Program Overview

Medical Physics Residency Overview

The Department of Radiation Oncology at Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) offers a two-year Medical Physics Residency Program in Therapy. This clinically-oriented program educates and trains future medical physicists in high-quality medical physics clinical research and services in radiation oncology. The Program is designed in accordance with the essential guidelines from the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) and the Standards for Accreditation of Residency Educational Programs in Medical Physics as published by the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Physics Educational Program (CAMPEP). The program is accredited by the CAMPEP in Therapy.

Program Details

Why Northwestern?

Located in the Streeterville neighborhood of downtown Chicago, Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) is an 894-bed academic medical center that is the primary teaching hospital for Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. It has nearly 1,900 affiliated physicians representing virtually every medical specialty. The hospital is ranked No. 1 in Chicago and Illinois, as well as among the top in the nation according to the U.S. News & World Report Honor Roll of America's Best Hospitals. Northwestern Memorial Hospital is recognized for providing exemplary patient care and innovative advancements in a variety of clinical areas, including oncology.

The Department of Radiation Oncology at NMH is housed in two adjacent buildings; Galter Pavilion and Prentice Women's Hospital. Both of them are accessible via underground passage and on the second floor by bridge. Access to both places is unrestricted to staff.

The department of Radiation Oncology houses a ACGME accredited Medical Residency, JRCERT accredited Radiation Therapy School, along with CAMPEP accredited two-year clinical Medical Physics Residency Program in Therapy based on CAMPEP standards. Even though the program is highly clinical training, it fosters patient care, education, and research as part of being a tripartite academic center.

Clinical Training

The two-year Medical Physics training program is divided into multiple clinical rotations, divided into 1-3 month clinical rotations as outlined below:

• Orientation and Introduction
• Pretreatment Imaging
• Treatment Planning
• Linac Calibration and Quality Assurance
• Radiation Detectors
• Gamma Knife - SRS
• Brachytherapy
• IGRT
• Special Procedure - TBI - TSET
• Advance TPS SBRT, Adaptive MRL
• Shielding
• Elective

Medical physics residents receive hands-on clinical training in Northwestern's state-of-the-art facilities under the supervision of faculty, mentors, and instructors including 10 board-certified physicists and 9 dosimetrists. The Radiation Oncology Department treats 120-140 patients each day using cutting-edge therapeutic machines including 4 linear accelerators with onboard imaging, MR-Linac for (MRgRT), 2 CT-simulators, and a Gamma Knife. Medical physics residents will gain exposure in modern radiation therapy treatment techniques and special procedures including: 3D Conformal, TBI, IMRT, IGRT, SBRT, VMAT, OBI, XVI, CBCT, adaptive radiation therapy, Gamma Knife, Linac-based Radiosurgery, Hyperthermia, and Low Dose Rate (LDR) and High Dose Rate (HDR) Brachytherapy.

Medical physics residents are mentored by the distinguished faculty/staff of Medical Physics section in the Department of Radiation Oncology. All faculty members are involved in clinical practice, research, and resident education and training.

Admissions Policy

The Program admits candidates that meet one of the following conditions:

• Hold an MS or a PhD degree from a CAMPEP-accredited graduate program or
• Have completed a CAMPEP-accredited certification program after a PhD in Physics or related Sciences or Engineering with an equivalency of Physics minor or
• Have completed a PhD in physics or related discipline and have satisfactorily completed courses equivalent to those in a CAMPEP-accredited certificate program, as determined by the CAMPEP Graduate Education Program Review Committee (GEPRC).

The Program participates in CAMPEP Medical Physics Match program and applicants apply for the program in late Fall. After the deadline, all applications are sent to the mentors/staff for evaluation where approximately 20 of the top applicants are chosen for the interview (physical/virtual). A score of 1-10 (10 equaling best) is ranked and entered in the Match system. The Match provides the top candidates for the program who start residency around July 1 of each year.

Current Faculty/Staff

Program Director

Indra J. Das, PhD, FIPEM, FAAPM, FACMP, FACR, ASTRO.
Professor of Radiation Oncology

Current Residents

Andrew White, MS

Class of 2026

• BS: Wofford College
• MS: University of Wisconsin-Madison

Alexander Choi, MS

Class of 2027

• BS: University of Tennessee
• MS: University of Pennsylvania