The radiation oncology physics residency is a two-year program approved by the Stanford Office of Graduate Medical Education (http://gme.stanford.edu/). Stanford’s residency program, started in 2005, has been CAMPEP-accredited since 2007, and is structured as a two-year course of progressive, supervised study and training in all the broad areas of clinical radiation oncology physics. It is intended to enable a resident to acquire the knowledge and skills needed for the independent practice of radiation oncology physics. Upon completing the program, the graduating resident is expected to be in a position to continue towards board certification. Residents participate in clinical physics duties, with virtually 100% of their time tied to clinical activity. A resident may apply for an optional elective third year of research. This would be for a clinically-related project to be accomplished under the supervision of a radiation oncology physics faculty and scheduled between the two fully clinical training years. The optional research year is intended to provide a clinically-trained resident time to advance a translational research project during his or her residency, and thereby afford an opportunity for accomplishment that could support advancing towards a career goal of clinician-scientist.

Stanford University Hospital possesses state-of-the-art equipment including a Varian TrueBeam STx linear accelerator with 2.5-mm leaf width high-definition MLC (HDMLC) and flattening-filter free (FFF) beam modes with dose rates up to 2400 cGy/min., also 5 dual-energy Varian linear accelerators with Millennium MLCs and portal imaging. Besides the TrueBeam machine, 3 of the 5 Varian accelerators are equipped with kV-OBI CBCT systems for image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT). Two Accuray CyberKnife 6MV X-band linear accelerators provide image-guided robotic-arm radiosurgery and radiotherapy with patient motion tracking (Synchrony), with X-Sight advanced dynamic image guidance software. Intra-operative radiotherapy (IORT) is performed with an electron-beam only Mobetron as well as with a 250 kVp X-ray unit. Other equipment includes a Kodak CR imaging system, Varian Ximatron and Acuity simulators, a 16-slice GE LightSpeed 4D PET/CT scanner, a 128-slice Siemens 4D PET/CT scanner with body CT perfusion capabilities and time-of-flight PET reconstruction, 4 Varian RPM systems for respiratory-gated treatment, and 15 Varian Eclipse workstations for 3D, IMRT and RapidArc™ treatment planning. 4D CT is routinely performed for tissue segmentation and planning of respiratory-gated treatment. All imaging is digital and interconnected via the Varian Aria information system. TrueBeam and OBI systems are used for stereotactic ablative radiosurgery (SABR) and conventionally-fractionated treatment. Routine procedures include: HDR brachytherapy, intra- and extra-cranial stereotactic radiotherapy with CyberKnife, conformal dynamic arc, SBRT/SABR, IORT, TBI and total skin electron beam therapy. Stanford has active master research collaborations with Varian Medical Systems and an active physics outreach program serving community radiation oncology centers in the region.
A summary of the residency program applications, acceptances, admissions, graduations, clinical employment and board certifications since inception is presented below.

Physics Residency Program Statistics

Medical Physics Residency Application for 2014 For further information and instructions to apply, click here or contact Becky Greenberg