By Aaron Bain, MS
Medical Physicist, The Armes Family Cancer Care Center

You may have heard of an astrophysicist, nuclear physicist or theoretical physicist. Scientists like Einstein, Schrödinger and Newton revolutionized our understanding of the universe. But have you ever heard of a medical physicist? It is likely that you haven’t since there are only approximately 13,000 medical physicists in the United States. You may ask yourself, what role could someone who studies the physics of subatomic particles and planetary motions play in the medical field? 

One of the common types of medical physicists is a therapeutic medical physicist. In radiation therapy, radiation is commonly delivered using medical linear accelerators. These accelerators are particle accelerators that generate beams of radiation to precisely target and kill tumors. The type of radiation beam used is custom-made for each patient for the best treatment. The job of the therapeutic medical physicist is to ensure the quality of treatment for each patient.  

A therapeutic medical physicist uses their expertise in physics to guarantee the performance of medical linear accelerators. We also play a crucial role in treatment planning, using our knowledge of radiation physics to answer questions in radiation dosimetry. The physicist even checks the dose calculations that the treatment planning software outputs. All of this is to ensure the best treatment while sparing healthy tissue from radiation damage. We work as a team with radiation oncologists and medical dosimetrists to get the best possible patient outcomes. 

The therapeutic medical physicist also plays a role in radiation safety and medical imaging within the clinic. Ensuring the quality of X-ray machines, CT machines, MRI machines, PET machines, and more. Physicists may even conduct medical research to improve imaging modalities and radiation therapy technologies. We can even be involved in research regarding radiation safety standards.

You may ask, how do I become a medical physicist? In order to become a medical physicist, you first need to complete a bachelor’s degree, most commonly in physics. After your bachelor’s degree, you will need to go to graduate school and complete either a Master of Science degree or a Ph.D. in medical physics from a Commission on Accreditation of Medical Physics Educational Programs (CAMPEP) accredited program. After your degrees, you will have to complete a two- or three-year CAMPEP-accredited medical physics residency. 

In your residency, you will work as a full-time medical physicist and gain the experience and knowledge necessary to be a fully certified medical physicist. The medical physicist is the only non-physician who can obtain an American Board of Radiology certification. During your residency and throughout the beginning of your career as a medical physicist, you will work toward passing a three-part exam to be ABR certified. 

The medical physicist is proof that a very diverse team of professionals is needed to provide the best possible care for patients, from dosimetrists to nurses, to radiation therapists, to physicians, to physicists. We all play a crucial role in our own way to perform as a team and treat patients. Together, we rely on each other’s areas of expertise to improve the health and well-being of our patients.