Medical Physics

Medical Physics is generally speaking the application of physics concepts, theories and methods to medicine/healthcare.

Medical physics departments are found in hospitals or universities.

In the case of hospital work the term 'Medical Physicist' is the title of a specific healthcare profession with a specific mission statement (see below). Such Medical Physicists are often found in the following healthcare specialties: Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology (also known as Medical Imaging), Nuclear Medicine and Radiation Oncology (also known as Radiotherapy). However, areas of specialty are widely varied in scope and breadth e.g., Clinical Physiology (also known as Physiological Measurement, several countries), Neurophysiology (Finland), Medical Computing and Mathematics (many countries), Radiation Protection (many countries), and Audiology (Netherlands).

University departments are of two types. The first type are mainly concerned with preparing students for a career as a hospital Medical Physicist and research focuses on improving the practice of the profession. A second type (increasingly called 'Biomedical Physics') has a much wider scope and may include research in any applications of physics to medicine from the study of biomolecular structure to microscopy and nanomedicine.