Medical physics: a good fallback plan to MD?

[Catria]

Sorry, I couldn't find anything about medical physics being a fallback plan to medical school. However, I always assumed there was some overlap between medical physics and medicine.

Here's the thing: I advised a physics major in my medical physics class wanting to do medicine (he said that he wanted to do family medicine or emergency medicine but I think a medical physics class prepares one best for radiation oncology) to do medical physics as a fallback plan for a MD. And that he should aim for 33+ on the MCAT. However, I cannot judge on that guy's ECs for medical school, not knowing them. Did I give out sensible advice?

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[Mako555]

"medical physics" is a very vague term. What specific career path did you have in mind?

I wouldn't say that a medical physics class prepares you for rad/onc. you have 4 years of medical school to forget what you learned and then residency to learn it 10,000 times over again.

 

[DrHart]

I've talked to medical physicists who work in radiation oncology. Very interesting work ^^

 

[Catria]

"medical physics" is a very vague term. What specific career path did you have in mind?

I wouldn't say that a medical physics class prepares you for rad/onc. you have 4 years of medical school to forget what you learned and then residency to learn it 10,000 times over again.

I know medical physicists can specialize in radioprotection (and thus public safety), imaging (CT-scan or MRI) radiation oncology or nuclear medicine... he wanted to apply to CAMPEP-accredited medical physics programs on top of med schools.

 

[sliceofbread136]

Ya man a harder subject is always a good fallback for sure

 

[EnginrTheFuture]

These programs are actually getting extremely competitive because of changes in ABR requirements (residency requirement for board certification). Medical physics is very intellectually challenging and there are pitfalls (just like any profession I guess).

Being a M.D. and a medical physicist are very different, especially if he/she was thinking family medicine or EM where you are constantly getting patient interaction and solving broad based problems. Medical physics is fairly narrow, you get relatively much less patient interaction, and you generally focus on quality assurance of machinery. Your focus is patient safety, technological services (medical device management), dosimetry, and sometimes research as well.

Source: I work very closely with multiple medical physicists and considered going into it myself

 

[Narmerguy]

Sorry, I couldn't find anything about medical physics being a fallback plan to medical school. However, I always assumed there was some overlap between medical physics and medicine.

Here's the thing: I advised a physics major in my medical physics class wanting to do medicine (he said that he wanted to do family medicine or emergency medicine but I think a medical physics class prepares one best for radiation oncology) to do medical physics as a fallback plan for a MD. And that he should aim for 33+ on the MCAT. However, I cannot judge on that guy's ECs for medical school, not knowing them. Did I give out sensible advice?

What do you mean by a fallback plan? I think your advice is sensible in that medical physics is a fine career and certainly if someone finds it interesting, they should consider it as a career. The connections between medical physics are probably strongest in radiology/nuclear medicine/radonc. Ultimately what he does if he doesn't get into medical school is his own choice. You gave him some advice to consider a field that combines physics and medicine, he can do with that what he likes.

 

[callcar]

Ya man a harder subject is always a good fallback for sure

Haha 🙂 +1

 

[Microglia]

Ya man a harder subject is always a good fallback for sure

Hahaha well played.

 

[music2doc]

Umm... a "fallback"? If he wants to do a health profession, something a bit more health-related would probably be a bit more appropriate. If he's all science then sure, but if that's the case, maybe he should be considering something like that to begin with instead of trying to fit into the physician mold. Being a good physician is about far more than knowing your sciences pretty well.

 

[Catria]

As a freshman, that guy's first choice was to go in medical physics. It's only in his graduating year that he started to consider medicine on top. He should shadow a rad-onc so that he can get a taste of both medical physics and medicine.

These programs are actually getting extremely competitive because of changes in ABR requirements (residency requirement for board certification). Medical physics is very intellectually challenging and there are pitfalls (just like any profession I guess).

Being a M.D. and a medical physicist are very different, especially if he/she was thinking family medicine or EM where you are constantly getting patient interaction and solving broad based problems. Medical physics is fairly narrow, you get relatively much less patient interaction, and you generally focus on quality assurance of machinery. Your focus is patient safety, technological services (medical device management), dosimetry, and sometimes research as well.

Source: I work very closely with multiple medical physicists and considered going into it myself

I always thought that the medical physics residencies would become far more competitive than the medical physics programs themselves...

 

[circulus vitios]

I hear that medical physics sucks as a profession because you do in-depth physics training but the actual day-to-day work as a medical physicist is mindless technician level crap.

 

[addo]

wouldnt medical physics be a bit less misleading if they just called it physics or better yet imaging technician?

 

[The Buff OP]

Sorry, I couldn't find anything about medical physics being a fallback plan to medical school. However, I always assumed there was some overlap between medical physics and medicine.

Here's the thing: I advised a physics major in my medical physics class wanting to do medicine (he said that he wanted to do family medicine or emergency medicine but I think a medical physics class prepares one best for radiation oncology) to do medical physics as a fallback plan for a MD. And that he should aim for 33+ on the MCAT. However, I cannot judge on that guy's ECs for medical school, not knowing them. Did I give out sensible advice?

Sure, bro. Just get a PhD in it and make 100k or more a year.

 

[jr93]

Many of you do not know what you are talking about. Medical physics is not a generic term. They have M.S. degrees (and increasingly PhD's) and soon will be required to have residencies. They become board certified in around 5 years after many difficult tests. I believe the average salary for a certified Medical Physicist is around 180k so it is not technician work. They do math much more difficult than many of you will ever experience. QA's also as someone said and manage radiation sources that even RadOnc doctors aren't allowed to handle. They also keep the cancer center clear from all hassle from the NRC. It is not a fallback because people that are that good at physics/math are a rare breed. There are almost always more RadOnc's than Physicists. This is all clinical physics obviously. There is also a diagnostics side that works with Radiology. Some are also RSO's (radiation safety officers) but some of those positions are reserved for Health Physicists or other graduate level health science majors. Go check out a radiation cancer center before you blow off physics.

 

[IL Pre Med]

Hey buddy, don't have a fallback. I had a fallback and I'm in it now; still want to go back into medicine and trying to make it happen. Moral of the story: if you have a fallback and settle for it, you'll never truly be happy if you love medicine. If you go into your fallback career and are happy, medicine was never really a perfect fit for you.

 

[Catria]

My medical physics professor described a clinical medical physicist's work as being the "pharmacist of rad-onc" so, to that professor's eyes, there should be about as many clinical medical physicists as there are rad-onc doctors, since its role is critical to the operation of a radiation cancer center.