Mary Bird Perkins and Louisiana State University
The addition of the medical physics education and research partnership with Louisiana State University's (LSU) Department of Physics and Astronomy has significantly expanded the ways Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center touches individuals and the communities it serves.
This innovative partnership was formed in 2004 between LSU and Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center when community volunteer leaders raised more than $2 million - making possible the purchase of the TomoTherapy Hi-Art System and the partnership with LSU. The joint venture bolsters the Center's standing as a Center of Excellence and fits within LSU's flagship agenda. Part of this initiative to make a better future for cancer fighting in Louisiana was to bring Dr. Kenneth R. Hogstrom to Baton Rouge, the former director of the graduate medical physics program for M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and one of the top radiation oncology physicists in the world. In 2011, Dr. Hogstrom was succeeded by Dr. Wayne Newhauser, also formerly at MD Anderson Cancer Center, and a leading medical physics researcher. Dr. Kip Matthews, an associate professor, serves as deputy director of the graduate medical physics education program.
Through this partnership, LSU created other tenure track faculty positions and provided start-up funds for upgrading their medical physics program. Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center created several additional new medical physics positions to allow further expansion of the growing clinical, research and education programs. The program gained remarkable academic ground by achieving full accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Physics Education Programs, Inc.
An important milestone in the program was the creation of the Dr. Charles M. Smith Chair of Medical Physics at LSU – a $1 million endowed chair to support cancer research. This is the first endowed chair in medical physics at LSU and one of just a few in the nation. A physician graduate of LSU, the chair’s benefactor – Dr. Charles M. Smith – made a generous contribution to the LSU Foundation to establish the chair. “Making this gift is important to me both as a physician and a graduate of LSU,” he said. “I know what a difference this will make.” Contributors to a capital fund drive conducted by Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center made it possible for the Center to match Smith’s donation. Together, these donations qualified for $400,000 in matching dollars from the Louisiana Board of Regents Support Fund to provide for the $1 million endowment. Dr. Hogstrom held this appointment from 2004 to 2011, and it is now held by Newhauser.
To meet increasing demand of hospitals, clinics and industry for trained medical physicists and health physicists, Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center and LSU's Department of Physics and Astronomy have partnered to offer a Master of Science degree and a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Medical Physics and Health Physics.
Students spend one year in the classroom learning the fundamentals of medical and health physics, radiation biology and human anatomy. For the next two semesters, these students take additional courses in radiation oncology physics and receive clinical training and experience by working side-by-side with medical physicists, medical dosimetrists and radiation oncologists at Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center. All students in the program perform research under the mentorship of a medical physics faculty member.
Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center and LSU are working together to develop more effective and safer radiation treatments. The quantity and quality of students has improved since the partnership began, with LSU becoming one of a handful of programs where its students have access to the latest cutting-edge technology. Medical physics is the science behind planning ways to best attack cancer - focusing on the methods and technology for viewing cancer with imaging equipment. The LSU Physics Department and Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center are working together to provide students with access to clinical training after coursework and increasing the number of medical physics graduates with experience while using the best equipment available.
