CWU partners with NMPC for medical physics program

ELLENSBURG — Not all physics majors want to pursue a career in research or teaching. Some prefer to use the skills they learn in college to study living systems or enter the medical field.

A new laboratory at Central Washington University is expected to make this alternate career path more attainable for physics students, giving them hands-on experience with industry-grade radiation equipment.

Identifying a growing need for medical physicists and medical physicist assistants, the CWU Department of Physics has partnered with Dr. M. Miron Zaini of the Northwest Medical Physics Center to create a lab on the Ellensburg campus that will deliver mutual benefits to students and industry.

The lab is part of a larger collaboration between the physics department and NMPC to introduce CWU students to opportunities in the medical physics field. Students are gaining real-world experience in medical physics through coursework taught by practicing medical physicists, participation in the new radiation physics lab, and clinical practicum rotations.

“We are one of the largest groups of medical physicists in the country, and we are always shorthanded,” said Zaini, the president and CEO of NMPC, a nonprofit scientific organization based in Lynnwood. “We treat 10,000 cancer patients per year, and we need to train more people to keep up with the demand.”

NMPC has long-term contracts with 34 clinics in seven states that provide radiation oncology services to their patients. The center employs about 50 physicists, dosimetrists, residents and assistants, who provide consulting services, such as treatment planning consultation, therapeutic radiation calibrations, radiotherapy equipment selection, shielding design and evaluation, acceptance testing, research, and education.

In collaboration with CWU Physics department chair Dr. Erin Craig, Zaini agreed to donate and repurpose some old radiation equipment for CWU, and he was given a part-time visiting professorship so he could help train the students in the field of medical physics.

“This was all Erin’s idea, but we complement each other well,” said Zaini, a former professor at the University of Minnesota. “This is philanthropy work, but it also has the benefit of raising awareness that these career paths exist. This partnership will give CWU students more opportunities to go into a lucrative field, and it also gives my colleagues a chance to help train future professionals.”

Craig explained that the opportunity for CWU to partner with NMPC was somewhat “serendipitous.” When she and her colleagues identified the need for a radiation lab two years ago, they contacted NMPC to help them decommission some old equipment at a hospital in Hood River County, Ore.

“Even though the old equipment was no longer useful for a hospital, it’s still functioning equipment,” Craig said. “We knew it could still be used for education, and we saw a chance to provide our students with some valuable hands-on learning opportunities.”

Craig added that her department has been exposing students to real-world practitioners for the past five years, offering a one-credit medical physics course in partnership with the Northwest Medical Physics Center since 2019. The new radiation physics lab in Discovery Hall has allowed the faculty to take the next step in their plan to develop more medical physicist assistants.

Craig noted that the learning opportunities for CWU students extend beyond the classroom and the lab as the partnership allows them to partake in clinical practicum rotations in the clinics and hospitals NMPC serves. Working alongside senior clinical physicists in a hospital setting is invaluable as students learn about the profession of radiological physics.

“What’s exciting about this collaboration, from a department perspective, is that we are expanding job opportunities for students across the state and the region,” she said, adding that the radiation lab exemplifies the kind of high-impact practice CWU has embraced. “This training aligns well with some of our subprograms, like biophysics and physics engineering, and it also gives our students a chance to develop and apply skills they will need in the industry.”

Zaini said he is ecstatic to partner with CWU to bring additional visibility to a relatively “hidden” career path. He noted few other higher education institutions offer any similar training or exposure to industry-grade radiation equipment. Outside of CWU, you would have to go to Oregon Health Sciences University, Stanford, or the University of Minnesota for this level of training.

One student who has already benefited from the hands-on training in the lab is Nic Boyles, who was hired by NMPC this year as a medical physics assistant. He recognizes how fortunate he is to have landed such an opportunity.

“I am extremely lucky that the physics department here at CWU emphasizes undergraduate research to such a great extent,” Boyles said. “This research-oriented curriculum in exactly what fostered the collaboration between NMPC and CWU.”

Boyles said he was honored that only a few months after being trained on the radiation equipment, he was hired to do the same work in a professional setting.

“The learning curve has been steep and fast-paced, but my hours of research and study that I have done here at CWU have more than prepared me for this opportunity,” he said.

CWU and NMPC currently have a five-year memorandum of understanding in place, and both parties believe the agreement will be extended, given the increasing need for medical physicist assistants nationwide.

“There are high school students interested in physics who don’t realize there are other options they can pursue with a physics degree besides research,” Zaini said. “This partnership will allow us to start promoting a number of interdisciplinary areas to those students, and that will benefit the medical field and society as a whole.”