The Early Career Committee (ECC) was created within ASTRO to support the unique exigencies of early career practitioners. As chair of the ECC, I sit as an ex-officio member of the ASTRO Board of Directors. The ECC is organized into four subcommittees, each supporting a different facet. The Community Building/Inclusion subcommittee seeks to encourage participation in social and networking events and to help recruit and retain early career ASTRO members. The Education subcommittee seeks to create and maintain educational resources, including webinars, educational sessions, and relevant upcoming meetings. The Liaisonship subcommittee focuses on creating and maintaining relationships and collaboration opportunities with similarly situated organizations. The Physics subcommittee seeks to provide a pipeline for and integrate early career physicists within ASTRO. The Chairs of these subcommittees are listed in the footer below.

Some of our initial activities included a focus group-based environmental scan, an educational session on mentorship and career transitions, webinars on interdisciplinary communication and ROCR, networking meetups at affiliated meetings and the establishment of an early career and mentoring lounge at the Annual Meeting.

Looking ahead to the upcoming Annual Meeting in just under two months, we will be holding our first open committee meeting on Sunday, September 29, from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m., to increase transparency and solicit feedback from the general early career membership. This year’s education session, What I Wish I Knew in the Early Career, will feature discussions on partnership/contract negotiations, financial planning, and navigating the promotions process. An informal reception will follow the session on Sunday afternoon. Lastly, we have revamped our Early Career and Mentoring Lounge to create a supportive and convenient space for both official programming and informal meet ups. Some programming highlights include an ASTRO Committee Fair to learn how to get more involved, speed mentoring, grant writing office hours, how to become a FASTRO and many more sessions! Programming is still evolving. See what is planned to date.

The workgroup recommended moving toward general supervision as the standard for radiation therapy procedures, including routine linear accelerator treatments and IGRT. Despite the recommendation for general supervision, the workgroup acknowledged that certain services, including simulations, SRS, SBRT and brachytherapy necessitate direct supervision. Adopting general supervision for all other procedures will facilitate access to radiation services by more remote patient populations. The workgroup also recommended removing CPT code 77247 Radiation Treatment Management 5 or fewer treatments from the Medicare Telehealth List. According to the workgroup recommendation, OTVs should be conducted in-person by a radiation oncologist and if this cannot be achieved, the recommendation was to not bill the CPT code 77427 for the week.

For 2025, CMS is proposing to remove 77427 from the telehealth list while maintaining virtual direct supervision through the end of 2025. The workgroup’s recommendations will be used to inform ASTRO’s response to supervision policy questions raised by CMS in the proposed rules. If there are any questions or additional feedback regarding the consensus and recommendations from the workgroup, please submit them to our comment box.

Have you ever been asked to give a talk on Prostate, Lung, Gynecologic, Bladder, Skin, Sarcoma, GI or Palliative care? We have PowerPoints that you can use as a base and add onto them or on their own! We also have a general radiation oncology talk and a talk for medical students as well as physical therapists. Download these free resources!

ROhub has an Early Career Community where you can connect with the members of the Early Career Committee and other colleagues, ask questions, and post about events you may be hosting. Join the community!