Dosimetrists, in short, figure out how to get dose where i want it to go and wuth the dose limitations to particular structures i give them. Now having said that I have to tell you there are great variations in practice responsibilities. At JHH we as residents had to plan the cases (put the beams on). Dosimetrists would focus on weighting the beams, dealing with wedges etc but even then sometimes we residents would try our hand at that. This is far more than most programs and as consequence I think the JHH residents are some of the best trained planners (of note, i thought all programs did this until my senior year) At most places the docs dont do as much and with IMRT they step back more after contouring and reporting the contraits to be utilized as a computer does much of the planning. A good dosimetrist is invaluable.
