“What Workforce Challenges Exist”: APRT Revisited With Marsha and Join

The Accelerators Podcast

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Welcome to Season 4!

The Accelerators (Dr. Matt Spraker and Cameron Tharp, MPH, RT(T)) kick it off with a sequel to our prior podcast on the Advanced Practice Radiation Therapist (APRT) role.

We host friends-of-the-show Drs. Join Luh and Marsha Haley, Radiation Oncologists who bring important past experiences and unique expertise to the discussion.

We kick off by examining some articles from the Spring 2025 issue of ASRT's Radiation Therapist:

• Caldwell and Lee, Defining Advanced Practice Radiation Therapy at MDACC
• Burch et al., Advanced Practice Role in IGSRT for Nonmelanoma Skin Cancer Treatment
• Beckert, Implementation of an APRT in Online Adaptive Radiation Therapy

We then explore "scope creep", a phrase used to describe mid-level healthcare provider encroachment on traditional physician roles. One example is the UPenn study comparing the interpretations of Radiology Assistants with physician residents. Don't miss the excellent YouTube review of this study by Physicians for Patient Protection. Join shares his experience with another example, California Assembly Bill (AB) 890.

Later, Join shares some discussion about the APRT among ASRT and CARROS members at the ACR 2025 meeting.

This leads to an open discussion of what APRTs should do -- versus could do -- in a radiation oncology clinic. As evidenced by Table 1 in Caldwell and Lee, the tasks are wide ranging, may replicate existing roles of US radiation therapists, and might make more sense in international markets than in the United States.

We close by reviewing Marsha's letter to the IJROBP editor in response to an APRT role scoping review.

Here are some other things we discussed in the episode.

• Physicians for Patient Protection Website
• AMA successfully fights scope of practice expansions (2024)
• Patients at Risk Audio and Video Podcast
• Council of Affiliated Regional Radiation Oncology Societies (CARROS)
• Beckert et al., Impact of APRT for on-table adaptive radiotherapy
• Shah et al., Radiation Oncology Workforce Analysis Review
• Book recommendation: Lower Ed by Tressie McMillan Cottom
• Patients at Risk Video - Deficiencies in NP Education