Anna Rodrigues, PhD | North Carolina

Anna Rodrigues, PhD

Medical physicist

Duke University – Durham, North Carolina

Main site:
150 patients a day on 8 linacs

Eight satellites:
30 to 50 patients

Treatment times:
7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
or 5:30 p.m.

20 nurses, 20 therapists, 25 physicians, 35 medical physicists (estimates)

Special procedures:
All linac-based site, two HDR vaults, LDR brachy and intraoperative ocular brachy, departmental 3T MRI

Tell us about your commute.

My commute is under two miles, and I used to walk to work but now I drive to drop a child at daycare or at school and pick them up again.

Tell us about your home life and how you balance it with your professional responsibilities.

There is another medical physicist in this house, which is probably two too many. My husband is a diagnostic imaging physicist. We have two kids, 3- and 6-years-old, and a cat. While I often work very early or very late, schedules for a diagnostic imaging physicist, while they work just as much and just as hard, are a little bit more flexible.

What are some of the challenges that you find in your practice setting?

I don’t love the word challenges, it has a negative connotation. We are trying to steer a ship that’s very large. Coming to consensus can be difficult and requires strong management infrastructure. I think we do it rather well here, but of course, we’re human, so nothing is perfect. And that’s okay.

What do you prefer about this setting compared to others?

A large part of why I really enjoy the university hospital system is my role in the education of medical physicists and other trainees. I am a residency program director and also a graduate program instructor and enjoy that administrative side. From a clinical standpoint, in a university hospital, you tend to see more fringe situations where physics needs to step in and give their technical expertise.

When you think about what first drew you to the field of medical physics, do you find that still applies today in your day job?

Applying my knowledge to solve problems in the clinic is the number one thing that gets me excited to go to work every day. I like receiving pages asking me to come to the machine because there is a problem others cannot figure out. It can be stressful, but at the same time very rewarding, to do something that you alone have the knowledge to do. I studied physics in undergrad because I wanted to know why things work. When I learned about radiation physics, I thought, well this is cool. I learned about nuclear physics and worked in a research reactor facility. And then I learned about the applications in medicine and the treatment of cancer. I found an intersection where you can be a physicist but also have direct patient interaction. I’m the daughter of a physician and a teacher, so I appreciate both the medical and educational sides.

What has changed the most over your tenure?

I’ve been on faculty almost seven years. The hot topics are automation, AI, etc. But the complexity of the clinic is rapidly increasing, and it’s going to increase demands on the physicists. Historically the bread and butter of physics tasks was quality assurance: perform measurements and verify. And we’re moving toward management of technology that is not intuitive through physics principles such as AI for contouring. This is a big paradigm shift and something that we’re going to have to manage on a daily basis with no classical training.

What worries you the most about the future?

I hope we continue to advance our treatments on multiple fronts. I worry about stagnating without innovative improvements in the therapeutic ratio. I would like to see us go to single fraction treatments, maybe with Flash.

What are you most excited about when you look ahead?

Every year, every week, and every day, I see so many changes. The future is bright as long as we keep sight of the goal of improving our treatments. A fundamental question I ask PhD students doing research is: How does this improve where we are? Sometimes it is easy for physicists to get bogged down with the technical details. And, in a sense, that’s what we’re supposed to be doing, but sometimes you lose sight of why.

What is your most cherished professional accomplishment?

Treating pregnant patients involves a lot of physicist interaction. One woman brought her baby for us to meet. And she was just so, so thankful. Maybe everything would have been fine with or without me in this case, but it truly felt in that moment that all the work I did to become a physicist helped produce this life. That moment embodied so many hours of work. Just there it is. That’s the end result. It’s an actual thing that you can see. And it’s a human. The second thing is that I have done a lot of outreach for elementary school kids, middle school kids, women in high school and college to expose them to the field of medical physics. And I’ve seen these light bulb moments where they realize this could be their calling, and some mentees have proceeded to get their PhDs. And I love residency interviews. Every time I meet the next generation of medical physicists, I’m always so thoroughly impressed by them.

What does wellness mean in your life, and how do you pursue that?

I do like the word pursue, because it’s not like I have ever reached the epitome of wellness. As a driven and motivated individual, it’s really difficult sometimes to shut off. This maybe sounds like work for other people? But I really like to plan out vacations. I plan vacations for other people for fun. I do a lot of desert hiking. I enjoy being outdoors and camping with my family. And baking, yes, baking a lot.