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NHS Scotland is committed to encouraging equality and diversity among our workforce and eliminating unlawful discrimination. The aim is for our workforce to be truly representative and for each employee to feel respected and able to give their best. To this end, NHS Scotland welcomes applications from all sections of society.
This is a new post in Oncology Physics at Edinburgh Cancer Centre to support increased capacity and support for Clinical Trials in Radiotherapy as part of the newly formed South East of Scotland Cancer Research Network Radiotherapy Team (SESCRN Team 5). This is an ideal opportunity to develop leadership skills and develop and embed this new post within Edinburgh Cancer Centre (ECC).
A key objective for radiotherapy in ECC is to build on our existing clinical and technical research and development activities to increase our recruitment to clinical trials involving radiotherapy. To support this objective, the SESCRN Radiotherapy Team 5 has been established with membership from Oncology Physics, Therapeutic Radiography, Clinical Oncology, Data Management and Nursing. The scope of the team includes:
• To ensure equity of access to radiotherapy trials
• To ensure we can open more radiotherapy trials
• To identify what capacity is required to open a trial and who needs to do it
• To provide early input into how the trial may alter service delivery if successful
• To encourage in house radiotherapy research and support new ideas
The purpose of this post is to provide physics leadership and management for the introduction of new clinical trials and take responsibility for specific development and implementation projects. The postholder will also act as a physics point of contact for clinical trials and monitor and audit the physics resource (by themselves and other members of Oncology Physics) required for opening and maintaining those trials, ensuring this is captured and recorded.
The postholder will also contribute to routine service including complex treatment planning, patient specific QA, commissioning of new techniques, R&D and new technique development in the department. Previous experience with Varian hardware and software would be advantageous, but full training will be given.
ECC has an established intra-cranial Stereotactic service and is designated as the provider for the National Specialist Service for Benign Lesions for Scotland.
Applicants should have an honours degree in physics or other relevant subject, an accredited postgraduate degree and must be registered with the HCPC as a Clinical Scientist. If applicants do not already hold an RPA200 Certificate of Competence as a Medical Physics Expert, they will be supported and encouraged to submit their portfolio of evidence to attain this.
The department has 7 Varian linacs (including 1 Novalis TX & 1 TrueBeam STx) and 2 wide-bore Philips Brilliance CT’s with RPM. Eclipse and iPlan are used for external beam treatment planning with ARIA 13.6 as the Record and Verify system. We are currently upgrading to ARIA/ECLIPSE 16.6 and designing our paperlite workflow.
The department is an active participant in clinical trials, including SABR trials and has research links to the University of Edinburgh. It is expected interviews will take place on 22nd/23rd September 2022.
Informal enquiries are welcomed to Michael Trainer, Head of Treatment Planning (Michael.Trainer@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk, 0131 537 2176).
This post requires the post holder to have a PVG Scheme membership/ record. If the post holder is not a current PVG member for the required regulatory group (i.e. child and/or adult) then an application will need to be made to Disclosure Scotland and deemed satisfactory before they can begin in post.
The use of the term “Senior” in this post refers only to the level of experience and responsibility required for this post rather than age. As such, applications from people of all ages are welcomed, subject to meeting the relevant criteria.