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Tom Heaton (CU'60) , retiree from NIST and FDA, will speak. Medical physics is a career path that may not be familiar to most of you.  A medical physicist is a professional who specializes in the application of the concepts and methods of physics to the diagnosis and treatment of human disease.  Medical physics is commonly characterized by four sub disciplines: radiological therapeutics, diagnostic imaging, nuclear medicine, and medical health physics, although health physics is its own specialized area of physics and is another career path. All four areas involve ionizing radiation but may cover any area of physics applied to medical applications.  The medical physicist must understand the biological effects of ionizing radiation and its interaction with biological tissue, be able to accurately measure it before treatment, and understand the equipment used to produce it.  Ionizing radiation can be produced by beams from accelerators or x-ray units, be contained in sealed radioactive sources, or be in the form of unsealed radionuclide material.  Radiation beams are used externally to treat or diagnose patients.  Sealed sources are either implanted or delivered to the treatment site by remote afterloaders.  Unsealed radionuclides seek out the tumor and are either implanted directly or delivered intravenously.  After an overview of the role of the physicist in medical applications including associated education and training, the medical physicist’s responsibilities in the therapy treatment of a patient will be covered.  This will include a discussion of linear accelerators, equipment commissioning and calibration, patient treatment planning including calculations of radiation dose, and regulatory compliance responsibilities.

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