A Dosimetrist? What is That?

I had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Zach Scott. He works at Riverside Health Systems in Newport News, Virginia as a medical dosimetrist. He has a 4-year undergraduate degree and a Bachelor’s degree from Logwood University in Biology. He then did a certification program for radiation therapy and then got his certificate in medical dosimetry. He was inspired to go into this field because he found that patient contact enjoyable. He found making a specific plan for one person quite interesting. He got his current position by luck. Riverside had an opening, he did some shadowing and they really liked him. Some responsibilities Mr. Scott does on a daily basis is design plans for patients who have cancer and want radiation treatments. He works with the Physicians and Physicists to design this treatment plan. Mr. Scott talked about how the medical field in general has making strides toward sustainability. In is line of work he said that when there is something that can be reused he tries to reuse it because it is important, but not everything in the medical field can be reused. One of his recommendations for sustainability is to use tablets to sign consent paperwork instead of using paper. One of his favorite aspects about his job is that everyday is never the same because every patient is different. One of the most surprising aspects in his career is that if he told someone that he was a certified medical dosimetrist, no one would know what he does. The most challenging part of his career is that everyone has their own opinion of doing things. It makes it difficult to work with different people that have their own way of doing things, but it is his job yo work with them to find what works best for the patient. Some advise he gave to someone getting into the health field is to be aware that insurance companies dictates a lot of what the patient’s care is going to look like, so be aware of that. Something that I have taken away from the interview is that so many people collaborate and work with each other as a team in order to help that patient. Not only are people doing their job to help the patient, but they also care about how this will effect the patient and what the right treatment is for them. There are not only people who work the front lines to help patients, but also there are people working behind the scenes for a patients care.