The Scientist Training Programme (STP)

Jodie Schultz, Stephen Milner

STP Trainees, Medical Physics, Mount Vernon Hospital, Northwood, Middlesex.

What is the STP?

Radiotherapy Patient Pathway

The Scientist Training Programme (STP) is a post-graduate training

scheme for those wishing to become registered clinical scientists.
The course takes three years to complete, combining academic
elements with work-based learning, and continuous assessment.

Academic learning A masters degree in Medical Physics &

Engineering is completed within the 3 years.

Work based learning An online portfolio is created as evidence of

being competent in the areas required of a Medical Physicist.
Trainees spend the first year of the course rotating through four
different specialisms: radiotherapy, imaging with ionising
radiation, radiation safety, and imaging with non-ionising
radiation. This gives the trainee a chance to see and to learn the
basics of the areas in which medical physicists can be involved.

A patient who is diagnosed with cancer may be referred for

radiotherapy.
Radiotherapy makes use of ionising radiation emitted from a
Linac or other source to precisely treat cancer while sparing the
healthy surrounding tissue.
Images of the tumour site are taken using a CT, MRI or PET
scanner to provide anatomical information in 3D. This is then
used to plan the patients treatment.

Radiotherapy Planning

After the first year the trainee will choose one of these subject
areas to specialise in, and they will spend the remainder of the
course working within their chosen subject area. The trainee will
be placed into a hospital or training centre that has the facilities to
provide a complete training experience for them and will decide if
the trainee is competent in the required skills.

Radiotherapy treatments are planned on computers by

physicists and radiographers using specialised software.
The computer software is used to simulate how the radiation
source will operate around the patient during treatment using
their CT scan, allowing the planner to choose where a radiation
dose will be delivered.

A planning CT slice
of a breast with
dose lines visible

At the end of the three years, trainees will be assessed from the
evidence portfolio of competencies they have built up, and a set
of Objective Structured Final Assessments (OSFAs).
If all of these elements have been successfully completed by the
trainee, then they are eligible to apply for national registration as
a healthcare professional.

Quality Assurance

Medical Physics Specialties

Radiotherapy is a treatment, often used to treat cancer, which uses
ionising radiation to target and destroy cancerous cells. During a
short placement in radiotherapy, a trainee will be involved in the
planning of a radiotherapy treatment, as well as the maintenance
and QA of the equipment used for radiotherapy.
Imaging with Ionisation Radiation uses ionising
radiation to view and diagnose medical conditions.
This may be done in the form of diagnostic x-rays or
CT scans. In nuclear medicine, patients are injected
with a radioactive pharmaceutical that targets the
area of interest to make it viewable. A physicists role in this is
crucial due to their expert knowledge of ionising radiation.
Radiation Safety is concerned with all areas of
medicine that use radiation, and is responsible for
the safe use of radiation. This is done through
ensuring that legislation such as IRR99 and IR(ME)R
2000 is being followed, as well as ensuring that
equipment is performing as expected through QA.
Imaging with Non-ionising Radiation includes using ultrasound,
lasers and MRI to view and diagnose medical conditions. Nonionising radiation is not governed by the same legislation as
ionising radiation, and presents different hazards to the patient and
the operator. Physicists must understand these hazards, and must
also understand the equipment and how it works in order to be
able to maintain it and ensure it is performing and being used
optimally.

Quality Assurance (QA) is performed by physicists to ensure

that all the equipment and software in the department is
working as expected.
This includes regularly checking the Linacs themselves, as well
as the treatment planning software.
Several advanced treatment techniques require a physicist to
QA a treatment plan by delivering it on the linac to a special
detector to ensure the plan has transferred to the machine
correctly and is deliverable by the machine.

Finally the Linac and the plan are

ready for the patient to begin their
treatment.

A Varian TrueBeam Linac used to

administer radiotherapy treatments

Scan this link with your phone to view a video on

the physicists role in radiotherapy:
References: NHSCS Website - http://www.nshcs.org.uk/