A Career of Adaptability, Mentorship, and Dedication in Medical Physics: Stephanie Franz
Introduction
Stephanie, a Diagnostic Medical Physicist and Radiation Safety Officer (RSO), is nearing the end of a long and distinguished career in medical physics. From a start in the defense industry to overseeing safety programs at multiple hospitals, her journey has been marked by adaptability, mentorship, and a deep commitment to patient safety. We sat down with Stephanie to reflect on her career path, achievements, and the future of the field.
Q: You’ve had quite an interesting career path. Could you tell us a bit about how you got started in medical physics?
“I started out in the defense industry, actually. My first job was as a systems engineer for the development of smart weapon systems. Smart weapons have detectors on them to search for targets, so I did computer simulations and evaluation of effectiveness. But it wasn’t particularly inspiring work. I wasn’t interested in doing ‘percent kill’ calculations.”
Her pivot to medical physics came from an unexpected teaching opportunity. “I was teaching physics part-time in a weekend college for adults, and I taught Physics for Medicine and Biology. That’s when I became aware of medical physics as a career. I had never even heard of it before!” Motivated by this new discovery, Stephanie began researching programs in her area. “I was living in Minnesota at the time, and I just looked up the departments at the University of Minnesota. I literally just walked into the department and asked to talk to a medical physicist. The director, Rich Geise, happened to be sitting in his office, and we had a great conversation. He invited me to try it out as an internship. So, I quit my job and started doing that. That was in medical imaging.”
Q: Wow! What was the transition like for you?
“It was a big change,” she admitted. “There was a lot to learn. My degree was in physics, not medical physics, so I had to take additional graduate coursework specific to the field. But I found that there was a lot of overlap, actually, between what I was doing in smart weapons and medical imaging. For example, the mathematical theories for detecting a target in background noise are very similar to detecting cancer in an image.”
Stephanie’s background in computer modeling and simulation transferred well to the field, and she found a mentor in the director of medical physics at the University of Minnesota, who became a significant influence on her career. “He also had a consulting business, so he would bring me along to different hospitals throughout Minnesota to do equipment testing and other tasks. Eventually, he gave me some of his contracts, which was how I got started with real hands-on experience.”
Q: Mentorship seems to have played an important role in your journey. Could you talk a little about that?
“It’s been very important,” she said. “My original mentor at the university guided me through my residency, and when I moved to New Mexico, he helped connect me with Jerry White, one of the founding people of CAMP. That connection changed everything for me.”
Stephanie’s work with CAMP started almost informally. “I wrote to Jerry, and we talked on the phone. After I got the job, I would go up to Colorado one week a month. Over the years, Jerry has been a wonderful mentor to me. I have also learned so much from Greg Gibbs and Michael Bailey, the other two founding members.”
Q: You’ve mentioned that the field has changed a lot over the years. Can you talk about how it’s evolved since you started?
“When I started out, we were still using film. Developing film for every image—even the CT scans would be printed out on film like a whole page of axial images,” she recalled. “Now, of course, it’s all digital. The speed is amazing. And the data we collect is amazing. Now we get 3D renderings very quickly, so physicians can look at things in 3D from different angles immediately.”
She added that the evolution of technology has opened up new possibilities, especially with AI. “Because we have all this data, there’s so much more we can do. AI can identify a lot more in the images than what you see with your eyes alone, and we’ll be able to track disease progression and therapies a lot more accurately.”
But with this progress comes the need for caution. “We have to be very careful about how we apply AI,” she emphasized. “Data can be biased if it’s only from a specific group of people, so we have to know what went into [the research] to be able to apply it correctly. For example, sometimes the data may come from a limited source and would not be reliable for application to a more global population. We have to keep that in mind.”
Q: You’ve held some prestigious roles in your career, like serving as an examiner for the American Board of Radiology. What has that experience been like?
“It’s funny because I feel nervous giving the exams, too! I get nervous for the candidates. I worry that I’ll say something that leads them in the wrong direction or that I’ll have some technical problems. It’s a lot to manage.”
Being on the other side of the exam process has been rewarding, and she appreciates the changes made to modernize the format. “It used to be that we’d meet in hotel rooms. You’d go from room to room and be questioned by different examiners—it was very intimidating. Now it’s all online, which I think makes it a bit easier for everyone.”
Q: Looking back, what are some of the achievements you’re most proud of?
“One of my earliest contributions was co-authoring a report on the management of fluoroscopy in hospital settings,” she shared. “That was with my original mentor. It became a long-standing interest for me, and I ended up being very involved in safety and credentialing for fluoroscopy procedures over the years. There were skin injuries being reported from complicated procedures, and the FDA put out a warning. I got very involved in developing training and protocols for hospitals to follow.”
She added, “We developed training that was distributed throughout Colorado, and I was a reviewer for that. It’s still carried on today. Myself, Renee and Alyssa from CAMP are collaborating with other physicists in the state to update that training now. So that’s been important work for me.”
Q: Any advice for the next generation of medical physicists?
Stephanie paused thoughtfully. “I think mentorship is key,” she said finally. “I was just fortunate to run into the right people. It’s important to find mentors, people who will listen to you, guide you, and involve you in the work.”
She continued, “For women especially, you have to have confidence in your education and your knowledge. When I started out, I didn’t always have that confidence, and I had to work to build it. But now, I see newer physicists like Alyssa walking right through challenges. It’s great to see. In our group at CAMP, we’re very collaborative. We respect each other’s opinions, and it shouldn’t be unusual, but it is.”
Q: It sounds like CAMP has been a perfect career match for you. Any parting thoughts on that?
“I’ve always said that if I could choose to work with any group in the United States, it would be this group,” she said with a smile. “The depth of knowledge, their integrity, and their work ethic—it’s just a cut above. I’ve been really fortunate to work with them.”
As Stephanie transitions into retirement, it’s clear that her influence will continue to be felt at CAMP and in the broader medical physics community for years to come. Please join us in thanking Stephanie for her 29 years of service to CAMP and wishing her all the best for retired life.
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Looking to connect with Stephanie? She’s retiring, but you can still send us a message on LinkedIn.
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