Meet Your Fellow Members
This series celebrates the people behind the profession and offers an opportunity to learn from and connect with MRTs working in a wide range of settings from coast to coast! Every Monday, we’ll introduce you to a different medical radiation technologist from somewhere across Canada.
This week’s member spotlight is Arish Alam, HBMRSc, RTT, from BC Cancer, Victoria.
Can you describe your current role and area of practice within medical radiation technology?
I am a Radiation Therapist in the specialty role of Triage/Assigning referred to as Triage Radiation Therapist, my scope of practice entails all duties and roles of a Radiation Therapist + increased bandwidth to support the RT clerical team here in triaging requisitions and ensuring adherence to site wide protocols with appropriate and timely bookings for patients on all of Vancouver Island as the current sole cancer center on the Island. My Designation is MRT (T) and I am a MBA candidate expected to graduate Dec 2026 or early 2027.
What originally led you to pursue a career as an MRT?
What led me to pursue a career as an MRT was the relationship you can form with patients who must come in for treatment and be a part of their journey as they battle cancer. The field of MRT, specifically Radiation Therapy was attractive to me because you always work in pairs, and working in an environment where you collaborate with your partner to provide the best care to someone is a meaningful part of the career as well.
How long have you been working in the profession, and how has your role evolved over time?
I have been working for just over a year and a half at this time, after being a treatment floor radiation therapist for 8 months, an opportunity presented itself to work in Triage and develop this role since it is very new to BC Cancer Victoria. This role development also aligned with my post-graduate studies, being a pursuit of a Masters of Business Administration, which helped strengthen my understanding of resource allocation & managing operations for a large organization such as BC Cancer – Victoria.
The picture in front of the linac machine is with our Radiation Therapy Module Lead – Joanne Lee
What aspects of your work do you find most rewarding?
I think the aspects I find the most rewarding, which often does not get recognized (as it is work that happens in the background in this role) is when I can coordinate efforts in a way with the RT clerical team + with other allied health professionals to get as many patients as we possibly can on treatment within our ministry set out benchmarks. This is rewarding for me because the way I see it is that someone was able to get on treatment sooner, which may have resulted in them having more time in their life with their loved ones, especially for those receiving palliative treatment, where the goal at times is to symptom manage or prolong their lifespan as their disease may be incurable at their stage. I also find it rewarding to collaborate with all the different allied health professionals within our center and beyond. It is wonderful to see the different professionals all playing their part in the care of a human being and seeing everyone work together and to be a part of that is amazing and something I am very grateful for.
The picture in front of our new CT machine is with my colleague, Radiation Therapist – Jessica Mclean
What is your favourite part about being an MRT?
My favourite part of being an MRT is the opportunity to keep improving and working toward goals beyond entry-level practice. Because the MRT profession and its specialties are relatively small, it is often easier to connect with colleagues across the field. In my experience, MRTs are genuinely open to collaboration and supportive of new technologists/therapists, which creates a strong sense of community. That support has reinforced for me, every day, that I chose the right profession. I also enjoy being a mentor to students and have been one since the beginning of my career as I love helping teach and educate the radiation therapists who will be working alongside us in the near future.
