Faculty

Radiation Safety Officer, Cheshire Medical Center

Ms. Chen specializes in radiation safety and radiation oncology physics. She provides radiation safety education to medical staff and patients. She provides medical physics service to cancer patients and oversight of all radiation-related QA and QC programs in Cheshire Medical Center Radiation Oncology and Radiology departments. She believes a good communications and team approach based cancer care could ensure a higher quality, safer patient care and provide a better overall outcome for patients. Ms. Chen obtained her MS degree in Medical Physics from DePaul University in Chicago, IL. Award AAPM fellow in 2021 and ACR fellow in 2022. She joined Cheshire Medical Center/Dartmouth Cancer Center Kingsbury Pavilion in 2001. Her research interests focus on radiation oncology workforce, economic and health policy FLASH radiation therapy, and the use of image processing and computer automation to support adaptive radiation therapy.

Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth profile

Clinical Professor of Medicine (Radiation Oncology), Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth

Training: Harvard College (BA, History) 1978; Harvard Medical School (MD) 1982; Massachusetts General Hospital (Radiation Oncology Residency) 1986

I am a part-time staff physician, with subspecialty expertise in the treatment of musculoskeletal tumors as well as proton radiation therapy. I have been active in clinical research in these areas. My research has resulted in over 175 original reports as well as over 100 reviews, book chapters, editorials, and clinical guidelines. I co-edited the books, Proton and Charged Particle Radiotherapy (2007) and Sarcomas: Evidence-Based Diagnosis and Management (2020). I have served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Surgical Oncology, Annals of Surgical Oncology, Journal of Clinical Oncology, and UpToDate in Oncology.
Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth profile

Assistant Professor in Radiation Oncology.

The cancers I treat include but are not limited to breast, gynecologic, head, neck, and skin cancers. I was born in Pittsburgh, PA, moved to TX, OH, and finished high school in England. I attended college at Stanford where I majored in Human Biology, medical school in Chicago and completed residency and fellowship in Radiation Oncology at SUNY, Syracuse. My goal is to provide optimal care with attention to the physical and radiobiological aspects of radiation oncology as well as the human aspects involving an individual’s priorities and concerns. I enjoy contributing to the knowledge base in Radiation Oncology through involvement in clinical research studies and educating undergraduates, medical students, and residents.

Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth profile

Clinical Physicist, Dartmouth Cancer Center Assistant Professor of Medicine, Radiation Oncology

Training: Worcester Polytechnic Institute (BS Electrical & Comp. Eng.) 1997; Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College (PhD) 2009; University of Michigan (Medical Physics Residency) 2012

Dr. Fox is a medical physicist with commitments to clinical practice, education and research.

Dr. Fox is the primary instructor for the graduate-level Radiation Therapy Physics course for the Dartmouth PhD Program in Medical Physics, as well as for the Radiation Oncology Medical Residents. She has also initiated Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s participation as a clinical site for Grand Valley State University's Masters of Science in Medical Dosimetry. Drawing on her engineering and six sigma training, Dr. Fox’s research interests center around workflow optimization and standardization. This includes coordination of departmental data elements with their use throughout the hospital as well as in wider data utilization efforts such as cancer registries, outcomes analysis, planning automation, and decision guide development. She is also a co-chair of our QAQI committee and is working on an efficient process to transfer incident reports between ROILS and the hospital incident learning system.

Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth profile

Clinical Physicist and Operational Site Lead, Dartmouth Cancer Center St. Johnsbury

Dr. Gates is the medical physicist operational site lead for the Dartmouth Cancer Center St. Johnsbury. His focus is on QA and calibration of Linear Accelerators, CT, portal dosimetry, ClearCheck and TPS commissioning. Dr. Gates received his Ph.D. in medical physics from Carleton University, Ottawa, ON in 1997 and joined DHMC in 2005. He believes that mutual respect within clinical teams create the highest performing ones. Dr. Gates has research interests in solid brass compensators for IMRT, as well as in MR-guided radiation therapy.

Director of Medical Physics Education and Research

Having served from 1996 to 2021 as Chief of Clinical Physics at DH, Dr. Gladstone now focuses on the academic mission at DH and Dartmouth. The Medical Physics Education Program (MPEP) at Dartmouth offers CAMPEP accredited PhD degrees in Medical Physics. Dr. Gladstone is director of the MPEP and co-directs a laboratory investigating and developing the use of Cherenkov imaging to improve the quality assurance in radiation therapy treatments. The group has expanded focus in recent years and was the first in the world to demonstrate ultra-high dose rate deliveries from a modified clinical linear accelerator in order to study the FLASH effect for normal tissue sparing. Dr. Gladstone is working to extend the educational portfolio at Dartmouth by initiating a residency program for medical physicists who wish to enter the profession.

• Geisel School of Medicine profile
• Thayer School of Engineering profile

Data Scientist and Lecturer, Radiation Oncology, Geisel School of Medicine

Dr. Hunt is a machine learning engineer who believes in the power of data and AI to automate and improve our healthcare systems. He has a special interest in leveraging real-time imaging modalities (cine MRI and optical), which generate massive clinical datasets, to train deep neural networks in a self-supervised manner. He is currently applying this approach to perform fast deformable image registration and target tracking in real-time MR-guided radiation therapy. Dr. Hunt received his PhD in Bioengineering at Rice University. Upon completing his PhD, he joined the Dartmouth community as a Research Scientist at Thayer. In 2021, he joined Radiation Oncology as a Data Scientist to lead efforts in improving treatment planning and delivery workflows using AI.

• Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth profile
• Brady Hunt, PhD, Lab webpage

Associate Professor of Medicine (Radiation Oncology)
Associate Professor of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice
Inaugural Medical Director of the Susan and Richard Levy Health Care Delivery Incubator

Training: Dartmouth College (BA, Biophysical Chemistry) 2003; Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (MD) 2008; University of Michigan (Radiation Oncology Residency) 2013; Dartmouth College (MS, Healthcare Leadership) 2016

I am a full-time staff physician, the Director of Radiation Oncology services at Dartmouth Hitchcock Dartmouth Cancer Center St.Johnsbury, and the inaugural Medical Director of the Levy Healthcare Delivery Incubator with research and administrative interests are focused on value creation in health care delivery. I consult with collaborators nationally to study financial and behavioral effects of bundled payments on cancer care and use Medicare claims data to understand variation in treatment cost, quality and outcomes. As Medical Director of the Levy Incubator, I source, select and manage small, multidisciplinary teams who are reimaging how to deliver and sustain better health care to seriously ill patients, while reducing episodic cost of care.

Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth profile

Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth profile
Joshua Levy Lab webpage

Assistant Professor, Section of Radiation Oncology (Department of Medicine)

Training: Brachytherapy Fellowship, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, 2022; Radiation Oncology Residency, Medical University of South Carolina 2021; Internal Medicine Preliminary, Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai (Queen's Hospital Program), 2016; Doctor of Medicine, St. George’s University School of Medicine, 2015; Master of Health Services Administration, Dalhousie University, 2007

Dr. McVorran is a Radiation Oncologist and Fellowship-trained Brachytherapist with a particular interest in gynecological and genitourinary malignancies. Her research pursuits center around social determinants and health disparities in gynecologic malignancies as well as value-based, dose escalation with the use of high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy. She is passionate about resident education and has a strong interest, and demonstrable track record, in global oncology and diversity, equity and inclusion. Dr. McVorran also has significant health administration experience, having previously worked as both a Hospital Administrator and a private Health Management Consultant. She brings this unique perspective to her patient care.

Medical Director of Oncology, Kingsbury Pavilion

Dr. Park is a Radiation Oncologist and Medical Director of Oncology Services at Cheshire Medical Center in Keene. She previously served as the practice chief of Radiation Oncology at the Bronx Veterans Administration Medical Center, as well as the Medical Director of the Cyberknife Center in Brandon, Florida. She previously participated on the ACR’s Radiation Oncology Guidelines and Standards committee, as well as the ASTRO Workforce Diversity committee.

As a community-based radiation oncology provider, Dr. Park treats all sites. In addition, she is interested in stereotactic body radiation therapy and stereotactic radiosurgery, as well as providing options for cancer trial enrollment in a community hospital based setting. Dr. Park is committed to providing comprehensive cancer care to patients close to home.

Assistant Professor, Section of Radiation Oncology (Department of Medicine)

Dr. Pointer is a physician-scientist at Dartmouth Cancer Center. Her clinical focus is on primary CNS tumors. She believes in patient-centered care and has an interest in clinical trials with the ultimate goal of improving the survival of patients with high-grade gliomas. Dr. Pointer is interested in medical education and is passionate about finding ways to involve more underrepresented students in medicine and research. Dr. Pointer’s laboratory focuses on ways to overcome radiation resistance in high-grade gliomas by using preclinical and translational research approaches.

Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth profile
 

Assistant Professor of Medicine and Radiation Oncology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.

Dr. Russo self-identifies as a clinical radiation oncologist and “radiosurgeon”. His clinical practice focuses on treating thoracic, and primary and secondary central nervous system malignancies, and using radiosurgical techniques to treat various tumors requiring high-precision radiation therapy. He has worked with almost every commercially available radiosurgery platform and uses that breadth of experience when considering treatments for his patients. By training, Dr. Russo is a chemical engineer and brings the engineering mindset to his practice for a better understanding of the tradeoffs of the responsible integration of new technology into clinical practice. Research interests are focused improving care with outcomes research, and supporting clinical trial accrual to advance current treatment standards. Outside of clinical practice, Dr. Russo enjoys making sculptural objects and furniture with concrete, wood and steel, runs long- and ultralong- distances on forest and mountain trails, and uses large format film photography to capture images of the beauty and absurdity of modern life.

Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth profile

Radiation oncologist, Medical Director

Dr. Vernon is a radiation oncologist and serves as the medical director of the Southwestern Vermont Regional Cancer Center. His clinical interests include the treatment of lung, breast, and prostate cancers, though as a practitioner in a community cancer center setting he enjoys the challenge that comes with treating a broad range of cancers as opposed to a single focus. Though not all treatment options are feasible in smaller community clinics, he hopes to expand the modalities available to his local patients. He trained primarily in the Midwestern US, completing his MD at the Medical College of Wisconsin, followed by residency in radiation oncology at the University of Minnesota. He began practice as one of the first providers under the new affiliation between Dartmouth-Hitchcock and Southwestern Vermont Healthcare in 2013. Outside the clinic he enjoys hiking, principally in the Adirondacks, though he recently met a long-term goal of summitting Kilimanjaro. He runs marathons and enjoys travel abroad, especially in Africa and in Latin America.

Assistant Professor, Section of Radiation Oncology (Department of Medicine)

Training: Radiation Oncology Physics Residency, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center 2023; Doctor of Natural Sciences (Physics), Heidelberg University (Germany) 2020; Master of Science (Medical Physics), University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center 2017;  Bachelor of Arts (Physics), Columbia University 2014

Dr. Weygand is an academic medical physicist at Dartmouth Health. His research interests lie at the interface of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and radiotherapy. In particular, he exploits the functional capabilities of MRI to visualize tumor physiology in vivo to both guide therapeutic interventions and to monitor response to therapy.

Additionally, Dr. Weygand has a passion for global health equity. He aims to increase global access to radiological health sciences in the developing world through didactic education, clinical training, the clinical implementation of new technology, and studying the historical, political, and economic determinants of global health. He has gone on outreach missions in Tanzania, Senegal, Uganda, Ghana, and Mongolia. He serves as the Director of Radiation Oncology Physics for the philanthropic organization RAD AID International.

Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth profile

Professor of Radiation Oncology and Radiology
Chief of Clinical Physics

Dr. Yan is a medical physicist with a passion for developing and applying novel techniques to improve patient healthcare in radiation oncology.

He received his PhD degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and completed his therapeutic residency training at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Prior to joining Dartmouth Cancer Center, he worked as a medical physicist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, covering photon and proton treatments.

Dr. Yan's research interests focus on investigating the dosimetric impact of geometric distortion in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on radiation therapy. His recent research includes the application of machine learning techniques in radiation therapy and the development of new techniques for MRI-guided radiation therapy. 

Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth profile

Assistant Professor of Medicine

Dr. Yan is a medical physicist with a passion for developing and applying novel techniques to improve patient healthcare in radiation oncology. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and completed his therapeutic residency training at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Prior to joining Dartmouth, he worked as a medical physicist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, covering photon and proton treatments. Dr. Yan's research interests focus on investigating the dosimetric impact of geometric distortion in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on radiation therapy. His recent research includes the application of machine learning techniques in radiation therapy and the development of new techniques for MRI-guided radiation therapy.

Rongxiao Zhang, PhD. Lab webpage