AAPM-RSS Medical Physics Practice Guideline 9.b: SRS-SBRT.

The purpose of this Medical Physics Practice Guideline (MPPG) is to describe the minimum level of medical physics support deemed prudent for the practice of linear-accelerator, photon-based (linac) stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), and stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) services. This report is an update of MPPG 9.a published in 2017.

AAPM Medical physics practice guideline 15.A: Peer review in clinical physics.

The American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) is a nonprofit professional society whose primary purposes are to advance the science, education, and professional practice of medical physics. The AAPM has more than 8000 members and is the principal organization of medical physicists in the United States. The AAPM will periodically define new practice guidelines for medical physics practice to help advance the science of medical physics and to improve the quality of service to patients throughout the United States.

Resource Allocations for Common Radiation Oncology Procedures.

Purpose: Radiation Oncology is a complex, resource-intensive discipline. The complexity of the radiation oncology treatment process has increased significantly in recent years with the introduction of more advanced imaging, planning, and treatment delivery technology and enhanced use of multidisciplinary care paths. We conducted a multi-institutional study to estimate the average time by functional unit for a wide range of modern radiation oncology treatment regimens.

Quality management, quality assurance, and quality control in medical physics.

The historic and ongoing evolution of the practice, technology, terminology, and implementation of programs related to quality in the medical radiological professions has given rise to the interchangeable use of the terms Quality Management (QM), Quality Assurance (QA), and Quality Control (QC) in the vernacular. This White Paper aims to provide clarification of QM, QA, and QC in medical physics context and guidance on how to use these terms appropriately in American College of Radiology (ACR) Practice Parameters and Technical Standards, generalizable to other guidance initiatives. The clarification of these nuanced terms in the radiology, radiation oncology, and nuclear medicine environments will not only boost the comprehensibility and usability of the Medical Physics Technical Standards and Practice Parameters, but also provide clarity and a foundation for ACR's clinical, physician-led Practice Parameters, which also use these important terms for monitoring equipment performance for safety and quality.

Modeling of kyphoplasty cement for accurate dose calculations.

We have determined the optimal method for modeling kyphoplasty cement to enable accurate dose calculations in the Eclipse treatment planning system (TPS). The cement studied (Medtronic Kyphon HV-R®) consists of 30% Barium, 68% polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), and 2% benzoyl peroxide, formulated to be radiopaque with kV imaging systems. Neither Barium nor PMMA have a high physical density, resulting in different interaction characteristics for megavoltage treatment beams compared to kV imaging systems.

AAPM medical physics practice guideline 7.a.: Supervision of medical physicist assistants.

The American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) is a nonprofit professional society whose primary purposes are to advance the science, education and professional practice of medical physics. The AAPM has more than 8,000 members and is the principal organization of medical physicists in the United States. The AAPM will periodically define new practice guidelines for medical physics practice to help advance the science of medical physics and to improve the quality of service to patients throughout the United States.

Code of ethics for the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (Revised): Report of Task Group 109.

The American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) has established a comprehensive Code of Ethics for its members. The Code is a formal part of AAPM governance, maintained as Professional Policy 24, and includes both principles of ethical practice and the rules by which a complaint will be adjudicated. The structure and content of the Code have been crafted to also serve the much broader purpose of giving practical ethical guidance to AAPM members for making sound decisions in their professional lives.

Development of clinically relevant QA procedures for the BrainLab ExacTrac imaging system.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to develop Quality Assurance procedures for the BrainLab ExacTrac (ET) imaging system following the TG 142 recommendations for planar kV imaging systems.

Materials And Methods: A custom-designed 3D printed holder was used to position the Standard Imaging QCkV-1 phantom at isocenter, facing the ET X ray tubes. The linac's light field (collimator at 45⁰) was used to position the phantom holder.

AAPM-RSS Medical Physics Practice Guideline 9.a. for SRS-SBRT.

The American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) is a nonprofit professional society whose primary purposes are to advance the science, education, and professional practice of medical physics. The AAPM has more than 8,000 members and is the principal organization of medical physicists in the United States. The AAPM will periodically define new practice guidelines for medical physics practice to help advance the science of medical physics and to improve the quality of service to patients throughout the United States.

Varian HDR surface applicators - commissioning and clinical implementation.

The purpose of this study was to validate the dosimetric performance of Varian surface applicators with the source vertically positioned and develop procedures for clinical implementation. The Varian surface applicators with the source vertically positioned provide a wide range of apertures making them clinically advantageous, though the steep dose gradient in the region of 3-4 mm prescription depth presents multiple challenges. The following commissioning tests were performed: 1) verification of functional integrity and physical dimensions; and 2) dosimetric measurements to validate data provided by Varian as well as data obtained using the Acuros algorithm for heterogeneity corrected dose calculation.

AAPM Medical Physics Practice Guideline 3.a: Levels of supervision for medical physicists in clinical training.

The American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) is a nonprofit professional society whose primary purposes are to advance the science, education and professional practice of medical physics. The AAPM has more than 8,000 members and is the principal organization of medical physicists in the United States.The AAPM will periodically define new practice guidelines for medical physics practice to help advance the science of medical physics and to improve the quality of service to patients throughout the United States.

The next decade for clinical medical physics.

This issue's editorial is an invited commentary authored by Per H. Halvorsen.* It discusses an essential question for clinically practicing medical physicists: How are external factors likely to change the way we practice our profession in the next decade? The topic is both timely and essential, as the AAPM is actively engaged in developing guidance on many related aspects.

Medical Physics Practice Guidelines - the AAPM's minimum practice recommendations for medical physicists.

The AAPM has long advocated a consistent level of medical physics practice, and has published many recommendations and position statements toward that goal, such as Science Council Task Group reports related to calibration and quality assurance, Education Council and Professional Council Task Group reports related to education, training, and peer review, and Board-approved Position Statements related to the Scope of Practice, physicist qualifications, and other aspects of medical physics practice. Despite these concerted and enduring efforts, the profession does not have clear and concise statements of the acceptable practice guidelines for routine clinical medical physics. As accreditation of clinical practices becomes more common, Medical Physics Practice Guidelines (MPPGs) will be crucial to ensuring a consistent benchmark for accreditation programs.

Code of Ethics for the American Association of Physicists in Medicine: report of Task Group 109.

A comprehensive Code of Ethics for the members of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) is presented as the report of Task Group 109 which consolidates previous AAPM ethics policies into a unified document. The membership of the AAPM is increasingly diverse. Prior existing AAPM ethics polices were applicable specifically to medical physicists, and did not encompass other types of members such as health physicists, regulators, corporate affiliates, physicians, scientists, engineers, those in training, or other health care professionals.

AAPM Task Group 103 report on peer review in clinical radiation oncology physics.

This report provides guidelines for a peer review process between two clinical radiation oncology physicists. While the Task Group's work was primarily focused on ensuring timely and productive independent reviews for physicists in solo practice, these guidelines may also be appropriate for physicists in a group setting, particularly when dispersed over multiple separate clinic locations. To ensure that such reviews enable a collegial exchange of professional ideas and productive critique of the entire clinical physics program, the reviews should not be used as an employee evaluation instrument by the employer.

Dosimetric evaluation of a new design MOSFET in vivo dosimeter.

A single-use dosimeter, designed for in vivo patient dosimetry, has been evaluated. Key dosimetric characteristics of the dosimetry system have been measured for high-energy photon and electron beams commonly used in external beam therapy. Under the measurement conditions utilized, dose accuracy was within 5% for all data points, and inter-batch uniformity was acceptable, with a standard deviation of 1.

Dose optimization via index-dose gradient minimization.

This paper presents an iterative optimization algorithm based on gradient minimization of index dose, defined as the product of physical dose and a numerical index. Acting as a template the index distribution is designed to represent the dosimetry that meets the dose volume histogram-based optimization objectives. The treatment dosimetry is optimized when the uniformity of the index-dose distribution is maximized.