Maybe a lot of people will say that the imaging of this profession is good, is the big brother, look at how many people in recent years to report this profession, this school every year there are one hundred people, the whole society this professional graduated from the student is more than countless, the employment situation is not optimistic, on the other hand, medical physicists of the profession, in the United States early is a popular profession, its treatment is to be able to match with the treatment of the doctor, and even have the Treatment is also higher than the doctor, of course, all this has to test their own efforts, the following medical physicist to provide relevant information, you can see for yourself
Southern Medical University Biomedical Engineering (Medical Physics Direction
) undergraduate
College system: four years.
Degree awarded: Bachelor of Engineering.
Cultivation Objective: To cultivate biomedical
engineering and technical talents with broad vision, thick foundation, strong ability, strong practical ability and innovative spirit, who are able to develop morally, intellectually, physically and aesthetically, and meet the needs of the development of
China's medical physics career.
Major Courses: Advanced Mathematics, College Physics, Electronic Technology, C
Language Programming, Microcomputer Principles and Interface Technology, Database Principles and Applications, Computer Networks, Human Anatomy, Physiology,
Medical Sensors, Modern Medical Imaging Devices, Medical Image Processing, Quality Assurance of Large-Scale Medical Equipment, Medical Instruments, Oncology Radiology, and Medical Technology. , medical instrumentation, tumor radiation
physics, medical imaging physics and so on.
Career direction: in scientific research institutions, colleges and universities, enterprises and institutions
, medical institutions engaged in medical physics research, teaching, development
development and management, but also for this discipline or related disciplines of the master's
degree.
The highest degree that can be awarded: Ph.
Biomedical Engineering (Medical Physicist)
The Medical Physicist (MP) is an integral and important member of tumor radiation
treatment.
Medical physicists work in conjunction with clinicians in Radiation Oncology, Medical Imaging, Nuclear Medicine, and other non-ionizing radiation such as ultrasound, NMR***
.
Vibration, laser and other fields, engaged in clinical diagnosis and treatment of physical
technical support, teaching and scientific research, especially in the diagnosis and treatment
development and application of new technologies, quality assurance (QA) and quality control
(QC), as well as health care physics and radiation protection and so on, plays an extremely
important role.
In developed countries, medical physicists have long been an important position in healthcare organizations
. Graduates of medical physics disciplines at the same time is a complex talent that is proficient
through physics and familiar with medicine. In terms of the number of people employed
, medical physicists working in the clinic, and staff in the medical instruments and equipment
industry will be the
main field of employment for medical physics students.
CT, radiotherapy, nuclear magnetic *** vibration ...... well-known terms,
all belong to the category of medical physics. A few days ago in Beijing, China
Physics Society of Medical Physics Committee of the first academic report
, experts have suggested that China as soon as possible to set up a medical physicist career
position, vigorously develop the medical physics, change the current medical physics
Science is not valued, medical physicists as well as medical physics research personnel
severe The situation of the shortage of medical physicists and medical physics researchers, and the reliance on imported high-precision medical equipment.
Medical physics is the principles and methods of physics applied to
the prevention of human disease, diagnosis, treatment and health care of interdisciplinary
including medical imaging physics, nuclear medicine physics and radiotherapy physics
and ultrasound, microwave, radiofrequency, laser and other applications in medicine.
Over the past half century, medical physics has developed
rapidly in developed countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States, with many universities having medical physics programs, and the number of medical physicists per million
population has reached 13.
"Many small and medium-sized countries in Asia have this discipline and a medical physics
physician system, but China, with a population of 1.3 billion, does not." Prof. Zhao Nanming
, chairman of the Medical Physics Professional Committee of the Chinese Physical
Society, explained, "Because there is no such position and system, more talents cannot be attracted
to work in this field."
According to statistics, there are currently less than 0.8 medical physics
workers per million people in China. "According to our population estimates,
more than 10,000 medical physicists will be needed in the future." Prof. Zhao Nanming said
that the shortage of medical physicists has prevented some modern medical equipment from being
properly and adequately used, and some patients from receiving accurate and effective
diagnosis and treatment, and even from suffering unnecessary radiation damage and other medical injuries
.
China spends a lot of foreign exchange every year to import and medical physics
related medical equipment, affecting the independent high-precision medical equipment research
development. "Relying on the introduction alone will not work, China should accelerate the independent innovation research on proton therapy
devices." Fang Shouxian, a high-energy gas pedal physicist and academician at the Institute of High Energy Physics
of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), who has long been engaged in proton therapy tumor
research, said.
In March 2004, the 221st Xiangshan Science Conference strongly called for
the establishment of the discipline of medical physics as soon as possible, and the creation of a professional post of medical physicist
position.
In recent years, Tsinghua University, Peking University, Wuhan University and
Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and other colleges and universities have set up medical physics
new disciplines or professional direction.
After more than a year of preparations, the Medical Physics
Professional Committee of the Chinese Physical Society was set up at Tsinghua University in September this year, bringing together
experts from dozens of higher education institutions, research institutes, and renowned hospitals
such as Tsinghua University, Peking University, the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Swell
Tumor Hospital of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
What is a medical physicist?
Roles and Responsibilities of Medical Physicist in Oncology Radiation Therapy
Medical physicist is an indispensable
important member in oncology radiation therapy. Especially with the rapid development of tumor radiation therapy equipment
and technology in recent years, the role of physicists in ensuring radiation safety, improving
the level of treatment technology, and providing high-quality services to patients
has become increasingly important [1].
In the radiotherapy departments of oncology in European and American hospitals, physicists have a long history as a profession, and the number of physicists in the profession has been increasing due to the development of equipment and precise
radiotherapy techniques, and the responsibility they bear
is also getting heavier and heavier.
In oncologic radiation therapy, the radiation oncologist will undoubtedly
be responsible for the entire course of radiation therapy, and based on this role
it is his or her responsibility to identify an appropriate and competent
physics team in which the duties of different personnel (including physicists
, dosimetrists, or others) are clearly designated.
Without adequate physical support, it is impossible to provide a high standard of
treatment and service to patients [2]. The physiatrist, in turn, must lead the work of the physics team
and be responsible
for all physical data and processes applied to the patient, whether or not these processes are performed directly by the physiatrist himself.
Every radiotherapy department needs to continually improve its
level of treatment, which means that new therapeutic
techniques and techniques need to be introduced on a continual basis, while selectively retaining the original treatment program
. Physiatrists all play an important role in this process.
For example, in the last 30 years, the development of gas pedal technology, the successive emergence and development of new technologies
such as CT imaging,
three-dimensional treatment planning, conformal and dynamic therapy, remote rear-loaded brachytherapy, intensity-modulated radiation therapy, and stereotactic therapy[3] have all continued to change the physicists' work and the scope of responsibilities. Since each clinical hospital's
oncology radiology department possesses different treatment equipment, has different treatment water
levels and carries out different programs, the specific tasks and responsibilities of physicists working in different hospitals
vary. In a radiotherapy oncology department
where most of the advanced radiotherapy equipment is available
, the specific tasks of a physicists' career broadly include the following
aspects.
1. Radiotherapy equipment
Modern radiotherapy equipment includes tele-irradiation equipment, brachytherapy equipment, and simulators. Considering the rapid development of radiotherapy equipment, the types of diseases and the relatively expensive price, the physical
physician has the responsibility to choose the radiotherapy equipment to be purchased by the unit
in terms of performance and price ratio, to make their own recommendations on how to carry out the treatment
and to propose the manufacturer's equipment needs to meet the
indicators and conditions. Indicators and conditions. This not only requires the physicist to keep abreast of the latest
radiotherapy techniques, but also to be aware of the scope and limitations of the various technologies and techniques
and to have an understanding of the
complexity of the process of implementation of these techniques.
The installation of radiotherapy equipment is generally done
by the manufacturer, but then the acceptance testing of that equipment and the measurement of machine data are
the job of the medical physicist. A formal acceptance inspection entry can be made for each type of radiotherapy equipment, with the guiding principle being that any equipment used on a patient must be tested to ensure that it meets the requirements and safety standards for use
. For example, in the case of linear gas pedals, the following tests are required: radiation protection measurements, checking the
symmetry of the independent collimators, the consistency of the center axes of the various parts, the effect of the rotation of the frame and
head on the position of the isocenter, the amount of X-rays, the flatness of the field, and the detection of field symmetry [4], the energy of the electrons, the amount of X-rays, and the amount of electron beams.
line energy, detection of field flatness and field symmetry, monitoring
detection of ionization chamber stability and linearity, and so on. Each
test has different contents, steps and indicators, which can be completed one by one in the form of a table
grid.
Some of the radiotherapy equipment that passes the acceptance test can be used directly in the clinic, but others cannot be used directly and require
more data, such as the linear gas pedal, which before it can be used in the clinic
must be measured through the scale [4] to obtain all the beam parameters and machine parameters required by the treatment planning system
and transmit them to
the treatment planning system
for clinical use. machine parameters and input them
into the treatment planning system, and then verify that the dose distribution calculated
by that treatment planning system matches the actual measurements, all of which
are the work of the physicist. Only machines that have been authorized by a physicist can
be used to treat patients.
Quality assurance (QA) of radiotherapy equipment is essential for a clinical
organization to perform high-quality radiotherapy services [2].
Each radiotherapy equipment needs to have daily QA content that should be done
, monthly QA content that should be done, and yearly QA content that should be done
, which should be listed in a document, and implemented one by one by the personnel in a time-anchored
schedule. Some routine QA tasks can
be done either by a physicist or by a dosimetrist, but
the physicist must establish the content entries and steps for QA, direct the
process and check the final results.
2. Radiation treatment planning aspects
First, the acceptance inspection of the hardware and software of the radiation treatment planning system,
data measurements, and routine system and data maintenance need to be done
by the physicist [5][6]. The inspection of the hardware system consists of
checking the accuracy and linearity of the digitized input and output devices
; the inspection of the software system is the selection of a series of treatment conditions and
checking the accuracy
of the computed data as compared to the measured data under these conditions, e.g., various calculations and measurements that can be made in the three-dimensional water tank
comparison of data. Another important aspect is the examination of the various algorithms in the treatment planning
system, such as their accuracy,
constraints and characteristics, etc. Here the role of the medical physicist is to
ensure that the treatment planning system is used correctly.
Secondly, the radiation treatment planning process definitely requires the involvement of a physicist
. While the patient's treatment plan is the overall responsibility of the radiation oncologist
, the specific treatment planning is done by both the radiation oncologist
and the physicists*** because the design and optimization of many of the protocols in the treatment planning process
involves complex physics concepts. The general
model is: (i) the radiation oncologist decides
whether to do a CT or MR examination or both based on the patient's condition and determines
the localization modality and the localization point for the CT simulation; (ii) the physicists enter the CT image
data and the MR image data into the treatment planning system; and (iii) if there is
MR image data, the physicist will first integrate the CT image and MR image, and then outline the outer contour and vital organs on the CT image; ④ The radiation oncologist will outline the target area, discuss with the physicist about how to set up the shot field, and outline the shape of the block in the shot field on the DRR image, at which time the physicist will understand the doctor's treatment plan
, considers the actual physical conditions and equipment conditions, and puts forward his/her own
suggestions; ⑤ the physiatrist carries out the parameter setting and dosage calculation, and continuously
improves and optimizes the plan in order to try to realize the doctor's treatment
plan; ⑥ finally, the doctor decides whether the treatment plan is acceptable or not,
and signs the chart with his/her sign the approval. Both the radiation oncologist
and the physicist should be working closely together throughout the process. In many treatment centers, the general treatment planning is done by the dosimetrist, and the same
steps need to be followed, with the physicists playing a supervisory and instructional
role, and when it comes to complex treatment planning, it is done by the physicists.
In addition to this, the physicists should also be involved in the planning of the treatment.
In addition, the physiatrist has the important task of
quality assurance of the treatment plan. After all the treatment plans have been approved by the
doctor, they need to be output to the computer controlling the treatment equipment
to control the actual treatment process on the one hand, and on the other hand they need to be output to the patient's medical record, both of which require
very accurate output, and the physiatrist needs to check each item to
ensure that the The data from the planned output, the control output and the patient's medical record are all in agreement. In addition, since radiation therapy is usually performed in sessions, in order to check whether each session is performed according to the plan, the therapist needs to fill in the daily treatments according to the table, such as
the date, the actual dose output in each field of treatment, etc. The therapist also needs to check whether the output from each field is in accordance with the plan, so as to ensure that it is in accordance with the plan. The
physician, in turn, checks these records every week or so and corrects any problems
as soon as they are found. In order to minimize errors, these checks generally need to be
double-checked by two physios.
If the patient's treatment plan is an Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy
program (IMRT), then a dedicated quality assurance
process needs to be performed on it. Each radiation therapy department may develop quality assurance components for IMRT based on the equipment
conditions of the department. For example, for an IMRT
treatment plan, the treatment plan can be applied to a solid-water
body model, and the iso
dose distribution for each field in this body model can be calculated; at the same time, Mapcheck can be used to physically measure the
iso
dose distribution for each field, where each field consists of dozens, if not hundreds of
subfields. The calculated values are compared to the measured values, and if
80% of the points have a dose error of 5% or less, then the plan is
passed and the next step in the treatment can be taken. Alternatively, a small empty
cavity ionization chamber is used to measure the absolute dose at a point, and EDR2 film is used to measure
the isodose distribution in a plane, which is then
compared to the calculated results. If a radiation therapy department has two different manufacturers of
IMRT treatment planning systems, quality assurance can be performed using a method known as hybrid plan validation
. This is done by applying the IMRT plan produced
by one system to a solid water body model and calculating
the isodose distributions for each field of fire in this body model; at the same time
the calculation of the dose distributions in the
solid water body model is performed using the same beam conditions in the other treatment planning system, and the two systems are compared in terms of their
computed, isocentric dose distributions. p>calculations, the difference between calculations of isocentric dose should be less than
5%. The method is similar to the method of QA validation
with independent dose calculation systems.
3. Training and Research Efforts
Because of the inherent complexity and rapid development of radiation therapy technology
, every radiation therapy department requires not only a cadre of physicists capable of meeting
clinical assignments, but also the ongoing training
of its personnel. Such training includes not only routine clinical training
but also a progressive mastery
of new techniques and treatment modalities. First, for new entrants to the field of medical physics to work as physicists
, there must be a reasonable period of clinical training,
and there must be a process of familiarization
with many of the practical aspects of clinical work; second, the introduction of a new therapeutic modality into a department of radiotherapy
such as whole-body irradiation, electron beam irradiation, three-dimensional Adaptive
shaped radiation therapy, intensity-modulated radiation therapy, stereotactic radiosurgery
, low-energy source implantable internal irradiation, high-dose-rate internal irradiation and so on
, for physicists on the one hand, it is necessary to master the treatment technology itself,
on the other hand, it is necessary to understand the therapeutic equipment that carries out the therapeutic technique,
and to target this therapeutic equipment to Develop appropriate operating procedures and quality
assurance programs to fully develop the various functions of the equipment. Therefore,
the professional training of medical physicists should be a long-term process of continuing education
and self-training. This will ensure that the therapy equipment is in
good working condition and provide the best
technical support for the diagnosis and treatment of patients. In addition, the physiatrist has the responsibility of training the unit's
dosimetrists and therapists in the physical aspects of their knowledge.
The rapid development of a variety of high-precision, sophisticated technology
technology is also concentrated in the development and application of modern radiation therapy equipment
use, such as electronic technology, precision instruments, computer networks, graphic
shaped image processing, automatic control technology and so on. In the process of improving radiotherapy
therapy technology and developing new therapeutic devices, especially in
their design and clinical application, medical physicists have played
an important role. And
research involving all aspects of the field of medical physics is a source of continuous development of radiation therapy technology.
Striving for excellence in radiation therapy technology itself is also one of the responsibilities of medical physicists
. Physical support work in the process of radiation therapy for tumors
is not every item to be done by the physicists themselves, one of the
some specific technical work can be done by the dosimetrists, and checked by the physicists.
This way, the physicists can have some time to do their work. In this way, the physicist can have some time to carry out some
research work, improve the level of treatment technology and develop new treatment hand
segments.
The role and responsibility of each medical physicist in oncology radiation therapy depend very strongly on the type of equipment and treatment programs available in his or her radiotherapy
department,
as well as the number of physicists in the department,
in addition to teaching and management tasks for
some physicists. and administrative tasks, making it difficult to make an exhaustive generalization
. However, they all share the same goal of assisting the oncology radiologist in delivering the correct and effective prescribed dose to the target lesion, improving and developing the clinical technique, and providing a high standard of care to the patient.
These are the goals of the Physicist.