Dr. Todd Atwood is an Associate Professor and Senior Associate Division Director of Transformational Clinical Physics. He is also the Technology Section Chief for the Thoracic Service and the Benign Service, which includes our evolving program in noninvasive cardiac radioablation. Dr. Atwood's clinical focus is on external beam radiation therapy workflow development, stereotactic body radiation therapy techniques, and respiratory motion management.
In addition to his clinical responsibilities, Dr. Atwood is spearheading our program to transform the role of the clinical medical physicist. An important component of this program is the Physics Direct Patient Care Initiative (PDPCI), whereby medical physicists establish independent professional relationships with patients to facilitate more impactful innovations and initiate new clinical collaborations with radiation oncologists. He is the Principal Investigator of a phase II and a phase III randomized clinical trial evaluating the impact of physics direct patient care on patient experience and operational efficiency.
Dr. Atwood is also dedicated to service and education on both the national and international level. He is the Chair of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) Task Group No. 422: Practice and Training Models for Medical Physicist-Patient Communication. He also serves as the Chair of the Smart Practice Subcommittee of the AAPM Medical Physics 3.0 Committee and as a member of the AAPM Responsive Communication Subcommittee. Dr. Atwood is also the co-creator of the Varian Advanced Radiotherapy Clinical School and the UC San Diego Patient Communication for Medical Physicists Workshop.