Welcome: What Is Medical Physics?

• Medical Physics is defined as the application of physics to the needs of medicine
• Launched by 2 Nobel prizes in physics; subsequently 2 Nobel prizes in Medicine or Physiology
• Responsible for the technical foundations of radiology, radiation oncology, and nuclear medicine
• Built on foundation of physics, but with distinct body of knowledge and scholarship
• Distinct from biophysics
• Incorporates both theoretical and experimental methods, but inherently an applied discipline

 

For more information, we recommend the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) Public Education Website(ext. link) which addresses issues like: what is a medical physicist, the medical physicist in radiation therapy and diagnostic medical imaging, history of medical physics, etc.