It is always surprising when people look blank (here in Africa) when I tell them what a medical physicist does, this led me to search the web in order to ascertain if other people around the world knew what a medical physicist does generally. I came across series of proofs that really, people generally just don’t know.
Let me shed some light………
The Medical physicists inhabit a diverse field, which include working in hospitals, universities and in industry as service providers and researchers.
Medical physics is central to the treatment of “cancer” with different types of radiation, from X-rays, protons and heavy ions to ultrasound, and medical imaging techniques which ranges from basic X-ray exposures to advanced modalities like positron emission tomography. Medical physicists provide radiation protection services in hospitals and industry.
The field is interdisciplinary, depending on their subfield, medical physicists may use radio-biology, anatomy and physiology, cancer biology and engineering in their daily work. And no medical physicist is an island: they typically work in teams that can include medics, radiation therapists, radiographers, nurses, engineers, technicians and biologists.
This is only but a few of the stuff Medical physicists are involved in.
