What do most do with a M.S. in Medical Physics?

[Geremia]

What do most people do with a M.S. in Medical Physics? Thanks

From the AAPM, this is a very general definition:

[We] medical physicists […] are uniquely positioned across medical specialties due to our responsibility to connect the physician to the patient through the use of radiation producing technology in both diagnosing and treating people. The responsibility of the medical physicist is to assure that the radiation prescribed in imaging and radiation therapy is delivered accurately and safely.

But, specifically, what do most medical physicists do? Thanks

UPDATE: I found a pretty good description on the AAPM website:

What do Medical Physicists Do?

Medical physicists are concerned with three areas of activity: clinical service and consultation, research and development, and teaching. On the average their time is distributed equally among these three areas.
Clinical Service and Consultation

Many medical physicists are heavily involved with responsibilities in areas of diagnosis and treatment, often with specific patients. These activities take the form of consultations with physician colleagues. In radiation oncology departments, one important example is the planning of radiation treatments for cancer patients, using either external radiation beams or internal radioactive sources. An indispensable service is the accurate measurement of the radiation output from radiation sources employed in cancer therapy. In the specialty of nuclear medicine, physicists collaborate with physicians in procedures utilizing radionuclides for delineating internal organs and determining important physiological variables, such as metabolic rates and blood flow. Other important services are rendered through investigation of equipment perfor*mance, organization of quality control in imaging systems, design of radiation installations, and control of radiation hazards. The medical physicist is called upon to contribute clinical and scientific advice and resources to solve the numerous and diverse physical problems that arise continually in many specialized medical areas.
Research and Development

Medical physicists play a vital and often leading role on the medical research team. Their activities cover wide frontiers, including such key areas as cancer, heart disease, and mental illness. In cancer, they work primarily on issues involving radiation, such as the basic mechanisms of biological change after irradiation, the application of new high-energy machines to patient treatment, and the development of new techniques for precise measurement of radiation. Significant computer developments continue in the area of dose calculation for patient treatment and video display of this treatment information. Particle irradiation is an area of active research with promising biological advantages over traditional photon treatment. In heart disease, physicists work on the measurement of blood flow and oxygenation. In mental illness, they work on the recording, correlation, and interpretation of bioelectric potentials.

Medical physicists are also concerned with research of general medical significance, including the applications of digital computers in medicine and applications of information theory to diagnostic problems; processing, storing, and retrieving medical images; measuring the amount of radioactivity in the human body and foodstuffs; and studying the anatomical and temporal distribution of radioactive substances in the body.

Medical physicists are also involved in the development of new instrumentation and technology for use in diagnostic radiology. These include the use of magnetic and electro-optical storage devices for the manipulation of x-ray images, quantitative analysis of both static and dynamic images using digital computer techniques, radiation methods for the analysis of tissue characteristics and composition, and the exciting new areas of computerized tomography and magnetic resonance imaging for displaying detailed cross-sectional images of the anatomy. Medical physicists are also engaged in research and development on imaging procedures utilizing infrared and ultrasound sources.

Typical examples of the various research areas presently under active investigation may be found in scientific journals dedicated to this field. The journal, Medical Physics, is published by the AAPM. In addition, the AAPM holds two national scientific meetings a year, one in the summer and one in the winter. During the winter meeting, the AAPM conducts scientific sessions in joint sponsorship with the Radiological Society of North America. Special summer courses, workshops, and frequent regional meetings are also held by the AAPM.
Teaching

Often medical physicists have faculty appointments at universities and colleges, where they help train future medical physicists, resident physicians, medical students, and technologists who operate the various types of equipment used to perform diagnosis and treatment. They also conduct courses in medical physics and aspects of biophysics and radiobiology for a variety of gradu*ate and undergraduate students. The Commission on Accreditation of Medical Physics Education Programs, Inc. (CAMPEP), jointly sponsored by the American College of Radiology (ACR), American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) and the American College of Medical Physics (ACMP), assures high educational standards in the field. A list of accredited programs is available here.

 

[ThinkToday]

Most of us do radiation oncology and a bit of diagnostic radiology physics on the side, if they have the ABR certification for it. The money is in the radiology oncology physics, as far as staff positions go. The AAPM description is pretty good, but I'd suggest checking into ghosting a medical physicist for a day. Sometimes the written descriptions can be a bit more grandiose than the day-to-day work actually encompasses. It is good work, and satisfying to help people, even the ones you are only relieving pain while they are on the way out. Stress can be significant, as we are often in solo positions, and what we do is absolutely critical in determining whether the patient is helped or hurt from treatment.

 

[Choppy]

I agree with Think Today in that one of the best ways to find out what a medical physicist does is to get into a clinic and talk to a few of them.

It might be worth menioning that MSc-level physicists "tend" to be more clinicaly oriented and less research oriented. That's not to say they don't do research - many MSc level physicists have made huge contributions to the field.

Clinical work in the radiation oncology branch involves a lot of plan checking, consulting on difficult plans, making quality assurance measurements and oversight of a large-scale quality assurance program, commissioning new equipment, developing new treatment or imaging approaches, writing procedures, radiation safety work, medical device network administration and investigating problems that come up. The medical physicist is usually the "go to" person when a problem comes up. These problems can be anything from a treatment plan not loading properly into your treatment system, to figuring out whether a patient's pacemaker is going to exceed its dose tolerance, to planning the thickness of concrete walls needed in new bunker, to developing your own in-house algorithm for deformable image registration.

 

[FizzixGai]

Most of us do radiation oncology and a bit of diagnostic radiology physics on the side, if they have the ABR certification for it. The money is in the radiology oncology physics, as far as staff positions go. The AAPM description is pretty good, but I'd suggest checking into ghosting a medical physicist for a day. Sometimes the written descriptions can be a bit more grandiose than the day-to-day work actually encompasses. It is good work, and satisfying to help people, even the ones you are only relieving pain while they are on the way out. Stress can be significant, as we are often in solo positions, and what we do is absolutely critical in determining whether the patient is helped or hurt from treatment.

Would a Medical Physicist who only wanted to do diagnostic work and little or no "radiation therapy" type work be able to find a job? When I was researching Med Phys master's programs, I saw some schools that offered specializations in "diagnostic", "oncology" and "nuclear medicine" and I'm just wondering if choosing one specialization or another really has that much influence on what kind of work you will do. Personally, I am most interested in the diagnostics and would not want to specialize in diagnostics just to only be able to find oncology jobs.

 

[Choppy]

Would a Medical Physicist who only wanted to do diagnostic work and little or no "radiation therapy" type work be able to find a job? When I was researching Med Phys master's programs, I saw some schools that offered specializations in "diagnostic", "oncology" and "nuclear medicine" and I'm just wondering if choosing one specialization or another really has that much influence on what kind of work you will do. Personally, I am most interested in the diagnostics and would not want to specialize in diagnostics just to only be able to find oncology jobs.

Therapy physicists account for roughly 80% of medical physicists - going by AAPM numbers. So that's why you will generally find more information relevant to therapy. An likely if you're looking for an imaging position, you'll see than at a rate of about one for every four therapy positions.

A good medical physics program will give you enough background to be able to go into either branch at your time of graduation. Obviously some programs are very therapy oriented, but even these need to cover some imaging. Therapy physicists do a lot of imaging work these days.

No one can say definatively whether you'll be able to get a job when you graduate, but diagnostic imaging jobs are out there and anecdotally, people that could do either seem to shy away from them.

 

[FizzixGai]

Therapy physicists account for roughly 80% of medical physicists - going by AAPM numbers. So that's why you will generally find more information relevant to therapy. An likely if you're looking for an imaging position, you'll see than at a rate of about one for every four therapy positions.

A good medical physics program will give you enough background to be able to go into either branch at your time of graduation. Obviously some programs are very therapy oriented, but even these need to cover some imaging. Therapy physicists do a lot of imaging work these days.

No one can say definatively whether you'll be able to get a job when you graduate, but diagnostic imaging jobs are out there and anecdotally, people that could do either seem to shy away from them.

Thank you very much for the information, this helps clear things up a lot. But I do wonder, anecdotally, why people would shy way from the imaging jobs, especially considering that they are much less common. If I had to guess, lower paying or more stressful/difficult or unstable job security, compared to the guaranteed influx of cancer patients.

 

[Choppy]

But I do wonder, anecdotally, why people would shy way from the imaging jobs, especially considering that they are much less common. If I had to guess, lower paying or more stressful/difficult or unstable job security, compared to the guaranteed influx of cancer patients.

I suspect it has more to do with the jobs being very heavy on the imaging QA. I could be wrong though.

 

[ThinkToday]

Thank you very much for the information, this helps clear things up a lot. But I do wonder, anecdotally, why people would shy way from the imaging jobs, especially considering that they are much less common. If I had to guess, lower paying or more stressful/difficult or unstable job security, compared to the guaranteed influx of cancer patients.

Several reasons. Positions aren't as many because a diagnostic medical physicist is "overhead". Unlike therapy, where most of what we do generates money, that's just not the case in diagnostic. Yes, we provide better imaging support, save them money by not having to contract out annual services/reviews, shielding for new rooms, dose assessments on pregnant patients, etc. We also satisfy some quality standards that may have been committed to for an accreditation and provide useful services which may prevent a legal action, but it's hard to put a dollar value on what "doesn't go wrong" with us there doing what we do. Generally, major institutions, especially with multiple imaging sites, will hire a diagnostic physicist. Most facilities do what mine does, contract a physicist, on as needed basis from a larger company that specializes in diagnostic radiology physics. You get the quality work when needed without the "overhead" of a staff position.

Pay and stress are lower for diagnostics. Additionally, the radiation doses therapy physicists deal with get respect, attention and the Rad Onc types give us some slack we say "no" or "I need more time to look at the case". In my experience, diagnostic radiologists, cardiologists, orthopedics, etc. (especially the older ones) see diagnostic x-rays like a plumber with a flashlight. e.g. turn it on as long as I need. Some view "medical radiation" exposure as "different"; like it doesn't count. Monitoring badges on docs, especially when they're in surgery without a badge and can't legal turn on the x-ray unit without one... that's always a fun "discussion". I once shutdown a busy mammography practice that had only one film processor working, and it was way out of spec and needed major service. Their solution, use it anyway because the schedule was too full. They imaged the entire day violating operating procedures, MQSA certifications, etc., but, hey, they got the schedule done…. Idiots. When I did their State inspection I wrote them up for it too. That was good for making friends. That was years ago, and hopefully, things are better with the ACR and AAPM Image Gently, etc. initiatives.

An additional option, if you’re interested in diagnostic imaging is to work for a company like GE Medical, Philips Medical, Siemens Medical, etc. in areas of development, client installation and training, etc. IMO, the best bet would be to join a diagnostic physics group for and see how you like it. Consulting means a lot of running around though.