Did informatics research in undergrad. Want to switch to medical physics for PhD with no background

[ejay19955]

I am an incoming M1 at a Top 20 MSTP. My undergrad research was very heavy in informatics and that is what everyone who knows me, including myself up until a few weeks ago, thinks I will do for the PhD. I've been, however, growingly interested in going into BME (for imaging) or medical physics for my PhD. There was always a little gap between my clinical interest (radiology or, more recently, radiation oncology) and my research interest (biomedical informatics). Even though I could go into imaging informatics, I could not find many professors at my institution who exactly do that. Also, I feel like doing research in some kind of imaging or medical physics will help me get into either radiation oncology or radiology residency more than bioinformatics would.

My problem is I have absolutely no background in medical imaging at the moment despite having done BME for undergrad. The only physics courses I took were first-year general physics (i.e. Physics I & II), statics and biomechanics.

Assuming this is not a fleeting thought, I wonder if there's anything I could do before seeking a rotation in a lab of my interest. I won't do my first rotation until after M1, so there is some time. Is it a good idea to start asking professors now for their articles and whether they would be willing to take me for a rotation next summer? When should I let the program director know (and what are some things to ask him) if I become certain I want to do medical physics after some more deliberation? My program director seems super approachable anyways so I guess I might as well ask him now about what I could do?

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[Electricity]

You're already accepted. You can totally switch, and wanting to keep aligned with your clinical interests is smart to the extent that you can be sure about them.

It's certainly not too early to ask professors if you can rotate with them, but the best strategy (IMO) would be to read the papers of the professors that you are considering rotating with, try to understand them, and see if you find them interesting, and only then reach out to the professors, say that you have read their papers, and perhaps try to ask an educated question about it. That way you will be engaging on content and the professor may be more interested in discussing it because you have demonstrated an interest in the actual research in the lab.

 

[Neuronix]

My advice is to just wait until you're there and then go explore. Find PIs who you're interested in, and then send them an e-mail that you're an MD/PhD looking for a rotation the following summer and want to see if they're interested in you. Worry about and figure out the details about PhD program later.

PM me if you want to talk in detail. This is my area.

My initial thoughts are:

I'm not sure about medical physics as a PhD. It's kind of like getting a clinical psychology PhD. That is, it's typically a very clinically oriented PhD program. I've never seen an MD/PhD in radiation oncology who did a PhD in medical physics. I feel like it would carry some clout, and I see how it could be useful, but you'd have to be careful to structure it as a serious basic science PhD without taking too much coursework that would keep you in the program forever. Those guys are typically going towards board certification in medical physics to have a clinical physics career, which you don't care about (you have an MD for that). Then again, they may have a non-clinical track. You'd have to sort that out. I doubt the MD/PhD program would have much experience in it, and may block it entirely.

I'm not the biggest fan of engineering as an MD/PhD choice either. There's nothing wrong with it--it's just that they tend to come with a lot of their own requirements and tend to be more separated from the MD/PhD program (read: more hurdles and harder to graduate). I did my PhD in biophysics. Maybe you can make a similar compromise with the right lab?