Are Radiotherapy Physicists Merely Technicians?

[medphys]

Radiotherapy physicists have become glorified technicians rather than clinical scientists
Med. Phys. Volume 37, Issue 4, pp. 1379-1381 (April 2010)
Published 9 March 2010

 

[qball]

Radiotherapy physicists have become glorified technicians rather than clinical scientists
Med. Phys. Volume 37, Issue 4, pp. 1379-1381 (April 2010)
Published 9 March 2010

Well, Choppy, I'm afraid he's got you there.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Radiotherapy physicists have become glorified technicians rather than clinical scientists
Med. Phys. Volume 37, Issue 4, pp. 1379-1381 (April 2010)
Published 9 March 2010

Both articles you quoted are 'point-counterpoint' articles, (presumably) not peer-reviewed statements of fact.

However, it is true that there is considerable tension between MDs and PhDs, probably exacerbated by the rise of the MD/PhD who calls him/herself a 'clinical researcher'.

MDs have one undeniable advantage- they can perform surgical procedures/ administer drugs to humans.

PhD's- real ones- have an undeniable advantage: they can think.

Ideally, there is a partnership. In practice, the MDs see patients, which makes money for the institution, so they get preferential treatment.

None of this has anything to do with your terrible attitude, medphys. Nobody owes you a job for being smart. If you insist that you are a second-class citizen, don't whine when you are treated as a second-class citizen.

 

[medphys]

Dont change topic, I am talking about med phys are technicians or scientists, not about MD, PhD tension.

I wrote all these to give potential students who plan to enter med phys field a balanced information otherwise those students are just exposed to one-sided information until they find by themselves once they enter the field which usually is too late

Both articles you quoted are 'point-counterpoint' articles, (presumably) not peer-reviewed statements of fact.

However, it is true that there is considerable tension between MDs and PhDs, probably exacerbated by the rise of the MD/PhD who calls him/herself a 'clinical researcher'.

MDs have one undeniable advantage- they can perform surgical procedures/ administer drugs to humans.

PhD's- real ones- have an undeniable advantage: they can think.

Ideally, there is a partnership. In practice, the MDs see patients, which makes money for the institution, so they get preferential treatment.

None of this has anything to do with your terrible attitude, medphys. Nobody owes you a job for being smart. If you insist that you are a second-class citizen, don't whine when you are treated as a second-class citizen.

 

[Academic]

What is in a name? Who cares if they are called technicians or scientists? Is it some pride thing?

I don't know much about medical physics, but off had I wouldn't think to consider them a scientist or a technician...

 

[medphys]

I agree, nobody cares about the title. However, It makes me puke that some med phys touting themselves as scientists. Med Phys's mentality is worse than that of MDs. MDs do not assert themselves scientists. Those med phys are sending wrong message to other people. I have no problem with the existence of med phys profession. What makes me laugh is that how low quality their so called research is and make every effort to convice people that what they do is physics research. No. Most Med Phys just need shallow understanding of some physics related to ionization radiation. The rest is pure memory and practicle expereince.

What is in a name? Who cares if they are called technicians or scientists? Is it some pride thing?

I don't know much about medical physics, but off had I wouldn't think to consider them a scientist or a technician...

 

[Choppy]

If you don't care so much about title, why is it you're going out of your way to argue about it?

 

[fasterthanjoao]

Dont change topic, I am talking about med phys are technicians or scientists, not about MD, PhD tension.

Well, what is it you'd actually like to discuss? Why are you posting a link to this article?

If you're looking for people to bow-down and 'admit' that medical physics is terrible - I think you already know that isn't going to happen. I know you've spent a long time working your way into the field and haven't managed to get a job - I'm sorry, but you can't take it out on everyone else. Clearly you're an embittered individual, maybe you should just relax, stop blaming the field and try to find the real reason that you haven't managed to find a job.

As for the above article, I happen to disagree.


Frankly, I think you're asking to be banned from these forums.

 

[medphys]

I want to give informed information to whoever wants to know the truth, not to those who bury their heads in the sand and blindedly elated about their so called glorified position, and living in their fantasy "career".

Well, what is it you'd actually like to discuss? Why are you posting a link to this article?

If you're looking for people to bow-down and 'admit' that medical physics is terrible - I think you already know that isn't going to happen. I know you've spent a long time working your way into the field and haven't managed to get a job - I'm sorry, but you can't take it out on everyone else. Clearly you're an embittered individual, maybe you should just relax, stop blaming the field and try to find the real reason that you haven't managed to find a job.

As for the above article, I happen to disagree.


Frankly, I think you're asking to be banned from these forums.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Dont change topic, I am talking about med phys are technicians or scientists, not about MD, PhD tension.

Fair enough- I guess I don't understand what you are upset about: is it, for example, that medical physicists are not treated as equals to other professionals? Is it, medical physicists have too high an opinion of themselves? Is it something else?

 

[Gruxg]

Medphys, I partially agree with you, but don't you think it is sufficient with one thread on this topic?. I think you have opened 3 identical threads, one of them has been closed probably because you were not very polite in some of your posts. I think it is not a good idea to use such a "belligerent" tone.

Choppy stated in another post 'A medical physicist is first and foremost a physicist' but didn't answer my question:
What happens with all those "medical physicist" who come from engineering or scientific studies different from Physics? Do you think they are physicist even although they have never graduated in physics?. I don't know what is exactly the situation in your country, but I think this is not uncommon globally.

In my opinion some engineers may have even a better education than physicist like me to get involved in "medical physics". OK, they don't know quantum electrodynamics, but they can learn easily the basic radiation physics and usually have more experience with MatLab, image processing, networking issues, etc, often needed in this field. And they are trained in problem solving, too. In fact, the main goal of engineers is supposed to be to solve practical problems.

It is not necessary to be a scientist to understand how things work. A surgeon is not a scientist (is more like a technician), but understand how the body works. Maybe they don't understand in detail the intimacy of the biochemical processes that ultimately govern the physiology of our cells, but they don't need it, either. I think something similar happen in our field.

Perhaps Choppy works in a large university hospital or something like that, but in most hospitals there is little or no time for research and when something can be done it is often a technical research much closer to the research done by engineers than to the research done by other types of physicist.

At least in my country we are not "glorified" at all, but I think we actually work as highly qualified technicians or technologist (I'm not sure what is the difference), rather than physicist.