Your average day as a Rad-Onc?

[Tuloste]

To preface, the speciality is a novel one to me. In the Baltics and Nordics (don't know about the rest of Europe), the oncologist orders the RT and the medical physicists plan and deliver it. My meaning is not to denigrate your specialty, for I know that it is in the doldrums right now, and furthermore I have great respect for the physicists who do similar work for us, and whose pay is in fact legally tied to that of the oncologist's in order to attract sought after talent and perhaps to establish some kind of hierarchical parity. I'm interested, just for the sake of being interested, in learning what kind of work it is that you do, and whether it resembles a medical physicist's trade as it is known here, or some kind of a hybrid between an oncologist and a medical physicist?

Edit: Also meant to add, that what do you think is lost when the physician ordering the RT is in practical terms so far removed from it? I'm guessing some medical nous the physicists do not possess, but what do you make of it?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Doctorer]

Oh. Oh no.

 

[brushbeamscanning]

 

[sloh]

"1:03pm: I log into Reddit and read about how Radiation Oncology is a dying field; apparently immunotherapy cured cancer 4 years ago and no one bothered to tell us. I scroll Student Doctor Network and learn that all radiation treatments can now be delivered in 0 fractions and that AI is going to put us all out of a Job, starting this coming Tuesday. I focus on the threads of “esteemed” radiation oncologists (who still use SDN?) describing the severe injustice of recent reimbursement changes that have gouged their pay from $800,000/yr down to a measly $620,000! Chump change. I think to myself, I could have gone into simple radiology if I wanted to be poor. I then browse the Red Journal to learn exclusively about health disparities, then read in JAMA Onc that surgical oncology is suggesting omission of radiation for all cancers, especially the malignant ones that may or may not be good candidates for surgery. I then check the ASTRO website to see if there are any job postings, but when I get to the careers page all I see is a picture of the board of directors wearing life preservers holding signs that say “everything is fine”. I officially fall into a pit of despair." haha

 

[Tuloste]

Didn't mean to use your predicament as a source of entertainment, and I feel bad for asking now

 

[CaesarRO]

To preface, the speciality is a novel one to me. In the Baltics and Nordics (don't know about the rest of Europe), the oncologist orders the RT and the medical physicists plan and deliver it. My meaning is not to denigrate your specialty, for I know that it is in the doldrums right now, and furthermore I have great respect for the physicists who do similar work for us, and whose pay is in fact legally tied to that of the oncologist's in order to attract sought after talent and perhaps to establish some kind of hierarchical parity. I'm interested, just for the sake of being interested, in learning what kind of work it is that you do, and whether it resembles a medical physicist's trade as it is known here, or some kind of a hybrid between an oncologist and a medical physicist?

Edit: Also meant to add, that what do you think is lost when the physician ordering the RT is in practical terms so far removed from it? I'm guessing some medical nous the physicists do not possess, but what do you make of it?

In short -- we probably a hybrid of what you describe as done in the part of Europe you're familiar with

We see patients, decide if radiation is right for them, prescribe the dose and fractionation... then we also oversee the simulation, planning and delivery of treatment. We work in tandem with dosimetry, medical physics and therapists for the latter part, but we are the ones evaluating the plan, deciding if (and how) it needs revision. Medical Physics verifies patient-specific QA, confirms machine is working as expected and helps troubleshoot challenging cases. (Edited to add: We also manage all side effects during and following treatment)

In Europe my understanding is the "clinical oncologists" also prescribe the concurrent chemo. In the US we work with Med Onc who manages that part.