SMART Expansion

Expand the clinical and scientific practice of medical physics beyond radiation medicine.

What is SMART Expansion?

Smart Expansion is the movement to create research, development, and clinical practice opportunities for medical physicists across all of healthcare, beyond our traditional roles in medical imaging and radiation therapy. This includes ensuring that the medical physics profession is prepared to address these challenges in the future.

In effecting these goals, the Smart Expansion Subcommittee will partner with many other organizations within AAPM, including Science Council and Education Council and many of their committees and subcommittees, including the Working Group on Future Research and Academic Medical Physics (FUTURE).

Problem

Goal

Problem

Clinical Partnerships
Medical physicists have few relationships with physicians and other clinicians in fields other than radiology and radiation oncology.

Goal

Form relationships with surgeons, cardiologists, medical oncologists, and other specialists who use technology to deliver precision, personalized care.
Expose medical physicists to typical clinical problems and technologies in diverse medical specialties and healthcare settings.
Develop models and examples of medical physicist support of routine patient care in areas other than radiology and radiation oncology.

Problem

Intersociety Partnerships
Awareness and understanding of the medical physics profession is limited in key partner professions such as physics and biomedical engineering.

Goal

Create and strengthen engagements between AAPM and other professional organizations like the American Physical Society and medical organizations like the North American Society of Cardiovascular Imaging and the American Academy of Dermatology.
Increase engagement and attendance of AAPM members in partner societies' activities and meetings while engaging partner society members in AAPM activities and meetings.

Problem

Scientific Partnerships
Opportunities for medical physicists to engage in research and development outside radiation medicine vary and depend on awareness and understanding of medical physicists' existence and roles as well as their personal relationships with colleagues in other fields.

Goal

Create engagement models for medical physicists to partner with disciplines such as biomedical engineering and biophysics in their own institutions and regions.
Raise awareness of medical physics contributions through successful projects, publications, and intersociety partnerships.

Problem

Championing Safety
Radiation oncology and radiology have robust experience and methods for assessing and managing risks and ensuring safety. Medical physicists can share this with other disciplines who adopt high-tech precision medicine.

Goal

Share safety knowledge with healthcare disciplines where medical physics has not traditionally been involved.
Establish medical physicists as the "go-to" experts on patient safety and risk management in healthcare.

Problem

Strengthening Foundations
Medical physics education and training are highly specialized to the needs of radiation medicine.

Goal

Develop medical physics curricula and competencies for artificial intelligence and machine learning, data analytics, lasers, thermal physics, optics, dermatology, bioinformatics, fluid physics, cryogenics, and other topics.
Build or expand undergraduate, graduate, residency, postdoctoral, and continuing education programs to meet these needs and challenges.