Medical Physicists
What is a Medical Physicist? 
Many of the complex instruments and techniques used in modern medicine were developed by medical physicists. With doctors, medical physicists are closely involved in assessing and treating illness and disability. They also have a role in protecting patients and healthcare workers from potential hazards, including radiation.
Your responsibilities
As a medical physicist, you could work in one of the many different health areas. Most typically, you would be involved with the commissioning, calibration, safe operation and maintenance of systems used for looking at or measuring what is happening in the body, for example those using x-rays, ultrasound, light in various frequencies; laser Doppler blood flow measurement; magnetic resonance imaging and nuclear medicine.
You might work with new therapies such as ultraviolet radiation or photostimulated cytotoxin or carry out mathematical modelling of pressure, temperature, flow and perfusion, or design transducers and electronic systems.
Many medical physicists are involved in radiotherapy. They need to supervise the dose of radiation needed to treat a cancer patient and will be involved in planning complex treatment for individual patients using a linear accelarator.
Skills required
As you will probably be involved both in research and in working closely with patients, you will need to be able to commumicate well with patients, technical and administration staff, and with other healthcare professionals. You must also keep up with the latest scientific and medical research in your field and develop your laboratory and management skills.
How to become a Medical Physicist
Training posts from 2011 will be available in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. See Modernising Scientific Careers on the left for details of training in England.
- Take at least 3 A Levels, including maths and physics, and preferably, another science and get good grades.
- Take an honours degree in physics, and aim to get at least a 2:1.
- Apply for a place on the Training Scheme for Medical Physicists and Clinical Engineers, which is funded by the Department of Health, where you will:
- Take an MSc degree in Medical Physics, accredited by IPEM and receive vocational training in a hospital department accredited by IPEM for a total of two years followed by around two further years of advanced training leading to ACS assessment and HPC registration as a Clinical Scientist.
Note: an MPhys or MSci as a first degree will not remove the need for an accredited specialist MSc.
The process of training Medical Physicists and Clinical Engineers in currently under review by the Modernising Scientific Careers programme. Click here for the latest news.
The minimum qualification for eligiblity for the Training Scheme is a second class honours degree in a physical or engineering science. A higher degree or industrial experience is useful.
Further Information
Check the "What Do Our Members Do?" link on the left..