#medphys

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passed my board exams!!!

now I can start seriously looking into residency programs

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not this program director calling one of the largest companies in my field ‘Daddy Varian’

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quaking in my boots

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today I learned about a fun concept: skyshine

which is the radiation a facility releases into the atmosphere, which then scatters off the air and is directed back to earth’s surface. if you don’t have the ceilings/roofs of your facility appropriately shielded, it’s possible to get a measureable radiation dose in areas near your facility (like its parking lot) when your linear accelerator is directed at the ceiling!

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a close friend sent me this beautiful notebook for starting grad school

today it starts its new life as my lab notebook, to bring me joy in my most difficult courses 💛

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HI HELLO WHAT IS MEDICAL PHYSICS

I wanna be a doctor but also physics my beloved <3 I did not know this was a thing that existed??? please enlighten me (if you have time/energy)

Howdy! Happy to share :)

Medical physics generally encompasses the various ways that radiation is used in medicine. This includes radiation therapies, imaging modalities, and nuclear medicine. MRI and ultrasound also fall under the med phys umbrella. It’s a good mix of physics, biology, and medicine, I think! I’ve always enjoyed physics and bio, and if I weren’t so squeamish I definitely would’ve considered med school. I’m at my university’s med school but for a phd not an md (there’s still board exams though), but I digress.

At its core, medical physics is about understanding how radiation (and other physics-y things) interact with the body, for better and for worse, and how we can use that understanding to improve health outcomes. Many medical physicists work as a part of oncology treatment teams to optimize radiation therapy plans to adequately dose tumors while sparing healthy tissue as much as possible. Medical physicists also perform yearly safety evaluations of all sources of radiation used in medicine. One of my professors is the radiation safety officer at the school-affiliated cancer center, so that’s another career option too! Admittedly I don’t know much about a more imaging-focused career path (outside of research/teaching/working for a company that makes the machinery) since my passion is for therapy.

If delving into the nitty gritty of high energy photon and particle interactions with the dna and various tissues in our bodies sounds even remotely interesting, medical physics might be a good path for you! I’m also happy to go into more detail if anything I’ve mentioned piques questions or curiosity

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Gatekeeping is a good thing

-Dr. RH

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got my first grad school acceptance and it is such a weight off

even though it’s a masters program and I’d ultimately like to get my PhD, it’s still a step in the direction of my goals!

still hoping to get into one the the three PhD programs I still haven’t heard from yet, but it’s nice to know for sure that I will be doing something medphys next year