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Program with Abstracts

Proffered Session: Research & Innovation in Education ​| Sunalta ABC

January 31, 2025 from 11:00am MDT to 12:00pm MDT

Modern Challenges in Medicine - Presentation 1
Not every resident is the same - Strategies for helping slower learners in medical physics residency programs

Horacio Patrocinio
MUHC

Medical residency programs mostly assume an average learning pace, designed to get the physics resident from one learning objective to another. The expectation is often that the resident learns by doing, complemented by external reading and study. While this works for components of the program that are well married to the day-to-day clinical activities, it may not work well in other areas or for all types of learners. To address these issues, often revealed during routine oral examinations, a series of exercises consisting both of measurements and/or calculations as well as thought experiments and analyses, were created.  These were first applied in custom designed remedial learning plans, following poor exam performance, to bring the resident to an appropriate level. The successful effect of the learning exercises was then verified in subsequent oral exam performance. This implementation of this process had a fringe benefit – with repeated weaknesses identified over several residents in the same learning areas, we were able to identify areas where we could improve the program as a whole. The result is a two-pronged approach that has been applied over the last year. First, a set of complementary exercises for all residents was created, designed to increase the learning in specific areas throughout our residency program’s four six-month rotations. Secondly, custom designed remediation plans were also created for those residents for who the regular work, teaching sessions and standard exercises were still insufficient to bring them to the required knowledge level over the standard rotation period. This approach has been particularly useful to remediate areas of traditional knowledge that are less common in the modern clinic such as 3D treatment planning and electron planning, as well as in areas that are peripheral to the general practice such as biological calculations or more esoteric commissioning measurements.



Modern Challenges in Medicine - Presentation 2
Highlights of the first AAPM-COMP Joint Trainee Climate Survey Results

Radim Barta
COMP Women's Committee - Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility (CWC IDEA) & the AAPM Working Group on Equity Diversity and Inclusion Survey Creation and Demographic Data Collection Improvement (WGWMRSC)

The joint COMP and AAPM members working on the Working Group on Equity Diversity and Inclusion Survey Creation and Demographic Data Collection Improvement (WGWMRSC) are excited to invite COMP members to look at the Report of the 2022-23 Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Climate Survey for Medical Physics Students and Trainees. The report has been prepared by Anne Marie Porter and Julius Dollison from the Statistical Research Center at the American Institute of Physics (AIP). 

This report is the first comprehensive look at domestic and international students and trainees in medical physics programs across the USA and Canada. The analysis included 608 responses from medical physics students and trainees in graduate programs (51%), residencies (36%), and various other training positions (13%). The report has many findings that will be explored carefully in upcoming journal articles written by subsets of the WGWMRSC including the intersection of care-giving and perception of the training environment; the relationship between gender, sexual harassment, and a desire to change training environments or career paths; and the intersection of race/ethnicity and the trainee experience.

This presentation will include a high-level description of the collected data, details on how to access the report if you are a COMP member, and a discussion on why this report is essential to educators and directors as they modernize their programs.

Speakers / Panelists

    Horacio Patrocinio
    Assistant Professor and Clinical Coordinator, Radiation Oncology Physics Residency Program