Medical Physics

Medical Physics Residency

The department of Radiation Oncology of the UMC Groningen is a certified training center for medical physics residents. Our four-year residency program in medical physics, with a specialization in radiotherapy physics, follows the program of the ‘Stichting Opleiding Klinische Fysicus’ (‘OKF’). You will be trained and educated in basic medical physics skills, as well as specialized radiation oncology skills. The (progress of the) residency training is supervised by the residency program director. For a broad perspective of the clinical practice of radiotherapy, you will spend nine months at the radiotherapy department of the Isala Klinieken in Zwolle. The residency includes one year for scientific research.

The main objectives of our Medical Physics Residency Program are:

• Attitude development;
• Scientific training;
• A broad knowledge of medical physics.

An academic (Master of Science) degree in physics is mandatory for entering into the residency program. The website of Stichting OKF has an overview of other accepted academic degrees. Additionally, a good written and oral understanding of the Dutch language is mandatory for entering our residency program.

We offer the possibility of a one-day exploratory visit to our department for job orientation. Please contact our secretary’s office at +31-50 361 3674.

For information regarding our residency program and enrollment opportunities, please contact our residency program coordinator Aart van 't Veld, PhD.

Our research program

Our department has an extensive research and development program aimed at the continuous improvement of the quality of radiotherapy treatments. As such, we offer opportunities towards earning a doctorate degree (PhD), which will be obtained at the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the University of Groningen.

At the moment we have PhD students researching:

• Personalized Offline and Online  adaptive radiotherapy  in cancer patients

• Synthetic Imaging and Proton Radiography

• 4D Robust evaluation of scanned proton therapy for moving targets 

• Delivered treatment  dose reconstruction

• Conformal FLASH for small animal experiments

• LET/RBE in proton therapy

• Proton Arc Therapy

• Image biomarkers

• Reducing radiotherapy side effects in head and neck cancer patients using a Comprehensive Individual TOxicity Risk profile: The CITOR project

The coordinator of the PhD research program is Prof. Stefan Both. PhD students are supervised by (medical) physicists from our department. 

For information about and opportunities within our PhD research program, please contact Prof. Stefan Both or our secretary’s office at +31-50 361 3674.

Master track Biomedical Engineering (≈ 9 weeks)

Our department is actively involved in the Diagnostic Imaging & Instrumentation track of the master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering (BME). We teach the course Medical Physics for Radiation Oncology (WMBE015-05, 5 ECT, semester 1b). The course consists of meetings twice a week, over a period of eight weeks, focusing on both theoretical and practical aspects of the physics of radiotherapy. From treatment preparation (treatment planning) to treatment delivery using a (particle) accelerator, including radiation treatment planning, dose calculation, methods applied for treatment verification, and quality assurance.

Some examples of the practical aspects taught within our radiotherapy department are:

• Measurements at a linear accelerator using a variety of detectors and phantoms
• Investigating the properties of megavoltage photon beams in a solid water phantom
• Treatment position verification and (corresponding) safety margins
• A simple calculation formalism for the delivered dose of a linear accelerator (linac)
• Complex 3D dose calculations in a patient geometry

 A master's degree in Biomedical Engineering with the above specialization, in combination with a bachelor’s degree in either Physics or Life Science & Technology, allows students to apply for the postgraduate Medical Physics residency program.

For more information about our course in Medical Physics for Radiation Oncology, please contact the course coordinator Heidi Lotz, PhD, or our secretary’s office at +31-(0)50 361 3674.

Master track Advanced Biomedical Engineering

The course concentrates on proton therapy and is a continuation of the course Medical Physics for Radiation Oncology (WMBE015-05). We will focus on new and future developments in Medical Physics for Radiation Oncology. Radiation Oncology is the medical practice of treating patients with cancer, using ionizing radiation. Research in medical physics is engaged in this practice to optimize and deliver the dose distribution safely according to prescription with a required high accuracy. This involves accurate dose calculation, dose delivery and dose measurement techniques, and various forms of medical imaging.

The course will start with a series of lectures during the first 2 weeks. During these lectures our researchers will teach about new and future developments in the field in general and as reflected in on-going studies in particular. The student will then choose a research topic and conduct a short research internship. All topics lie within 3 main subjects: treatment planning, artificial intelligence, and motion management. The internship will be supervised by one of our researchers and will be completed with a report.

The 10-12 lectures of 2 hours and internship (80h, spread out over four weeks) will be at the Radiotherapy department of the UMCG in the 1st year master, semester 2a.

The course unit assumes prior knowledge acquired from Medical Physics for Radiation Oncology (WMBE015-05 ) of 1st year master, semester 1b.

For more information about our course Advanced Medical Physics for Radiation Oncology, please contact the course coordinator Heidi Lotz, PhD, or our secretary’s office at +31-(0)50 361 3674.

Final year project and internships (3 – 12 months)

We offer master’s students in Biomedical Engineering and in Technical Medicine the opportunity to conduct their final year project (approximately 40 EC) at our department. These projects tie in with our ongoing departmental research program and its priority research themes. We offer also the possibility for a 3 to 6 months internship (10-20 ECT). 

Please contact Marianna Sijtsema, PhD, or our secretary’s office (+31-(0)50 361 3674).

We offer opportunities for post-doctoral research that complements our own research program. We furthermore provide opportunities towards gaining clinical experience. For information regarding internships, please see the tab labeled ‘Students’.

Please contact Prof. Stefan Both or our secretary’s office (+31-50 361 3674) for more information.