How To Become A Medical Dosimetrist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a medical dosimetrist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Medical dosimetrists are responsible for ensuring that radiation treatment promotes the most lethal radiation dose with the fewest side effects to the patient's healthy organs. They create a plan to deliver the prescribed radiation dose using a computer with three-dimensional imaging software to contour normal organs on a treatment planning CT scan. They also calibrate equipment and ensure that radiation safety procedures are followed.

Medical dosimetrists earn a median sum of $101,000 annually or $49 per hour. Their duties include designing radiation treatment plans to deliver precise radiation doses with optimal beam geometry, identifying and contouring normal and dose-limiting structures by utilizing images from one or more data sets. They create and transfer reference images and localization markers for portal verification and treatment delivery.

Medical dosimetrists typically hold a bachelor's degree in radiation therapy, chemistry, or other related fields. They are expected to have some years of experience as a dosimetrist or in a similar role. Some employers prefer candidates with the ability to pay close attention to the radiation oncologist in order to understand the treatment goals.

ScoreMedical DosimetristUS Average

Salary

8.0

Avg. Salary $116,829

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

9.9

Growth Rate 6%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.66%

Asian 6.38%

Black or African American 5.79%

Hispanic or Latino 9.15%

Unknown 8.68%

White 69.35%

Gender

female 53.77%

male 46.23%

Age - 42

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 42

Stress Level

9.9

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

7.3

Complexity Level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

6.7

Work Life balance is good

6.4 - fair

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Key steps to become a medical dosimetrist

Explore medical dosimetrist education requirements

Most common medical dosimetrist degrees

Bachelor's

44.4 %

Associate

27.2 %

Certificate

20.0 %

Start to develop specific medical dosimetrist skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	15.63%
Dosimetry	10.25%
Oncology	8.10%
Radiation Therapy	7.09%
Eclipse	5.49%

Complete relevant medical dosimetrist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-2 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New medical dosimetrists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a medical dosimetrist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real medical dosimetrist resumes.

Research medical dosimetrist duties and responsibilities

Manage patient charts in MOSAIQ record and verify system.
Gain experience in planning 3D-CRT, IMRT, and VMAT plans as well as SBRT and SRS plans.
Conduct port management as necessary using IGRT, CBCT and electronic portal imaging.
Generate computerized treatment plans for cancer patients, providing manual patient dose calculation and computer verification.

Prepare your medical dosimetrist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your medical dosimetrist resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a medical dosimetrist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Medical Dosimetrist Resume templates

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Apply for medical dosimetrist jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a medical dosimetrist job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

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