What is Medical physics: Definition and 282 Discussions
Medical physics (also called biomedical physics, medical biophysics, applied physics in medicine, physics applications in medical science, radiological physics or hospital radio-physics) is, in general, the application of physics concepts, theories, and methods to medicine and healthcare. Medical physics departments may be found in hospitals or universities.
In the case of clinical work, "medical physicist" is the title of a specific healthcare profession, usually working within a hospital or other clinic. Traditionally, medical physicists are found in the following healthcare specialties: radiation oncology (also known as radiotherapy or radiation therapy), diagnostic and interventional radiology (also known as medical imaging), nuclear medicine, and radiation protection. Medical physics of radiation therapy can involve work such as dosimetry, linac quality assurance, and brachytherapy. Medical physics of diagnostic and interventional radiology involves medical imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound, computed tomography and x-ray. Nuclear medicine will include positron emission tomography and radionuclide therapy. However one can find Medical Physicists in many other areas such as physiological monitoring, audiology, neurology, neurophysiology, cardiology and others.
University departments are of two types. The first type are mainly concerned with preparing students for a career as a hospital Medical Physicist and research focuses on improving the practice of the profession. A second type (increasingly called 'biomedical physics') has a much wider scope and may include research in any applications of physics to medicine from the study of biomolecular structure to microscopy and nanomedicine.
Hi all
I was hoping a medical physicist from the UK may be able to help me out or point me in the right direction.
I'm a British Citizen but for the last 5 years I have lived in Canada (my wife is Canadian). During this time I switched from a PhD in Condensed Matter physics to Medical Physics...
Hi there,
I've been reading a textbook on Physics as applied to nuclear medicine, in particular focusing on how photons interact with matter. The textbook states (without reference) that "there are nine possible interactions between photons and matter, of which only four are of significance to...
OK long shot here and yes I'm prepared for the "oh how could you be stupid" type responses but its worth a shot.
In the nuclear industry it is common place for companies to have a number of apprentices that work while being put through their degree qualification. My question is whether there...
I have a PhD in medical physics from the MD Anderson CAMPEP program and I even took ABR step 1 (just prior to the cut off for residency requirements). Are there any imaging physicists here? Woudl really like to get your feedback on the current outlook for diagphys careers. I have not been having...
Hello, all. So, I am a prospective medical physics graduate student for the fall of 2015 and I have been accepted into two of my top four choices: The 2 year M.S. program in Medical Physics at Columbia and the four year DMP (Professional Doctorate of Medical Physics) program at Vanderbilt. Both...
Hello,
I'm currently in the middle of my graduate studies in medical physics (first year of Master's degree). The program has a reputation among past M.Sc. students of having a very demanding first year in terms of course content.
While I'm having success in terms of GPA (3.8 last semester)...
So... I didn't get matched in the MedPhys residency match, and have no idea what to do with my life now. :oldconfused: Currently I'm busy freaking out and being fed up with school and medical physics in general. I graduate in May with my M.S. in medical physics, and have no real plans. eek.
I...
I am thinking about a PhD in medical physics after I finish my undergraduate physics degree. However I keep seeing negative things about the job market for this degree. Does anyone have any info on the future job market for this degree. thanks ahead of time.
Hello,
I've applied for our university's medical physics program before its first deadline, Feb 1st. Since I've finished the application, I have been relaxing and waiting for the results.
Today I found that I was supposed to fill out a secondary "supplemental" application, which asked exactly...
I am currently a senior physics student looking at a number of medical physics graduate programs - I'm hoping to get an M.S., as I'm really more interested in the clinical side of things. I've had a couple offers already, but I'm having a difficult time nailing down which program I should...
I'd like to start by thanking everyone on this forum. I came here back in 2010 looking for advice on whether or not I should pursue a degree in physics as a mature student. I'm now 27 and only a few months away from graduating and can honestly say it was the best decision of my life. The...
Hello,
I will be getting a bachelor's degree in Radiation Health Physics in near future, and my ultimate goal is to study PhD in medical physics. However, I think it would be unlikely that I will get admitted right after undergraduate graduation, due to my mediocre GPA and limited experiences...
I have just changed my major to physics (and math minor). I'm still not sure what field I will want to study in grad school, but I am most interested in: medical physics and radiology, astrophysics, particle physics, and nuclear physics. Currently, medicine and radiology holds the most interest...
Hello there.
I am a student doing a MSci at one of the top British universities and top 5 world universities according to QS. I am doing a Natural Sciences Degree and must choose a specialisation in Physics starting next term. Ever since I was a child, my dream has been to study Astrophysics...
Hello forum,
I'm a current undergrad student in radiation health physics planning to apply for medical physics grad schools in the US.
There are a few things that make me worry: my GPA (3.24 cumulative) isn't superb because my first two year of undergrad was troublesome (my recent performances...
I am working on an input file in MCNPX/6 that uses a CT scan lattice geometry. I want to specify a small source in a large universe (lung). Right now I have a source uniformly distributed through the universe. The existing documentation is vague on this topic. Is it possible to contain the...
I'm in my second year of my physics bachelor's (in the Netherlands) and my average score is about an 8.5. I like physics, but... I've already realized that an academic career in physics is not at all what i want to pursue.
(eg. no theoretical physics/experimental physics in a lab). Basically...
Hello all,
I have a strong interest in nuclear science, especially medical physics, and I'll soon be transferring from a community college to a university that has, I believe, a very strong nuclear engineering department. Will undergraduate study in nuclear engineering or physics provide a more...
What are some ways that people are applying condensed matter physics/ soft matter physics to optimize some treatments in medicine, e.g. in magnetic hypothermia?
I'm currently a sixth form student in Jamaica currently interested in becoming a medical physicist. However I know that before you do medical physics in a graduate program you need to do physics first. I have been doing some research about some good physics schools in North America. Some of...
Hey everyone,
This may be of interest for those of you looking to pursue Medical Physics in grad school.
I spent a little while making a shiny app displaying CAMPEP statistics, including enrollment data and employment post graduation.
https://joelcarlson.shinyapps.io/campep/
Something that...
It seems like a new program designed for people with PhDs in physics and related fields to gain the necessary background/experience needed for applying to medical physics residencies.
There are about 9 places (in US + Canada) that offer this kind of program at the moment.
I do want to...
Hi all
It may sound rather silly, but I am a second year graduate student doing experimental condensed matter physics. Recently I've been thinking about the future like job aspects and salaries etc. One of my friend recently transferred to medical physics PhD and said its better in job...
Hello,
I was hoping for some input from anyone with any advice. I'm happily studying for my masters degree in medical physics at a campep accredited university, but I have a reasonable stress when it comes to the future.
Can anyone comment on other avenues one could pursue with a masters...
Hi,
I was hoping to apply to some of the graduate programs in Medical Physics this fall and needed some advice/suggestions for the same. It would be great if someone could help me out with the following issues:
Is it a good idea to consider only the CAMPEP accredited programs?
If I...
Does anybody know anything about this certificate? It supposedly allows someone with a PhD in physics or engineering to enter a CAMPEP accredited residency program in medical physics.
CAMPEP has a description and list of certificate programs:
www.campep.org/campeplstcert.asp
I have a B.S...
I'm currently doing my undergrad at the University of Victoria in physics and I want to go into medical physics, but in Europe. Can anyone give me any information about how on Earth I'm supposed to do this? As of this point, anything I've heard about pursuing a masters is purely hearsay and...
Hello all, this fall I will be beginning my second year in a CAMPEP Medical Physics graduate program.
I have a very big dilemma. with the new rules in by CAMPEP, I NEED to get into a CAMPEP residency in order to become ABR certified, however most of those residencies are either taken by PhDs...
Hi. I'm heading to the University of Hong Kong this year to complete my bachelor of science in physics. I should be finishing next semester but the scholarship allows me to spend a year studying in Hong Kong. Hence I have more electives to choose. I'm interested in doing a Masters degree in...
Hi guys, I'm a 2nd year physics student at uni and until recently i was planning on going to graduate school for condensed matter physics, but i realized I'm most interested in medical physics. What courses would those of you who are in medical physics recommend to prep me for grad school? I'll...
I've recently got admitted into the medical physics master program at Duke and U Penn and don't know which one to choose. I'm now having a proton therapy thesis for my bachelor degree and I like it pretty much but not sure if it's a lifelong career choice. U Penn has a proton center, also they...
Question for all you physics experts:
A friend of mine recently decided to pursue medical physics as a career because she heard from some guy who is a medical physicist that he made $150K 2 years after getting his PhD (he is now 30). He did a couple of clinical internships in those two years...
Hello
I've got my bachelor's degree in physics, Astrophysics from a university in Iran and I came here about 2 months ago. My plan was to study MSc of medical physics in Canada. I like this field so much because it's more practical and specially because I can help people who have cancer, since...
I still have a year left, but it's about time I worry about grad school. I am set on getting into medical physics, but I am a little worried about my GPA.
I'm in Canada, my GPA is currently at 3.33, I am going to be doing a directed studies with a Professor next year and continue being a TA...
I was originally interested in doing a B.S in Physics then going to grad school for Physics. After a while of stressing over the job outlook I switched to a B.S in Computational Physics and was going to continue on to grad school for physics that way I have programming to fall back on.
I...
So I'm currently finishing up my undergraduate and heading to graduate school for medical physics. I have narrowed down which schools I want to go to to either UPenn or Vanderbilt U. UPenn would be for a Master's of Medical Physics with a concentration in radiotherapy and Vanderbilt U would be a...
Hi! I am an MS student currently in the process of applying and interviewing for residencies, and I have questions about how it could affect my future career prospects. I am planning to pursue a purely clinical career after completing a residency (no industry, and never academia). I'm...
For those in the field, just out of curiosity, who are the well-known Medical Physicists?
I know Faiz Khan is one of the most renowned. His textbooks are really outstanding.
Hey everyone, I'm a really confused undergrad willing to do anything it become a medical physicist in Canada.. But there are many questions I have in my head and I'm really hoping to get them answered! Thanks a lot in advance
I'm currently a Radiation Therapy undergrad student. I understand...
I just finished taking my GRE and I am a bit unsatisfied with my scores and am debating if I should retake it before the application deadlines. I got a 156Q and 150V... below is my resume thus far.
I posted the following on here before.. so apologies for repeating the same post, but I felt it...
Hi everyone, I've been looking at some programs for medical physics and I'm some what interested in computational medicine so I was wondering if these two fields every unit? Is it possible to research computational medicine as a medical physicist? From what I've read they mostly deal with...
Hello,
I've recently started my M.Sc. in medical physics at a CAMPEP-accredited Canadian institution. I am surprised to learn so quickly how difficult the career path is in medical physics. While so far I love the field, after hearing how thin the job market is ( in Canada anyway) I'm a...
I was really hoping to get a degree in medical physics but due to the bottleneck in the residency programs I am worried that I won't get into a residency and thus not get certified. Not being certified would really limit my job opportunities. I am wondering what my options are if I don't end...
I am a senior physics major. I am going to be applying to some grad schools over these next few months but it has me thinking that I really have only a few ideas about what i want out of school. I am so far going to be applying for an ms in medical physics at san diego state (CAMPEP certified)...
I've always loved Physics.
Now that I'm in University, considering Medical Physics as a future career is something I am seriously thinking about.
I just had a few questions and was hoping the community could help me out.
1. Is a good, working knowledge of computer science required in...
Hi Every 1
I’m Holding a degree in Physics, and thinking to proceed for a Master Degree in Medical physics through Mcmaster University, Ontario Canada . My aim is to find a better job, and for sure a better income.
Am trying to find any information about the Job Market, please help me with...
I got accepted to Medical Physics at Ryerson but don't understand what exactly it is. Can you guys please explain what it is, and what possible careers are associated with it?
Do doctors (people who did medicine at university, be it MBBS or MD) get to collaborate with medical physicists and medical engineers to design, research and develop medical equipment and machines? Or is this the job of medical scientists and doctors only get to use the equipment?
Hi all, I'm new to the forum. I chanced across some threads regarding medical physics but I didn't want to hijack someone else's post to ask some questions. So I'm just finishing up my first year of college and I've been trying to get more insight into various careers that I could pursue...