The Future of Medical Physics?

Squashie

The whole recent media hype about Caltech's nanoparticles delivering cancerous cell interfering RNA has caused me to wonder about the future of medical physics, in particular the area of radiation oncology and dosimetry. These are two areas which I've been interested in working towards for the past couple of years now, however these ever-present "threats :pac:" of cancer cures these days cause me to become hesitant.

There's been medical physics B.Sc.'s popping up all over the UK and Ireland in recent years, and many new M.Sc. courses and Ph.D. opportunities for physicists in nuclear medicine, radiation therapy, dosimetry etc... However, should a major breakthrough be made in cancer research over the coming years, which I guess is likely to happen eventually, will medical physicists concentrating in these areas be... well... ****ed over?

Would just like to see if there's any here with any sort of an opinion on this.

riffmongous

I think any major breakthrough that would totally remove the need for medical physicists is still a long way off. From what I read (on the internet) I think the media just got a hold of that story a little too early.

I did a bit of medical phyiscs (imaging and radiotherapy) as part of a particle physics module, which included a trip to a cancer treatment centre in south dublin, I forget whats its called now (st. luke's or st annes?). I found it to be incredibly interesting subject and I particularly enjoyed the practical side, it was great to see a lot of the stuff we'd learned actually being used for something.

The great thing about physics degrees is that you never specialise too early and all the basics you learn can be carried over to any other area, so I wouldn't be too worried about being ****ed over as you put it:D
My advice would be do a general physics degree and follow it up with a masters in med, I think Galway do a good one.

lonestargirl

Stories about cancer 'cures' come out every few months in the media. While there is a huge amount of research in this area cancer is a very complex disease process dependent on a wide variety of factors and I don't think we are anywhere near a cure.

I love medical physics, what really attracts me to the area is the practicality of it, my work can actually influence the outcome in real patients. I did a BSc in exp physics in UCD, the med physics MSc in Galway and then worked as a dosimetrist for a few years. I'm now doing a med physics PhD in an amazing cancer centre in the US. Our med physics dept is huge with 55 faculty physicists (+ staff physicists and physics assistants on top of that) and constantly expanding.

Also, you seem to be focussing on the radiation oncology side of medical physics, remember that imaging physics is a huge and rapidly evolving area too.