Radiation therapist

The radiation therapist is a professional who manages the details of the radiation process. The therapist works closely with the radiation oncologist. After the radiation oncologist has consulted with the patient and a decision has been reached that the application of radiation will benefit the patient, it then becomes the radiation therapist's responsibility to ensure that the patient receives the prescribed radiation dose to the designated site by the approved method after the plan is produced by the dosimetrist.

The therapist is responsible for the actual administration of radiation treatment. This involves acquiring and recording all parameters needed to describe the treatment accurately - positioning, supports, pillows, distances, thicknesses, etc. The therapist takes imaging studies of the targeted area, uses the planning computers to generate a plan of radiation delivery and reproduces the patient positioning and plan parameters each day for the course of treatment. The therapist is generally responsible for the accuracy of the treatment.

Since radiation therapy usually spans over weeks, the patient's body will have small changes over the course of treatment. In order to deliver the most accurate and the best possible treatment, Radiation Therapists may use their special skills to reposition the patient, they may perform another dose calculation or some other special methods to compensate the changes.

During the course of radiation treatment, the patient will most likely develop certain side effects. In such situations, the therapists will use their medical knowledge to provide management strategies to minimize the impact of those side effects to the patient.

In some countries, like the USA, the process of producing the final plan rests with a group of specialised radiation therapists called dosimetrists, with the group implementing that plan on patients are called therapists. Other countries like Australia, NZ, England, Canada and South Africa, have a single group trained in the entire spectrum. Optimally, those who plan need to understand the difficulties of implementation, and those who implement plans need to understand the nuances and changing methods of planning.

Education required is generally a high school diploma and one to two years of technical school.