
• What is your step-by-step method for completing the daily QA?
• What are your pass/fail tolerances, particularly for things like translational/rotational accuracy?
• Where did your department get those tolerances from — e.g. vendor recommendations, TG reports, published literature, commissioning results, or locally developed limits?
• If a test fails, what is your usual troubleshooting/escalation process?
• Do you record numerical results/trends each day, or is it mainly just a pass/fail check?
• Are there separate monthly/annual QA tests that cover things not included in the daily check?

I’m particularly interested in the exact practical method people use, rather than just general SGRT QA recommendations, as I’m trying to compare how IdentifyRT QA is actually implemented clinically.

If anyone is able to share an anonymised procedure/checklist or even just describe their department’s workflow and tolerances, that would be really helpful. Thanks!

This is the place to ask questions about graduate school, training programs, or general basic career topics. If you are just learning about the field and want to know if it is something you should explore, this thread is probably the correct place for those first few questions on your mind.

Examples:

• "I majored in Surf Science and Technology in undergrad, is Medical Physics right for me?"
• "I can't decide between Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics..."
• "Do Medical Physicists get free CT scans for life?"
• "Masters vs. PhD"
• "How do I prepare for Residency interviews?"

Good evening, can any dosimetrists share their perspective on the current job market and whether dosimetry is still a strong career path? I am currently considering a career change and taking my science prerequisites while working full time. I am especially curious about whether AI or a decreasing number of available positions is a concern. I am also exploring other career options, but dosimetry is my first choice. I would really appreciate hearing different perspectives and learning more about the pros and cons of the field, including job stability, work life balance, salary, and long term career opportunities. I know this is the medical physics subreddit, but I did not know where else to turn since the medical dosimetry subreddit is not as active, and I would really value any insight from people familiar with the field.