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The Chinese Society of Medical Physics (CSMP), with support from Varian Medical Systems, has launched a program to provide selected Chinese medical physics students with access to web-based medical dosimetry training offered by Stanford University. The two-year Stanford University Dosimetry Training Tool (DTT) is an online computer-aided distance learning program.

The CSMP will administer the program in China and provide the students with access to the learning program and to mentors who will monitor the students’ progress as they work through the 500-600 hours of online course materials. Varian Medical Systems is providing funds for the enrollment fees. In addition, Varian will sponsor practical hands-on training sessions to be led by leading physicists from around the world in the company’s new Beijing Education Center.

"The purpose of this educational program is to improve students’ medical physics training so they can better apply their skills to help treat cancer patients with advanced forms of radiation therapy," said Ling Zhang, Varian's marketing manager in Beijing, where the company also operates a manufacturing facility. "Although there are 1,200 medical physicists in China, many of them may benefit from additional medical physics training. With this project, the CSMP is taking a big step toward systematically improving the dosimetry skills of medical physicists across China."

According to Professor Yimin Hu, chairman of the CSMP, training programs in medical physics are still being developed in China, so there are only a limited number of well-trained, professional medical physicists available. "This has the potential to negatively impact the safety and quality of radiation therapy treatments, and may also slow the adoption of advanced treatment techniques," he said. "Varian is cooperating with CSMP to bring Stanford’s web-based dosimetry training program to young Chinese physicists. It’s the right move at the right time, and absolutely will improve matters for the entire Chinese medical physics community."

"The program will enroll physicist candidates from every province in China, plus fifteen graduate students from the leading teaching universities in China," said Thomas Duffy, marketing and business development director for Varian Medical Systems Beijing Co. Ltd. "The CSMP has chosen the first group of students from a field of over 200 who participated in a trial program last year."