NSERC CREATE: Medical Physics Research Training Network (MPRTN)

医学物理学是物理科学和医学之间的桥梁。在过去的一个世纪里，该领域的物理学家在将科学发现转化为日常临床应用方面发挥了重要作用，例如计算机断层扫描(CT)和磁共振成像(MRI)的发明或癌症的高能治疗，仅举几例。然而，随着将医学物理学作为一种健康职业进行监管的要求越来越严格，物理学家作为科学家和创新者的角色面临着严重的侵蚀风险，进一步拉大了科学发现和将发现转化为医学应用之间的差距。我们提出了培养新一代医学物理学家的新愿景，旨在培养严谨和创新的多学科研究，同时满足将新技术转化为临床实践的社会需求。在拟议的CREATE计划中，将在来自学术界、工业界和政府的该领域的领导者之间创建一个研究培训优秀网络，其中提出了新的培训课程。新课程由三个主题组成：1)辐射物理学的新发展，2)成像和图像处理，3)辐射响应和生物建模。作为跨不同主题的协作或共享工具的结果，受训人员通常会在一个以上的主题中进行研究。因此，拟议计划中的学员将获得一系列独特的机会，包括基础研究、该领域领先公司的实习机会，以及获得广泛的临床专业知识，特别是癌症治疗方面的专业知识。这有望为如何将研究解决方案转化为可行的临床工具或过程提供宝贵的反馈。预计该专业的毕业生将更好地应对医疗程序中日益复杂的技术发展，并使他们处于物理学、生物学和医学研究发展的前沿。它还将提供一个现代化的框架，以帮助发展和培训加拿大和世界各地未来的新一代创新者。

Medical physics represents a bridge between physical sciences and medicine. Over the past century, physicists in the field have played a major role in transforming scientific discoveries into everyday clinical applications such as the invention of computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or high-energy treatment of cancer, to name a few. However, with the increasingly stringent requirements to regulate medical physics as a health profession, the role of physicists as scientists and innovators has been at serious risk of erosion, furthering the gap between scientific discovery and translation of discovery into medical applications. We propose a new vision for training the new generation of medical physicists that aims to nurture rigorous and innovative multidisciplinary research while addressing societal needs for translating new technologies into clinical practice. In the proposed CREATE program, a network of research training excellence will be created between leaders in the field from academia, industry, and government in which a new curriculum for training is put forth. This new curriculum is composed of three main themes: 1) new developments in radiation physics, 2) imaging & image processing and 3) radiation response and bio-modeling. The trainee will typically perform research in more than one theme as a result of collaboration or sharing of tools across the different themes. Thus, the trainees within the proposed program will be exposed to a unique set of opportunities including fundamental research, internships in leading companies in the field and access to vast clinical expertise, particularly in cancer treatment. This is expected to provide invaluable feedback on how to steer a research solution into a viable clinical tool or process. It is expected that graduates from this program will be better positioned to cope with the ever-increasing complexity of technical developments in medical procedures and to allow them to be at the frontier of research development in physics, biology and medicine. It will also provide a modernized framework to help develop and train the new generation of innovators of the future in Canada and worldwide.