Health physics or medical physics

[mek42]

I'm looking into a career change to health physics or medical physics from analytical chemistry (in the pharmaceutical industry). For medical physics, I think I'm going to run into CAMPEP drama due to timing, so am leaning more towards health physics.

For health physics, will I be limited to nuclear plants as employers or will anyplace that needs an RSO want a health physicist?

I have a master's degree in chemistry (P Chem emphasis) and an undergraduate physics minor with classical and quantum mechanics, but no E&M. I also have 27 graduate hours in mathematics. Is my preparation reasonably adequate to begin studying health physics?

I have some more questions, but want to do some more research before posting them.

Thank you!

 

[mek42]

Did some more research and found out that in my state (NY), I can become licensed as a Med. Physicist for Nuclear Medicine or Medical Health Physics through board exams of organizations other than ABR, so maybe medical physics is still a possibility.

Is medical health physics more or less an RSO for a medical organization? If so, would a medical organization want the RSO to wear another hat too?

 

[arunma]

May I ask what exactly "health physics" is? I'm doing my PhD in physics and I want to get a job as a physicist (as opposed to becoming a computer programmer, software engineer, etc.), but I am probably not going to go into academia. So I'd like to know what's available in industry, especially the healthcare field.

 

[Choppy]

Health physics usually refers to the science and practical implementation of radiation protection. On the science side you might want to look at a journal like Radiation Protection Dosimetry. A typical question in this field is something like predicting the incidence of breast cancer induction that results from mammographic examinations in a paopulation so that it might be compared against the probability of early detection. There can be a lot of overlap with medical physics.

Most of the jobs are centred on radiation safety. (And I should note that in such positions, my experience is that there aren't too many opportunities for pursuing the science side of the field above). There is a lot of legislation around the operation of (ionizing) radiation-producing devices and the use of radioactive materials. Radiation safety officers (RSOs) are the ones who assume the responsibility for the day-to-day management of a radiation safety program. Their duties can include:
- operating and maintaining a workplace exposure monitoring system
- oversight of policies and procedures
- investigating exposure incidents
- shipping and receiving radioactive materials
- conducting radiation surveys
- testing of safety sustems
- radiation safety training
- input into facility design

In smaller hospital settings, a medical physicist can often be tasked with RSO duties. (Although, I might note that legislation in particular regions may require specific certification and therefore even in smaller settings a full time RSO might be required). In larger hospitals and nuclear facilities the RSO will be a full time position or even multiple positions.

Mek42 - you'll have to contact specific programs you're interested into see if you qualify.