In recent years, 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 when c ommunity volunteer leaders raised over $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 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.
Hogstrom is an important asset to both institutions: a full-tenured professor and director of LSU's medical physics program and at Mary Bird Perkins, a professor and chief of medical physics. Through this partnership, LSU created another tenure track research position, and provided start-up funds for upgrading their medical physics program. Mary Bird Perkins created three new positions: two new Ph.D. medical physicists and the chief of clinical physics, who is responsible for patient care and training LSU medical physics students.
Very recent accomplishments can be found in the Center's research and education partnership with LSU. The Dr. Charles M. Smith Endowed Chair in Medical Physics at LSU , funded by donations from both LSU and Mary Bird Perkins, was established. LSU donor Dr. Charles M. Smith contributed $300,000 of the $600,000 required to establish an endowed chair at LSU. Contributors to a recent capital fund drive conducted by Mary Bird Perkins made it possible for the center to match Dr. Smith's donation. Together, these donations qualify for $400,000 in matching dollars from the Louisiana Board of Regents Support Fund to provide a $1 million endowment. Endowed chairs provide vital, ongoing funding for research and academic study rather than a one-time gift. This chair was funded by LSU and Mary Bird Perkins (through community support of the successful 2004 Whatever it Takes Capital Campaign) and will provide a $1 million endowment to support research initiatives and academic study occurring at the Center and at LSU.
The next step for the endowed chair is for LSU to review credentials from top level medical physics researchers and appoint someone to the post, a process to be completed in the near future.
Additionally, we were recently notified that the Medical Physics graduate program has received Commission on Accreditation of Medical Physics Educational Programs, Inc., or CAMPEP, accreditation and is now the 10th such program accredited in the United States . Currently, there are 18 students from across the nation enrolled in this premier academic program.
To meet increasing demand of hospitals, clinics and industry for trained medical physicists and health physicists, Mary Bird Perkins and LSU's Department of Physics and Astronomy have partnered to offer a Master of Science 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 medical physicists, medical dosimetrists and radiation oncologists at Mary Bird Perkins.
Mary Bird Perkins and LSU are working together to develop more effective and safer radiation treatments. Adding prestige to LSU's medical physics program, where the quantity and quality of students have improved since the unlikely partnership, LSU has become one of a handful of programs where its students have access to the latest leading-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 are working together to provide students with access to clinical training after coursework, increasing the number of medical physics graduates with experience using the best equipment available.