TY - JOUR
T1 - A snapshot of medical physics practice patterns
AU - Kisling, Kelly D.
AU - Ger, Rachel B.
AU - Netherton, Tucker J.
AU - Cardenas, Carlos E.
AU - Owens, Constance A.
AU - Anderson, Brian M.
AU - Lee, Joonsang
AU - Rhee, Dong Joo
AU - Edward, Sharbacha S.
AU - Gay, Skylar S.
AU - He, Yulun
AU - David, Shaquan D.
AU - Yang, Jinzhong
AU - Nitsch, Paige L.
AU - Balter, Peter A.
AU - Urbauer, Diana L.
AU - Peterson, Christine B.
AU - Court, Laurence E.
AU - Dube, Scott
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 The Authors. Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of American Association of Physicists in Medicine.
PY - 2018/11
Y1 - 2018/11
N2 - A large number of surveys have been sent to the medical physics community addressing many clinical topics for which the medical physicist is, or may be, responsible. Each survey provides an insight into clinical practice relevant to the medical physics community. The goal of this study was to create a summary of these surveys giving a snapshot of clinical practice patterns. Surveys used in this study were created using SurveyMonkey and distributed between February 6, 2013 and January 2, 2018 via the MEDPHYS and MEDDOS listserv groups. The format of the surveys included questions that were multiple choice and free response. Surveys were included in this analysis if they met the following criteria: more than 20 responses, relevant to radiation therapy physics practice, not single-vendor specific, and formatted as multiple-choice questions (i.e., not exclusively free-text responses). Although the results of free response questions were not explicitly reported, they were carefully reviewed, and the responses were considered in the discussion of each topic. Two-hundred and fifty-two surveys were available, of which 139 passed the inclusion criteria. The mean number of questions per survey was 4. The mean number of respondents per survey was 63. Summaries were made for the following topics: simulation, treatment planning, electron treatments, linac commissioning and quality assurance, setup and treatment verification, IMRT and VMAT treatments, SRS/SBRT, breast treatments, prostate treatments, brachytherapy, TBI, facial lesion treatments, clinical workflow, and after-hours/emergent treatments. We have provided a coherent overview of medical physics practice according to surveys conducted over the last 5 yr, which will be instructive for medical physicists.
AB - A large number of surveys have been sent to the medical physics community addressing many clinical topics for which the medical physicist is, or may be, responsible. Each survey provides an insight into clinical practice relevant to the medical physics community. The goal of this study was to create a summary of these surveys giving a snapshot of clinical practice patterns. Surveys used in this study were created using SurveyMonkey and distributed between February 6, 2013 and January 2, 2018 via the MEDPHYS and MEDDOS listserv groups. The format of the surveys included questions that were multiple choice and free response. Surveys were included in this analysis if they met the following criteria: more than 20 responses, relevant to radiation therapy physics practice, not single-vendor specific, and formatted as multiple-choice questions (i.e., not exclusively free-text responses). Although the results of free response questions were not explicitly reported, they were carefully reviewed, and the responses were considered in the discussion of each topic. Two-hundred and fifty-two surveys were available, of which 139 passed the inclusion criteria. The mean number of questions per survey was 4. The mean number of respondents per survey was 63. Summaries were made for the following topics: simulation, treatment planning, electron treatments, linac commissioning and quality assurance, setup and treatment verification, IMRT and VMAT treatments, SRS/SBRT, breast treatments, prostate treatments, brachytherapy, TBI, facial lesion treatments, clinical workflow, and after-hours/emergent treatments. We have provided a coherent overview of medical physics practice according to surveys conducted over the last 5 yr, which will be instructive for medical physicists.
KW - brachytherapy
KW - external beam radiation therapy
KW - quality assurance
KW - radiation therapy
KW - surveys
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U2 - 10.1002/acm2.12464
DO - 10.1002/acm2.12464
M3 - Review article
C2 - 30272385
AN - SCOPUS:85054158919
SN - 1526-9914
VL - 19
SP - 306
EP - 315
JO - Journal of applied clinical medical physics
JF - Journal of applied clinical medical physics
IS - 6
ER -