Self-Quarantined During Pandemic – Twice. Dr. Xu’s Story

Qianyi Xu, PhD

As a great example to others, Qianyi Xu, PhD, Radiation Oncology Medical Physicist at Cooper, demonstrated his concern for Cooper’s patients, coworkers, and the community at large by self-quarantining.

Late in January, Dr. Xu and his family were going to be returning to the United States from China. They had been visiting relatives and, while not in the immediate area of concern, Dr. Xu felt a sense of responsibility to advise Cooper and seek input to next steps to returning home.

Dr. Xu, Dr. Cao, and their two daughters – ages 2 and 8 – were not ill, but they sought to take the most protective action for all involved. They had volunteered to self-quarantine. Cooper’s High Consequence Infectious Disease (HCID) team and Incident Management Team (IMT), working with the health department, assisted the Xu family in making the 14-day self-quarantine as safe and comfortable as possible. Dr. Xu was able to work from home, and his coworkers covered for those tasks that would require his physical presence at Cooper. The children’s daycare and school were contacted, and the Health Department assisted with those matters. COVID-19 pandemic protocols hadn’t been established yet, but, based on his background in health, Dr. Xu had an excellent “contamination control” procedure for receiving goods, food deliveries, etc.

“While we were in China, my wife, children, and I were self-quarantined for two weeks. Upon returning to the U.S., we felt we should be responsible for our patients, colleagues, and the Cooper community and so decided to self-quarantine again. This way, there would be zero chance of spreading the virus, if there was any. Cooper HCID and IMT departments provided assistance to our family in all aspects including detailed health guidelines, offering grocery delivery, and sending toys and flowers to my daughters. I have to mention Dr. Raquel Nahra, Bob Saunders, and Shahrzad Darvish for their daily communication with us. It’s truly heartwarming feeling as we were part of Cooper family.”

– Qianyi Xu, PhD

All in all, Dr. Xu went above and beyond what was required at the time to ensure not only the physical safety of all involved but also to alleviate any potential concerns any patient, visitor, daycare, school, or co-worker may have, real or perceived, due to the evolving situation.

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“Qianyi Xu is a Radiation Oncology Medical Physicist who has been a key team member of Cooper’s Radiation Oncology department. Qianyi’s expertise in designing treatment planning for radiosurgery patients and Medical Physics support has helped Cooper serve as a model of care for the Gamma Knife and formerly the CyberKnife®. Qianyi’s easy going personality helps others in a serious environment achieve their best by adding positive energy to our everyday routines.”

– Ed Goldschmidt

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Qianyi Xu, PhD, DABR, Teaching Faculty, Medical Physics Residency Program, is a board-certified medical physicist at MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper and Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology at Cooper Medical School at Rowan University. He received his PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Arizona in Tucson and completed his medical physics residency at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. He has been working at Cooper since 2010.

Dr. Xu is the lead physicist of Cooper’s Gamma Knife program and its former Cyberknife program. His research interests include treatment planning for SBRT/SRS patients, image guidance for SBRT, tumor motion management, and application of fiducials in SBRT. In 2016, he had the highest score in the CyberKnife category of the AAMD/RSS Plan Study competition.