Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed changes in radiotherapy (RT) departments worldwide. Medical physicists (MPs) are key healthcare professionals in maintaining safe and effective RT. This study reports on MPs experience during the first pandemic peak and explores the consequences on their work. A 39-question survey on changes in departmental and clinical practice and on the impact for the future was sent to the global MP community. A total of 433 responses were analysed by professional role and by country clustered on the daily infection numbers. The impact of COVID-19 was bigger in countries with high daily infection rate. The majority of MPs worked in alternation at home/on-site. Among practice changes, implementation and/or increased use of hypofractionation was the most common (47% of the respondents). Sixteen percent of respondents modified patient-specific quality assurance (QA), 21% reduced machine QA, and 25% moved machine QA to weekends/evenings. The perception of trust in leadership and team unity was reversed between management MPs (towards increased trust and unity) and clinical MPs (towards a decrease). Changes such as home-working and increased use of hypofractionation were welcomed. However, some MPs were concerned about pressure to keep negative changes (e.g. weekend work). COVID-19 affected MPs through changes in practice and QA procedures but also in terms of trust in leadership and team unity. Some changes were welcomed but others caused worries for the future. This report forms the basis, from a medical physics perspective, to evaluate long-lasting changes within a multi-disciplinary setting.
Highlights
The outbreak of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoronaVirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causing Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an extreme event with complex spread-dynamics [1]
Organisation of the department (Cluster) A-respondents were the most tested for COVID-19, and had the highest rates of positive/suspected patients and related treatment interruption (Table 1)
We report on the experience of 433 Medical physicists (MPs) from 40 countries world wide during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic
Summary
The outbreak of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoronaVirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causing Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an extreme event with complex spread-dynamics [1]. RT services continued, important changes were implemented rapidly to enhance patient and staff protection against infection, including treatment delay or RT schedule alterations [2,3,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]. This affected medical physicists (MPs), who are key healthcare pro fessionals in sustaining safe, effective, and efficient RT under constraints of social distancing and national/regional pandemic-related guidelines [13]. Sixteen percent of respondents modified patient-specific quality assurance (QA), 21% reduced machine QA, and 25% moved machine QA to weekends/
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