What’s a Medical Physicist?

This was the question posed by the defense lawyer in a criminal court setting when my name and occupation were announced for jury duty selection. It’s a question that we, as Medical Physicists, hear repeatedly. How can that question best be answered? My solution to this was to ask a series of high-profile, award winning, all-star Medical Physicists to tell stories about their life’s professional experiences.

The only catch was that these stories were to be written so that they could be understood by non-medical physicists. The idea here is that if enough medical physicists tell their stories, then based on these various experiences, the reader should get a broad perspective of what medical physics is all about, and some insight into what medical physicists do. These stories have been gathered in a book entitled True Tales of Medical Physics with a subtitle of Insights into a Life-Saving Specialty. The net result ‒ a 575-page book with 22 chapters, each written from a different personal perspective giving insights into their journeys and experiences in medical physics. Here are some tidbits from each of these chapters:

Based on the unusual question from a family acquaintance, ‘but what ARE medical physics?’ David Thwaites responds by providing a brief history of medical physics and making it clear that it dates back millennia prior to the Nobel Prize winning work of Marie Curie.
My own chapter addresses some of my personal experiences along with those of my former boss and mentor, Jack Cunningham, who described, in his memoir, an incident involving a number of high-profile medical physicists, a heavy radioactive cobalt-60 source transfer container, the laws of gravity, and a cable stretching experience when this source transfer container was loaded onto an elevator.
The International Commission of Radiation Units and Measurement (ICRU) is a very high-level, august body providing international recommendations related to radiation applications. Peter Almond, as a member of this Commission, provides two humorous anecdotes related to “fermentation.” The first involves a barbeque dinner inadvertently held in a “dry” county in Texas. The Commission, being mostly from Europe, was keen on enjoying a glass of wine with their meal. He goes on to describe how these eminent medical physicists manage to find some bootlegged wine and open the bottle without a corkscrew.
For Gary Barnes, the Ugly, the Bad and the Good during his 50 years of experience as a diagnostic imaging medical physicist was mostly Good. Bad experiences helped him do Good in the future.
Arthur Boyer starts his day in the life of a Radiation Oncology Medical Physicist with his early morning run wearing his “Up and Atom” tee-shirt and ending the day with two tail-wagging mutts greeting him joyfully as he pulls up the driveway.
“YOU Can Change the Medicine” says Jim Purdy; in addition, he emphasizes the importance of a close interaction between physicists and physicians.
John Wong was very concerned about his future when he contaminated an incubator by spilling radioactive labelled cells. However, with a successful career, he emphasizes the importance of not separating medical physicists into ‘clinical’ and ‘academic’ careers. “The future of medical physics as a glorious profession lies in equal recognition to the contributions of both camps.”
The lessons learned from his early years impacted Paul Carson’s career in ultrasound medical physics. He noted “in this chapter that there was a lot of pragmatic response to needs and opportunities, taking what life allowed, while trying to do good for society and individuals” while including only some of his embarrassing missteps that could serve as useful lessons for others.
A serendipitous rainstorm over Kyoto impacted Clif Ling’s research collaborations. He combined high tech physics developments with human biological considerations and concludes, “These developments were possible as a result of cooperative efforts with medical physicists, radiation oncologists, imaging scientists and radiobiologists – clearly a multidisciplinary collaboration.”
Terry Peters’ PhD research on CT scanning was scooped by Nobel Prize winners Godfrey Hounsfield and Allan Cormack when they came out with the first commercial CT scanner in 1972. His career in digital imaging evolved from radiation therapy applications to the use of image-guided surgery.
Two experiences in his early years impacted Stephen Thomas’ career. The first was his two years in the Peace Corps. The second was his many years as a graduate student in solid state physics. He goes on to describe his career in magnetic resonance imaging and highlights one of his more memorable “patients” – an infant gorilla.
Marcel van Herk is a lover of flea markets. He used them to buy parts for his electronic “toys” at the age of 12 and then on to developing technologies for image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) in later years. His flea market interests evolve into the use of eBay, the modern version of the flea market.
Cari Borrás, representing both the US and Spain, and working for the Pan-American Health Organization, describes her review of a very significant radiation accident under duress due to a civil war in El Salvador, and how it impacted a very personal relationship.
A horrific radiation accident that exposed thousands of people in Goiânia is described by Carlos de Almeida in some detail. He provides interesting insights into his interactions with the public and the news media.
A low-income country context of medical physics evolution is described by Arun Chougule in India. Not only did he have to deal with a highly radioactive cobalt-60 source that was dumped beside a road, but he was also left to handle under-resourced radiation therapy departments using creative, cost-saving design considerations.
Jerry Battista connects the dots between his love of medical imaging, his love of music, the Beatles, Nobel prize laureates, and paleoradiology. Not only that, he describes how imaging is also used in high-stakes horse racing, and assessing vehicles for transportation of contraband drugs.
In his five easy job descriptions, Tomas Kron concludes that “there is no ‘standard’ medical physics job and the field is ever changing. As the use of technology in medicine expands so does the role of and demands on the medical physicist who is the professional at the interface between technology and the patient.”
World class developments in mammography, which resulted in recommendations on mammographic screening that have been applied across the world, have been among the accomplishments of Martin Yaffe. He concludes by listing a sampling of various unforgettable parts of the world where he has run into colleagues, enjoyed a glass of wine, a bottle of beer, or a cup of coffee.
Tremendous research and leadership activities in imaging physics have been the forte of Aaron Fenster, with an emphasis on successes generated by professional collaborations. He provides career perspectives very relevant for younger scientists by revealing “hinge points, opportunities grabbed, and lessons learned.”
Maryellen Giger’s career development began as a summer student at the Fermi Labs in Chicago working on high-energy accelerator beam lines and evolved into advances in artificial intelligence in diagnostic radiology. Based on her wealth of experience, she provides great advice on leadership in medical physics.
Proactive research developments by Rock Mackie resulted in several significant multimillion dollar start-up companies mostly related to radiation oncology. He gives great advice on entrepreneurship. One of his start-ups was valued at 1.2 billion dollars.
Radhe Mohan’s experiences with the development of computerized three-dimensional treatment planning resulted in his picture being published in Time magazine and the graphics of his 3-D treatment planning system being displayed on the front cover of the National Geographic.

All the chapter authors acknowledge that there is little knowledge about medical physics by the general public. Each of them is often asked “What’s a Medical Physicist?” A consistent theme is that the profession of medical physics provides a rewarding and fulfilling career. Furthermore, they emphasize that collaborations with colleagues in multiple disciplines enhances research productivity resulting in improved patient care. Words of advice are provided that are not only relevant to younger medical physicists but also relevant to a younger generation of scientist in any specialty. Rarely do we find such words of wisdom in “scientific” books. These True Tales of Medical Physics provide real Insights into a Life-Saving Specialty.