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
This innovative partnership was formed in 2004 between LSU and Mary Bird Perkins when community 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
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.
Under Hogstrom’s leadership, the program has already gained remarkable academic ground by achieving full accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Physics Education Programs Inc., becoming one of only 14 accredited programs in the
In addition, Hogstrom was appointed as 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 MBPCC 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.
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.