Clinically directed research projects are an optional component of a CAMPEP-accredited medical physics residency and allow a resident to be scholarly-productive during their residency years.
Concerning research, the CAMPEP standards also state that the residency’s program objective must “include the development of the resident of”:
- “the ability to use analytical and research methods to solve problems arising in the clinical environment;”
- “the ability to critically evaluate research and scholarship in medical physics;”
CAMPEP standards, however, explicitly state that the “training schedule shall include:”
- “Optional research opportunities which do not compromise clinical training.” and these opportunities must be accounted for in the overall training schedule.
In our residency program, 1/3 of the resident’s time is normally allotted to participation in clinically oriented/clinically relevant projects. Example of these types of projects include:
- The development of technical components of a new QA/QC program for a new technology in the clinic;
- The optimization of a novel image acquisition and/or processing technique used for clinical applications;
- Improvement in the tools and/or methods used in the evaluation of imaging systems ;
- Characterization and mitigation of a specific image artifact, etc.
These projects are encouraged to result in presentations at professional conferences and published papers. A resident will find that such presentations and papers help in their future job prospects.
More basic, pre-clinical, research projects are generally not considered in the scope of clinically directed research projects undertaken in a standard 24-month duration residency. For such projects, several residency programs have allocated one or more training slots as hybrid clinical physics residency / post-doc research programs that commonly extend the length of the residency program to 36 months. In these programs research and clinical training components can be interleaved or blocked. This is a viable option in the Imaging Physics Residency Program, but must be addressed specifically, e.g., supplemental funding, total duration, training schedule plan, etc.
To ensure all research projects accommodated during the Imaging Physics Residency Program comply with CAMPEP accreditation requirements, the program has implemented a research project proposal application process in order to ensure transparency for both the proposed project mentor and the resident. If you are interested in an Imaging Physics Resident’s involvement in a project, please complete this application and notify both Frank Ranallo to let him know of the project submission.