Todd F. Atwood, Ph.D., FAAPM
Professor & Vice Chair
Education
B.S. Applied Science | University of North Carolina 2001
M.S. Medical Imaging | Wake Forest University 2005
Ph.D. Medical Physics | Wake Forest University 2008
Residency Medical Physics | Stanford University 2010
Board Certification American Board of Radiology 2011
Links
About Dr. Atwood
Dr. Todd Atwood is a Professor and Vice Chair of Communications and Marketing. He is 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 radiation therapy workflow development, stereotactic body radiation therapy treatment design for lung cancer, and respiratory motion management.
In addition to his clinical leadership 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, initiate new clinical collaborations with radiation oncologists, and advance patient care. 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, and he is working with institutions around the world to develop and implement similar programs.
Dr. Atwood is also dedicated to service and education on both the national and international level. In addition to serving as Chair of our departmental Communications Committee, he is also the Chair of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) Task Group No. 422: Practice and Training Models for Medical Physicist-Patient Communication. Dr. Atwood also serves on the AAPM Smart Practice Subcommittee of the Medical Physics 3.0 Committee and the AAPM Responsive Communication Subcommittee. In recognition of Dr. Atwood’s contributions to the AAPM, he was named a Fellow of the organization in 2024. In addition, Dr. Atwood is the co-creator of the Varian Advanced Radiotherapy Clinical School and the UC San Diego Patient Communication for Medical Physicists Workshop.