Shaping the Next Generation of Radiation Therapy with Rachel Ward at SkinCure Oncology
Episode Overview
Episode Topic: In this episode of Skeleton Crew – The Rad Tech Show, we delve into the evolving landscape of skin cancer treatment, focusing on Rachel Ward’s journey from SkinCure Oncology. This is setting new standards in the efficient, non-invasive treatment of basal and squamous cell carcinomas. This episode shines a spotlight on the pioneering approach to Skin Cancer Treatment through the use of GentleCure™ and Image-Guided Superficial Radiation Therapy (SRT). As skin cancer continues to be a significant health concern worldwide, innovative treatments that offer non-surgical alternatives are increasingly important.
Lessons You’ll Learn: Listeners will gain comprehensive insights into the latest advancements in Skin Cancer Treatment, particularly the role and impact of GentleCure™ and Image-Guided SRT. The episode educates on the technological advancements revolutionizing skin cancer care, emphasizing the benefits for both patients and healthcare providers. From understanding the mechanics behind high-frequency ultrasound imaging to appreciating the precision of adaptive radiotherapy protocols, the discussion is designed to enlighten healthcare professionals and patients about the significant strides being made in non-surgical Skin Cancer Treatment.
About Our Guests: Rachel Ward, a dedicated Radiation Therapist with SkinCure Oncology, brings her extensive experience and passion for Skin Cancer Treatment to this episode. Specializing in the application of GentleCure™ and Image-Guided SRT, Rachel has been at the forefront of implementing this cutting-edge technology in the fight against skin cancer. Her work with SkinCure Oncology, a leader in non-invasive Skin Cancer Treatment solutions, showcases the potential of Image-Guided SRT in achieving remarkable treatment outcomes without the need for surgery, emphasizing patient comfort and recovery.
Topics Covered: Throughout the episode, we cover a wide range of topics related to Skin Cancer Treatment, including the inception and development of GentleCure™, the technological innovations behind Image-Guided SRT, and the collaborative efforts between SkinCure Oncology and dermatology specialists. We explore the significant benefits of this modern approach to treating basal and squamous cell carcinomas, from preserving healthy tissue to ensuring optimal cosmetic results. Rachel Ward shares her valuable experiences in the field, offering insights into successful patient stories and advice for professionals interested in specializing in advanced Skin Cancer Treatment methods.
Our Guest: Rachel Ward- A Beacon of Hope in Non-Surgical Skin Cancer Treatment
Rachel Ward is a distinguished Radiation Therapist who has dedicated her career to advancing the field of skin cancer treatment through innovative technologies like GentleCure™ and Image-Guided Superficial Radiation Therapy (SRT). With a deep-rooted passion for patient care and a commitment to non-invasive treatment options, Rachel has become a key figure at SkinCure Oncology. Her journey in the medical field began with a strong educational foundation in radiation therapy, where she was drawn to the complexities and challenges of oncology. Rachel’s expertise is not just in administering treatment but also in understanding the intricacies of skin cancer, making her a valuable asset to her team and the patients she serves.
Throughout her tenure at SkinCure Oncology, Rachel has been instrumental in the implementation and success of the GentleCure™ system, a leading-edge approach to treating basal and squamous cell carcinomas without surgery. Her hands-on experience with Image-Guided SRT, coupled with her ability to leverage high-frequency ultrasound imaging, has significantly contributed to the treatment’s high efficacy rates and patient satisfaction. Rachel’s dedication to her work is driven by the positive outcomes she witnesses daily—transforming the lives of individuals battling skin cancer by offering them a painless, scar-free treatment alternative.
Beyond her clinical achievements, Rachel Ward is a vocal advocate for education and empowerment within the radiation therapy community. She actively participates in seminars, workshops, and conferences to share her knowledge and experiences, aiming to inspire current and future radiation therapists. Her efforts extend to social media, where she engages with a broader audience, raising awareness about skin cancer prevention and the benefits of non-invasive treatment options. Rachel’s commitment to her profession and her patients exemplifies the role of healthcare providers in not only treating diseases but also improving the quality of life for those affected by cancer.
Episode Transcript
Rachel Ward: Typically, the treatment is about 30s and the patient’s going to come in for a series of treatments, usually in the range of like 20 treatments. It’s just like in a random department, you wouldn’t give that entire dose of radiation all in one treatment. The patient’s body is not going to be happy with us if we do that. Yeah, it would eliminate the skin cancer, but we’d cause more damage than good.
Jennifer Callahan: Welcome to the Skeleton-Crew. I’m your host, Jen Callahan, a technologist with ten-plus years of experience. In each episode, we will explore the fast-paced, ever-changing suburbs, and the completely crazy field of radiology. We will speak to technologists from all different modalities about their careers and education, the educators and leaders who are shaping the field today, and the business executives whose innovations are paving the future of radiology. This episode is brought to you by xraytechnicianschools.com. If you’re considering a career in X-ray, visit xraytechnicianschools.com to explore schools and to get honest information on career paths, salaries, and degree options. Hey, everybody, welcome back to another episode of The Skeleton-Crew. I’m Jen Callahan, your host, and tonight I have a great guest with me. Her name is Rachel Ward. She is a radiation therapist. And tonight she’s going to be here talking about the company that she works for at SkinCure. And they have a special type of skin cancer treatment that they have developed called GentleCure. So I’m going to leave all the technicalities to her because it’s an interesting form of treatment that I personally have never heard of before. So I’m really interested to have this conversation with Rachel. Rachel, thank you so much for being with me tonight.
Rachel Ward: Of course. Thank you for having me.
Jennifer Callahan: So I gave us just a brief introduction of what we’re going to be talking about. So let’s start on the top layer of the treatment of GentleCure and what sets it apart from other types of skin cancer treatments.
Rachel Ward: Yeah. So traditionally there has been most surgery or a removal of the skin cancer where they’re going to take out portions of the skin cancer. A trained dermatologist is going to go, and immediately review that under a microscope, and they’re going to continue removing more and more tissue until they have clear margins and have removed that entire skin cancer. So with this, what we’re doing is a non-invasive option for our patients. So what we’re doing now is treating with image-guided superficial radiation therapy. It’s a non-invasive treatment that has over a 99% cure rate for our patients.
Jennifer Callahan: So the image-guided portion of it, what are you using to guide?
Rachel Ward: We’re using ultrasound imaging.
Jennifer Callahan: Okay. So you’re trained, like me, you have your RT. But then you went even further and became a radiation therapist. And do you do the actual ultrasound or does a doctor do it with you?
Rachel Ward: It’s we’re radiation therapists and we are using that ultrasound as our onboard imaging. So just like we can take caudal images or CBCT to do alignments for our treatments, this is our onboard imaging. So we, as radiation therapists are the ones doing the ultrasound for this. And actually, I don’t have a diagnostic background as an RT, I went right into radiation therapy.
Jennifer Callahan: Obviously, you had to get trained. Then on the ultrasound portion of it, was that difficult for you?
Rachel Ward: It wasn’t. So Skincare handles all of the training for our new hires, and it’s a very easy system to learn how to use.
Jennifer Callahan: All right. So you’re ultra-sounding the patient on the area of where the skin cancer is believed to be, and then from there between yourself and I assume a doctor, or is it a dosimetrist who’s coming up with what the treatment plan will be?
Rachel Ward: It does depend on the state’s regulations, but it will be a physician doing that treatment planning. We don’t use dosimetrists. It’s a very standard and basic treatment. They’re only using three different energies. So there’s not much planning that goes into the actual ISODOSE, lines, or anything like that. We’re not drawing contours, so it is just a physician telling us what energy we’re going to treat and doing a prescription for that patient.
Jennifer Callahan: Okay. You do your initial scan, figure out what the treatment plan is, and then administer it. How long does a treatment like that last?
Rachel Ward: Typically the treatment is about 30s. And the patient’s going to come in for a series of treatments, usually in the range of like 20 treatments. It’s just like in a random department, you wouldn’t give that entire dose of radiation all in one treatment. The patient’s body is not going to be happy with us if we do that. Yeah, it would eliminate the skin cancer, but we’d cause more damage than good.
Jennifer Callahan: And I’m sure it depends on how large of an area that needs to be treated, possibly how deep the cancer is in the skin, right?
Rachel Ward: Yeah. So skincare oncology has been amazing. They have a full team of radiation oncologists, dermatologists, and radiation therapists who have all gone through and fine-tuned this set of protocols that are specific to SkinCure Oncology, and the partnerships we have with these dermatology offices. So it’s a really good protocol system that is backed by clinical studies.
Jennifer Callahan: Alright. So I was reading on the site that superficial radiation therapy isn’t really a new thing, and it was actually developed quite some time ago and got pushed off the scene because to treat skin cancer, the Mohs surgery was insurances took to it more and the superficial radiation therapy got pushed to the back burner.
Rachel Ward: Even Mr. Rankin himself was using radiation to treat skin cancers. But yeah, 50% of dermatologists use radiation. Some form of radiation back in like the 1950s and 60s, and when it started just getting highly regulated, and then the dermatologists started learning Mohs micrographic surgery as their residence in the programs, so then by the time they all came out of that program, that was what had taken over. So luckily in 2015, these machines were engineered to be small, easy to use and fit in these dermatology offices. So we were able to get superficial radiation therapy back into the picture.
Jennifer Callahan: Okay, so the image-guided is really cool. And. Is this something unique to SkinCure that they’ve developed?
Rachel Ward: Yes. So right now we’re utilizing the Census Healthcare’s SRT 100 vision. So that one is the one that does incorporate that 22MHz ultrasound image.
Jennifer Callahan: Did they use something prior to the census?
Rachel Ward: So in 2015, one of our radiation therapists, Stephen Scott, he was treating with image-guided superficial radiation, and he actually delivered one of the first treatments to a patient with that modality. So it really started in 2015 when that was available for treatment. And so when he recognized there was a large need for this therapy, but understood that not every dermatology office was going to run all of the money for that start-up. That’s how SkinCure Oncology was created. So SkinCure Oncology now partners with these dermatology offices and gives them everything that they need to give this treatment to their patients and everything. It is the machine that ensures shielding, the paper tape all the way to the protocols, and the trained radiation therapist. So we’re really giving that cancer center approach and that’s how we are really standing apart with that 99% cure rate, as well as a 99% patient satisfaction. And as somebody who’s been cut on, I’m sure you can really appreciate that not being cut on. It’s a lot of patients who have been just dealing with skin cancer their entire lives where this is really benefiting them. Sadly, a lot of patients, after going through skin cancer, after skin cancer, they start to not want to seek treatment because they know what the treatment is, it’s being cut on. And if they don’t want to, say a golfer, who doesn’t want to stop golfing because they know that if they have surgery, they can’t golf for four weeks, so they will just put it off. So luckily, this is a treatment that has no downtime for the patients.
Jennifer Callahan: Do you yourself see that almost all patients come back with different frequent flyers? And do you feel like it’s one because obviously their skin exposure, that they’re going out like in the sun and possibly not wearing sunscreen? Or do you take notice that maybe it’s a certain type of skin, like are they very fair? People with red hair and fair skin, I feel like tend to be a little bit more sensitive to the sun. Or do you find that it’s people who have dark olive complexions and they’re just not taking notice of their skin? What do you think?
Rachel Ward: We know that skin cancers come from UV rays, from tanning beds or the sun, and just genetics. So it is a lot of the fair-skinned, light-eyed, light-haired that are the ones who are more prone to having those skin cancers. And once you’ve had skin cancer and that’s part of your medical history, unfortunately, you’re prone to having more of them. So it’s really something that especially people who start out young.
Jennifer Callahan: It is interesting that genetics plays a huge part in something like that. You really don’t think about it. So you were saying about the 99% effectiveness and then how consistent the results are. That’s not to say a selling point, because you’re not trying to sell anything to anybody, trying just offer another treatment option to patients, which is great to have these results, proven results for this.
Rachel Ward: Yeah. So actually one of our things with SkinCure Oncology is we started a site called GentleCure. So the treatment got named by the patients as a GentleCure. So we call it GentleCure now. So GentleCure actually has a website where we teach informed consent. And we want patients to be empowered to make a decision once they know all of their treatment options. Because I’m sure you’ve gone to the doctor and there was something wrong, and the doctor was like, oh, this is going to be the treatment. And you just are like, okay, because you don’t really know better. And just they’re the doctor, whatever they say goes. But we’re really trying to encourage them to be part of that discussion and help them feel empowered. And when you are doing a treatment that is something you are knowledgeable on, and that you agree with, you actually have better outcomes. So it works out for the patients to have more positive outcomes too.
Jennifer Callahan: Sure, to be a part of the planning and the understanding, because I feel like a lot of times when it comes to patients and like you said, treatments or even just having to go get tested, sometimes they’re just doing it because they were told that they need to do it.
Rachel Ward: I told them that they need to come in and get this checked out.
Jennifer Callahan: I have a friend that I used to work with. She was a CAT scan tech, and I remember she would have patients come in and she would say, why are you having a chest CT done? And they said I don’t know. My doctor told me I needed to have it. And she was being funny, but shame on you, you should know why. She’s like, you need to know why you’re having this done. So. It’s nice that the patients at SkinCure are involved, and that you guys are trying to educate them on what’s being done and why, what the results are going to be, and what they can expect. It’s admirable, to be honest, that you guys go above and beyond.
Rachel Ward: So the company was created by a radiation therapist and there are radiation therapists at so many key levels. And that’s one thing that I really love about the company is that healthy work culture, where the people who are in charge in the management positions and those higher-up roles, they’ve been where we’ve been, so they know what’s going on. So when it came to educating patients, it was coming from radiation therapists. So the people who are talking to the patients about their treatment and helping them understand their diagnosis, so it’s a really supportive community to be a part of.
Jennifer Callahan: So with your history of being a radiation therapist, have you been in the skincare portion of it for most of your career, or did you work in not to say like a normal radiation therapy facility, but you know what I mean? I’m just thinking of where you said, like, you have to lay down and there’s the beam and you might have to have there’s sometimes like, I feel like masks that I’ve seen that patients have to wear. That’s what I’m thinking. And maybe so or more so for patients who are receiving treatment for treatment of cancer and other portions of the body that the superficial radiation therapy isn’t warranted.
Rachel Ward: I did start in a cancer center and multiple cancer centers, actually. So I always say my career has been a series of like those 1% chance of that ever happening, actually happening. When I first started out, I actually relocated from Michigan to California and was just working a ton of part-time and per diem jobs to make a full-time schedule out of it. And so I didn’t even know that superficial was an option. So I wasn’t happy with one of the places like the main place that I was working. So I started applying to all of the RTT jobs that were posted online, there was a Durham office that needed a full-time RTT, and I honestly thought it was a mistake. But I submitted my resume anyway and I immediately got that call back for the interview. So I went to work that day and told a bunch of the other therapists that I was going to go for an interview later that day, and I got so much pushback from it, actually. So on the drive to the interview, I actually contemplated just turning around and going home. And even when they offered me that job, I was like, I don’t know if this is what I want to do, other people are telling me to not do this. And so luckily, I had an amazing friend who was like, “What can they possibly say to keep you at the job you’re in? Nothing.” So luckily when I called back like five minutes later, they hadn’t given the job away to somebody else. So when I started with them, the passion for superficial kind of just came naturally. Like the patients really appreciate the option of having that as a treatment to not be cut on, obviously, and I enjoyed educating them on it. So I started to just love what I was doing as a radiation therapist, and it was different. But during the pandemic, I was an essential worker within a dermatology office, and a lot of my coworkers who were maybe laser nurses, weren’t as essential to be in the office, like Botox wasn’t considered an essential service. So I was alone a lot of the time, so it limited me. So I am a very social person. And so I went to social media to create that connection. And I started as “Rach the RTT”. So I was advocating for the modality, I was sharing information, and I was just really connecting with other arts online. But that advocacy was what got me noticed by the art. And I got the “I Am the Gold Standard” award for that advocacy. And a little bit later with that award, I also posted a TikTok where we have silver eye shields, and my patients told me that they don’t hurt. I didn’t believe them. I thought they were lying to me, so I put it in my own eye and made a TikTok about it. And SkinCure Oncology saw that. So now I have this amazing job where I’m helping to provide education on this modality, and I do presentations for radiation tech societies and lecture for radiation therapy programs. So it’s been a whirlwind of, like who would have thought, this is where I’m going to be when I like five, ten years down the road in my career. But I could not be happier with what’s going on, and I get to advocate for something that I have believed in for years, with a team that’s really changing the face of how skin cancer is treated and revolutionizing how we treat non-melanoma skin cancers.
Jennifer Callahan: That’s great. So question though, do the silver eye things, do they hurt?
Rachel Ward: They don’t. So what we do is, an eye drop that’s numbing and the numbing drop does relieve it. I was a contact wearer for about ten years, so I was used to touching my eye. For somebody who was not used to it, It’s probably still a little weird, but you can’t go.
Jennifer Callahan: Do they go in the eye?
Rachel Ward: It’s like a contact lens that’s made of silver.
Jennifer Callahan: Oh, okay. No, I was almost thinking of the little goggles. I unfortunately did use to go to a tanning bed in the late 90s.
Rachel Ward: So the metal that is specifically for when you’re treating that close to the eye, we use larger eye shields, more like that, but they’re more of like pieces of lid that just sit over the eye to protect it. If you’re close to the on the face. Right. But yeah, those are for special cases.
Jennifer Callahan: Because the eyes are very sensitive to radiation. Right?
Rachel Ward: Yeah. We don’t want to radiate or give any extra exposure to the lens of the eye. We’re always keeping the alarm in mind. So if we have to put the silver shields in, there getting the silver shields.
Jennifer Callahan: That’s crazy. Silver shields in the eyes, like contacts. That’s wild. What other type of shielding do you use? Do you just have normal shielding?
Rachel Ward: So we have the apron, the lid, thyroid shield, which is for radiation therapists. That’s not something I ever learned about. We don’t use those for radiation therapy. So when we came into this setting, what we’re using is a kV voltage, we’re using a kV of about 50 to 100. So we’re not in those V energies like you would see in the radiation oncology department. So with these lower ones, we do have that increased amount of scatter. So now we are using those shielding, different kinds of shields. On top of those, we have lid shield cutouts, they’re 0.762mm thick lids. And it comes in a large roll and we just unroll it. We use some like garden shears and some metal hole punches and create your treatment shields to be the size of the area, your treatment field.
Jennifer Callahan: Okay. For those of you who are listening and aren’t sure what what she was saying in terms of kV, it’s a technique factor that we use for X-rays and radiation. And basically, it’s how fast your beam comes out. So we’re saying kV is kilovoltage and then NV I guess for cancer like other types of cancer treatment. What is that?
Rachel Ward: For radiation therapy, we’re using kV energies. They’re going to penetrate a lot less. So a 50, 70, and 100 kV under beam is only going to be about the thickness of the skin. So we’re not getting much depth with that. But when you’re using NV energies, they’re penetrating deep into the body. That’s what you would utilize for something like a brain tumor or prostate cancer, something that can penetrate through the tissue to reach your targeted area.
Jennifer Callahan: Obviously, there are different forms of radiation that you’re using, but what’s the strength of it that’s being used to treat those different body parts? And it makes sense that because it is superficial on the skin you would use a much lower energy.
Rachel Ward: Yeah. So these ones do deposit that into the first few millimeters of tissue whereas if you were to use, so we’re using photon beams. It’s a 50, 70, or 100 kV photon beam. If you were to use electrons they’re going to penetrate a little bit deeper. And when you do that they’re also going to, if you want them to be at that top layer of the skin, you have to use something to compensate for that tissue because you want that maximum dose to be delivered at the surface. You have to use something like a bolus that is a tissue compensator to get that to mimic those more superficial energies. So you can use the machines that are in a radon department to treat skin cancers. But they are a lot more powerful than what we need for these early-stage non-melanoma skin cancers.
Jennifer Callahan: To use this type of treatment, then how you just said, is it a certain stage that you’ll go up to like first and second stage cancer? And if it’s beyond that?
Rachel Ward: If it’s I believe the protocol says if it’s deeper than 3.5mm, we’re more than likely. If we can’t debride it, then we the dermatologist. I don’t debride anything and we can’t have it debrided to be like have less thickness to it, then we are going to have them, seek different treatment, like in a cancer center where they can use those higher beam energies.
Jennifer Callahan: Okay, interesting to know. So just to talk about how you had transitioned from working in a cancer center, doing your per diem, doing your part-time jobs, and that you ended up taking the position at the dermatology office. Now, was that SkinCure that you started working with or was it not?
Rachel Ward: I was not. I was working at a non-practice partner dermatology office. So skin care is one partnering with these offices. So you’re not going to be able to go out and Google a skin care dermatologist. It’s not going to pop up. So we’re partnering as almost a silent partner where we’re not on their marquee to say, hey, we offer skincare here. Now they offer the GentleCure treatment. So what they were doing was they actually were trying to have my previous dermatologist upgrade his machine and work with skincare. So they knew of me and I had moved to California and didn’t love it. So I wasn’t planning on staying there forever. So I have been in touch with some of the radiation therapists who are regional directors for skin care. I was like, hey, when you guys get an opening in Nashville, let me know, I’ll come work for you guys. Keep me on your radar. And so they had talked to me a few times and they’re like, hey, we have other roles available. Like, would you be interested in a non-clinical role? And I’m like, no, absolutely not. I love being in the office. I love treating patients. I think it turned out a few different things that they had proposed. So one day they had seen the award, they had seen the TikTok, and that same person was like, hey, my boss wants to talk to you. And I’m like, I’m having a terrible week. No, like, leave me alone. I don’t want to do this right now. And he’s like 30 minutes, please. That’s all we’re asking for. Just meet with us for 30 minutes. And when I met with the two of them, it was a Zoom call. I was like, okay, you have 30 minutes. I carpooled to work, so I’ll be in the passenger seat on the way in. And so I was like, that’s all I had time for. And I really didn’t want to be non-clinical. And when I started talking to me about it, so you want me to help educate on something I love to educate on? Like, okay, I can’t leave my current job. And they had said, well, give us five, ten hours a week and come with us to the ASRT’s Radiation Therapy Conference. They knew that they were going to have me sold on all of it. They were seeing the corporate office. They took me to Burr Ridge, Illinois, which is where the corporate office is. And it was one of those things which was like, I remember sitting at one of the HR director’s desks and she was like, oh, we have a meeting. I’m so sorry. I’m going to leave you for 30 minutes. I was like, okay. I immediately got out my phone. I was like, Mom, I need to quit my job, my other office, I love this place, and I want to work with these people, this is such a positive and healthy work environment. I found my job and I actually didn’t leave right away. I continued to work part-time while staying here, working on little projects. We started a fundraiser for the ASRT Foundation through a website called bonfire.com and you can make t-shirts. So we were raising money and kind of getting different superficial slogans out there that we had been using and just getting people to know our name. And I went and worked the booth with them at the conference and everything just kept telling me like, this is where I belong. And so it’s almost been a year for me. So in March, it’ll be a year that I’ve been full-time with SkinCure Oncology. So it’s been interesting. I never wanted to be non-clinical. And now look at me, anon-clinical. I do always say I want to go into the PRN pool, but I’m usually too busy to not be working on everything else.
Jennifer Callahan: Yeah, that’s a great story though, that it was meant to be.
Rachel Ward: I think if they would have told me right off the bat that it had been founded by a radiation therapist, and that so many radiation therapists were in management positions, I think they would have had me immediately because there’s nothing better than working for somebody who knows what you’re doing. So I think they would have had me a little bit sooner if they mentioned it. So that’s always something that I really think is a powerful thing to mention is that they’ve been where we’ve been.
Jennifer Callahan: So your education portion with them, or are you going out to the different sites that they have their treatments at, or are you?
Rachel Ward: I go to the schools. So my first initiative was to cold email all of the program directors who are in the radiation therapy programs and see if they would let me do a guest lecture on IGSRT. So it’s not on the content specifications right now. So it’s not something that will be on the students’ board exam yet. We are working to change that. And it’s something that the ARRT only revisits every so many years. But we will be on it. Superficial radiation will be on that content specification. And I’m hoping when it is that these program directors are looking at their course content and they’re like, oh, I need to make a lecture on that. I think I have an email from somebody who offered to do a guest lecture. Let me see if she’ll still do it. Last year we did 30 presentations for the schools, so there’s only about 100, a little bit less. So we’re getting there.
Jennifer Callahan: But 30 is great. One per week. You have to start somewhere. And a little bit of knowledge goes a long way.
Rachel Ward: Yes. And it’s always one of those things where a lot of radiation therapists saw superficial as a lesser modality that wasn’t as important. But we’re all fighting cancer. We’re all in the same battle. We’re all advocating for our patients to get the best care they can. So I think when they see that what we’re doing is of equal value to any other role as radiation therapist, they’re more inclined to talk about it with their students. And let us do the guest presentation, let the students even rotate, and go see a local practice where they can get hands-on with the machine. So you just got to start somewhere. And like, you had never personally heard of it either. They most likely have not either with them being in school. So it’s a good piece of knowledge for them to have, even if it’s not something that they think that they’re going to go into right away. But it’s good to have it in their head as another knowledge about it.
Jennifer Callahan: Right. And I love that you’re so passionate about it. “Reach the RTT” doing her hair.
Rachel Ward: I’m a big nerd.
Jennifer Callahan: Her superficial radiation therapy thing over there, I love it.
Rachel Ward: And it’s so funny because like, I’ll go to the schools and I have pride in the fact that I answer all direct messages I get on social media. All of them. It’s me answering them. So I answer a lot of questions for students and potential students, things that they can’t Google and find the answer to. So I’ll go to these schools and somebody will go, I follow you on social media. It still hasn’t become not weird. Yeah, I still don’t know how to respond to that. I’ve had students tell me that I’m the reason that they became radiation therapist, which blows my mind.
Jennifer Callahan: Such a heartwarming thing to hear, though.
Rachel Ward: Definitely, because it’s like one of those things where it’s like, I’ve been doing my Instagram account. I started it in 2020. We’re in 2024 now. Some days I’m like, I hate social media and I don’t want to do this. But then I get one message and I’m like, oh, that’s why I do this. That’s why it’s all worth it. I will continue to do it. And sometimes I go a couple of weeks without posting something, and I feel terrible about it cause I’m like, oh, I hope that there’s somebody who wasn’t counting on that.
Jennifer Callahan: So while we’re on the topic of social media, I just want to go back to how you touched on that you had received the “I am the Gold Standard” award from the ARRT. And I was asking Rachel before we started recording, how did that come about that someone nominated you? Did you nominate yourself? So I’m going to let you take the story from here.
Rachel Ward: I had been contacted and was highly encouraged to nominate myself, and that was something that I didn’t want to do. So it seems weird because it’s like, oh, you post everything, you post all your stuff online, you’d probably love to nominate yourself. Like, now, I still get it read when people are like, I follow you on social media. So it wasn’t something where I’m like, oh, I’m going to go nominate myself and I deserve this. So I had to submit my resume and a portfolio or something like that had to contain everything, or what the reasoning was like, why I should be awarded this. And I still didn’t truly understand what the significance of what I was doing meant at the time. And so I was even like, what category am I falling into here? And it was advocacy. So I was advocating for this modality and radiation therapist. So I didn’t nominate it. I left that and the day before nominations closed, the person to reach out to me again and said, hey, did you end up doing your nomination? I was like, no, I didn’t, and they’re like, I really encourage you to do it. So I went and submitted it, and then it was a shock to me when they were like, you’ve been awarded the “I am the Gold Standard” for your advocacy. I started to be more involved in the ASRT community and that involved, we saw a lot of the ARRT representatives and people who work within the ARRT. So I’m starting to see now what the importance of advocating for superficial was actually doing. We’re trying to get it on the content specification list and see that there is a large population of radiation therapists working in this modality, and when the ARRT surveyed them last year or a few years back, we all selected other instead of what modality we were using because superficial was not listed. So now we’re representing that. So it was a very interesting series. And when SkinCure saw that I was the gold standard, they said that, hey, we’re the gold standard of non-melanoma skin cancer treatment. It only makes sense for the gold-standard therapist to work with the gold-standard treatment. Come to the ASRT Radiation Therapy conference. We’re going to put your face on a poster. I was like, absolutely not. That’s embarrassing. It sounds so stupid because I’m on social media and I do all this stuff. But to have people walk up to me and like, that’s your face on there. Like, I tried to take a photo with my face and it was the weirdest thing. It’s a very odd series of how this happened. I never wanted to be an influencer for a profession. And even like the sound of that is not what I was going for. I was just trying to educate and be a resource for the therapists out there because when I was going through it, I didn’t have those resources. And luckily I met a radiation therapist and she helped me when I didn’t have those answers. So I’m just trying to be the resource that somebody else was for me.
Jennifer Callahan: Great. Just a great chain of events, I feel like for you and a great story to share about your passion for what you do, and the community that you’re in and all the good that you’re doing. And it’s really nice. It’s good to hear.
Rachel Ward: I really love it. I even just get so excited to do these presentations. And I don’t think that people, until they’ve met me and see it like they get a cold email from a person they’ve never talked to before, and it’s like, hey, let me do a presentation for you. That probably sounds boring, sounds like your students are going to fall asleep and you have to yell at them to like, hey, we have a guest here, pay attention. But no, when I do this, it’s me doing it. It’s my personality, my passion for it that comes through, and what we’re doing. So I try to make it fun, I try to be the cool presenter. It shouldn’t be a boring thing. And I think, learning about different things and different career paths is something that’s so important for all radiation techs. You never know where you’re going to end up.
Jennifer Callahan: Just to go back to what you were saying about that it might possibly end up on the registry board. It’s also too interesting because it’s not on the registry board, and I don’t even know if it’s something that is even went over while you’re going through school for radiation therapy, but if it’s not, it’s almost like you’re probably going to have to start helping them write books on this, like textbooks, because I’m assuming it’s probably not even in a textbook section, or maybe not in many of the textbooks. So that’s going to be your next thing.
Rachel Ward: A brief little paragraph, and skims over kilovoltage energies for superficial, and a little section on skin cancers because when I first started working in the dermatology office, I don’t think that people leaving a place, or place of business were the best people to train the new people coming in, because who cares less than the person who’s halfway out the door? Unfortunately, that’s the kind of training I got in the beginning was from somebody who was already leaving, so I actually pulled out my textbooks. I read the manual, and I called the toll-free number on the machine to get more understanding of what I was doing. And when I pulled out my notes from school, there was not much for me to go on. And I feel like when I first started, I didn’t even know how to say squamous, and I was probably saying it incorrectly to my patients for the first couple of weeks. So I’m like, it was something that was really breezed over and like I said, like I never expected to work with skin cancers and things like that, like superficial energies. I was working on linear accelerators.
Jennifer Callahan: And look where you are now. You’re soon going to be writing a chapter in your own textbook. This is a great conversation. Everybody, this is Rachel Ward with me tonight. I loved our conversation and education me on the image-guided superficial radiation therapy out there. So Rachel, thank you so much for taking the time and sharing everything with me today.
Rachel Ward: Well, this is great. So much fun.
Jennifer Callahan: Everybody, we’ll see you next week. Thanks for checking in. You’ve been listening to the Skeleton-Crew, brought to you by xraytech.org, the radiation tech career resource. Join us on the next episode to explore the present and the future of the radiation tech career and the field of radiology.