What is medical physics?

...or this blog has to start somewhere.

If you are reading this blog, you are likely familiar with medical physics, but for my first official post I'm going to talk about what medical physics is.

Medical physics is a field of applied science and engineering, in which physics-based techniques form the basis of diagnostic and therapeutic medical technologies. The most well known of these technologies are x-ray imaging, CT, MRI, ultrasound, and radiation therapy. Many medical physics technologies utilize ionizing radiation. The potential hazard of ionizing radiation is arguably the reason why medical physicists exist as clinical personnel, versus solely as researchers and developers, as is the case with biomedical engineers.

While most broadly medical physics is the application of physics techniques across all of medicine, the term "medical physics" is generally used to refer to three primary areas: diagnostic imaging, nuclear medicine (radionuclide based imaging and therapies), and radiation therapy. The majority of clinical medical physicists work in radiation therapy.

Historically medical physics arose from the application of physics discoveries and technologies to medicine, most importantly the x-ray for imaging starting in 1896. As these technologies were more broadly adopted by hospitals, more physicists and knowledgeable personnel were needed in clinical settings. Eventually, medical physics specific training emerged and technologies, such as medical electron linear accelerators, were developed from the ground up with medicine in mind.

Today medical physicists work as clinicians, academic researchers, industry experts, and educators, or spend their time as any combination of those.

Further reading:

• Wikipedia entry on Medical Physics
• What do Medical Physicists Do? (AAPM)