research in rad onc...entering med student needs advice

[QuantumMechanic]

I'm currently a senior in college who's been accepted to med school. So I'm past the big hurdle of becoming a physician, and I've been thinking about the next step, and I really am drawn to rad onc since I studied physics as my major in college and for some strange reason I find the use of radiation to heal to be a pretty cool thing. I've been lurking around this specialty forum for a while trying to guage how well I'd fit into rad onc and what I'm going to need to do to match into the specialty. I'm going to try to attend a med school with a rad onc department and I'm going to do my best to score well on Step 1, but that stuff is largely irrelevant right now to me since I still have a semester of college to complete.

What I need advice on is about this coming summer. I have been accepted to a summer research program for students (I did it last year, but in imaging research not rad onc), and I will have the opportunity to do research under a PhD medical physicist at a academic research institution's radiation oncology department. Would research with a medical physicist be a positive thing (rather than neutral) to put on a rad onc residency application? Putting my particular research interests aside, is there any sort of research in medical physics that might look better or worse? Or is just doing some sort of research and getting it published the truely important part?

fyi, my potential bosses have published in medical physics and international journal of radiation oncology, biology, and physics...

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[Gfunk6]

All research is good but biology>clinical>physics, IMO. There are dedicated PhD level physicists in every department that do the hard-core physics research, they don't really need help from the MDs. This is not to say that clinicians don't publish dosimetric studies (which they do) or help in clinical development of new physics modalities (as 2ndary authors).

If you are indeed going to Vandy, you should know that Dennis Halahan is a hard-core radiobiologist. He wants his department to produce the next generation of physician-scientists in RadOnc. In fact they only interviewed MD/PhD resident candidates two years ago (not sure if that's the case now).

Also, while RadOnc does have physics and math in it, many people (particularly those outside the field) are under the incorrect impression that it takes a person with a good physics/math aptitude. Not so. Basically, if you can do simple algebra and geometry, then you can do RadOnc. Now the high-level physics stuff that is done in the field is a different story . . .

I don't mean to rain on your parade as no research is viewed in a negative light, but the field may not be what you think it is. I would ingratiate myself with your department from your MS1 year and see what it is about. Good luck!

 

[stephew]

go with your strengths; work with a medical physicist and get some relevant paper published. enjoy it and make contats with the md's. in the future try to get some medical work under your belt. do a good job in med school and you've certainly already got a leg up. good luck!

I'm currently a senior in college who's been accepted to med school. So I'm past the big hurdle of becoming a physician, and I've been thinking about the next step, and I really am drawn to rad onc since I studied physics as my major in college and for some strange reason I find the use of radiation to heal to be a pretty cool thing. I've been lurking around this specialty forum for a while trying to guage how well I'd fit into rad onc and what I'm going to need to do to match into the specialty. I'm going to try to attend a med school with a rad onc department and I'm going to do my best to score well on Step 1, but that stuff is largely irrelevant right now to me since I still have a semester of college to complete.

What I need advice on is about this coming summer. I have been accepted to a summer research program for students (I did it last year, but in imaging research not rad onc), and I will have the opportunity to do research under a PhD medical physicist at a academic research institution's radiation oncology department. Would research with a medical physicist be a positive thing (rather than neutral) to put on a rad onc residency application? Putting my particular research interests aside, is there any sort of research in medical physics that might look better or worse? Or is just doing some sort of research and getting it published the truely important part?

fyi, my potential bosses have published in medical physics and international journal of radiation oncology, biology, and physics...

 

[stephew]

go with your strengths; work with a medical physicist and get some relevant paper published. enjoy it and make contats with the md's. in the future try to get some medical work under your belt. do a good job in med school and you've certainly already got a leg up. good luck!

I'm currently a senior in college who's been accepted to med school. So I'm past the big hurdle of becoming a physician, and I've been thinking about the next step, and I really am drawn to rad onc since I studied physics as my major in college and for some strange reason I find the use of radiation to heal to be a pretty cool thing. I've been lurking around this specialty forum for a while trying to guage how well I'd fit into rad onc and what I'm going to need to do to match into the specialty. I'm going to try to attend a med school with a rad onc department and I'm going to do my best to score well on Step 1, but that stuff is largely irrelevant right now to me since I still have a semester of college to complete.

What I need advice on is about this coming summer. I have been accepted to a summer research program for students (I did it last year, but in imaging research not rad onc), and I will have the opportunity to do research under a PhD medical physicist at a academic research institution's radiation oncology department. Would research with a medical physicist be a positive thing (rather than neutral) to put on a rad onc residency application? Putting my particular research interests aside, is there any sort of research in medical physics that might look better or worse? Or is just doing some sort of research and getting it published the truely important part?

fyi, my potential bosses have published in medical physics and international journal of radiation oncology, biology, and physics...

I'm currently a senior in college who's been accepted to med school. So I'm past the big hurdle of becoming a physician, and I've been thinking about the next step, and I really am drawn to rad onc since I studied physics as my major in college and for some strange reason I find the use of radiation to heal to be a pretty cool thing. I've been lurking around this specialty forum for a while trying to guage how well I'd fit into rad onc and what I'm going to need to do to match into the specialty. I'm going to try to attend a med school with a rad onc department and I'm going to do my best to score well on Step 1, but that stuff is largely irrelevant right now to me since I still have a semester of college to complete.

What I need advice on is about this coming summer. I have been accepted to a summer research program for students (I did it last year, but in imaging research not rad onc), and I will have the opportunity to do research under a PhD medical physicist at a academic research institution's radiation oncology department. Would research with a medical physicist be a positive thing (rather than neutral) to put on a rad onc residency application? Putting my particular research interests aside, is there any sort of research in medical physics that might look better or worse? Or is just doing some sort of research and getting it published the truely important part?

fyi, my potential bosses have published in medical physics and international journal of radiation oncology, biology, and physics...

 

[stephew]

go with your strengths; work with a medical physicist and get some relevant paper published. enjoy it and make contats with the md's. in the future try to get some medical work under your belt. do a good job in med school and you've certainly already got a leg up. remember your in coleg e and this is a college program you've connect with. doing physics research that's radonc related is grea.t
just being in the summer program will be seen favorably. get a publicaiotn out of it! ask for authorship (use good judgement in doing this but make sure you get your name on the work)
good luck!

I'm currently a senior in college who's been accepted to med school. So I'm past the big hurdle of becoming a physician, and I've been thinking about the next step, and I really am drawn to rad onc since I studied physics as my major in college and for some strange reason I find the use of radiation to heal to be a pretty cool thing. I've been lurking around this specialty forum for a while trying to guage how well I'd fit into rad onc and what I'm going to need to do to match into the specialty. I'm going to try to attend a med school with a rad onc department and I'm going to do my best to score well on Step 1, but that stuff is largely irrelevant right now to me since I still have a semester of college to complete.

What I need advice on is about this coming summer. I have been accepted to a summer research program for students (I did it last year, but in imaging research not rad onc), and I will have the opportunity to do research under a PhD medical physicist at a academic research institution's radiation oncology department. Would research with a medical physicist be a positive thing (rather than neutral) to put on a rad onc residency application? Putting my particular research interests aside, is there any sort of research in medical physics that might look better or worse? Or is just doing some sort of research and getting it published the truely important part?

fyi, my potential bosses have published in medical physics and international journal of radiation oncology, biology, and physics...

I'm currently a senior in college who's been accepted to med school. So I'm past the big hurdle of becoming a physician, and I've been thinking about the next step, and I really am drawn to rad onc since I studied physics as my major in college and for some strange reason I find the use of radiation to heal to be a pretty cool thing. I've been lurking around this specialty forum for a while trying to guage how well I'd fit into rad onc and what I'm going to need to do to match into the specialty. I'm going to try to attend a med school with a rad onc department and I'm going to do my best to score well on Step 1, but that stuff is largely irrelevant right now to me since I still have a semester of college to complete.

What I need advice on is about this coming summer. I have been accepted to a summer research program for students (I did it last year, but in imaging research not rad onc), and I will have the opportunity to do research under a PhD medical physicist at a academic research institution's radiation oncology department. Would research with a medical physicist be a positive thing (rather than neutral) to put on a rad onc residency application? Putting my particular research interests aside, is there any sort of research in medical physics that might look better or worse? Or is just doing some sort of research and getting it published the truely important part?

fyi, my potential bosses have published in medical physics and international journal of radiation oncology, biology, and physics...

 

[QuantumMechanic]

thanks for the advice. I certainly have a lot to learn about rad onc and I understand that it isn't a field that reallly requires physics/math aptitude. In fact, one reason that I'm going to med school is to get away from the pure physics/math route that I got myself into in college. I see my undergraduate education as having little practical value but rather as being a good theoretical background for med school and for life in general. Med school and residency is where I will learn the things I need to know for actual work as a physician. Part of this experience will be working within a radonc clinic mostly w/ medical physicists which I realize isn't exactly the most ideal experience, but its as good as I can get right now as I will be in the radonc clinic and I will have regular contact with the rad oncologists (= shadowing opportunities).

 

[Bubblehead-to-MD]

As another pre-med who is interested in Rad Onc, I have another question to ask. With all of the dual degree programs out there these days, would it be beneficial to pursue a MS in either medical or health physics, or would it be a waste of time, since institutions employ medical physicists to handle those aspects of medical care delivery?

Thanks in advance!

 

[QuantumMechanic]

As another pre-med who is interested in Rad Onc, I have another question to ask. With all of the dual degree programs out there these days, would it be beneficial to pursue a MS in either medical or health physics, or would it be a waste of time, since institutions employ medical physicists to handle those aspects of medical care delivery?

Thanks in advance!

as gfunk6 said above, biology>clinical>physics...I had seen this said elsewhere, so maybe your time would be better spent doing research in pure rad onc than medical physics.

 

[Bubblehead-to-MD]

as gfunk6 said above, biology>clinical>physics...I had seen this said elsewhere, so maybe your time would be better spent doing research in pure rad onc than medical physics.

Thanks for your thoughts quantum!