albert.mills

Hello,

I'm considering doing a PhD in medical physics, and I have a few
questions:

I would like to become a clinical medical physicist who divides his
time between clinical duties and research. I think it would be a nice
mix, rather than simply focusing on one, and getting bored with it.
I'm also attracted by the salary/stability of a clinical medical
physicist.

I was wondering how is the time divided between clinical duties and
research for such a position? Does it vary widely, or is there some
typical division (at a big hospital in Canada).

My grad degree was in engineering physics, where i focused on applied
magnetics. I now work for a non-destructive testing company where my
work involves applied magnetics mostly, and i took a graduate medical
physics survey course course where i did a research project on MRI
artifacts.
Therefore I would probably like to do research/work with diagnostic
imaging
and MRI in particular. However when I look at the medical physics
curiculums in
clinical med phys programs, they all seem to focus on radiation
theraphy, with minimal imaging courses. Most of the jobs seem to be
focused on radiaiton therapy also. Why is this so, I imagine imaging
is done just as often as radiaiton therapy (if not more so), so I
guess fewer people are just needed for it?

Additionally if I were to go into radiation theraphy what would the
clinical duties be like, from what I've read it sounds like a lot of
calibration work -- doesn't this get a bit dull after a while?

All these questions apply to the situation in Canada, and the work
questions are regarding working in a large hospital (although I
suspect
the situation is fairly similar in the US).

Thanks.

pixel.to.life

Since you also posted on science.medical.imaging group, I posted a
reply there:

http://groups.google.com/group/medicalimagingscience/browse_thread/thread/bc81908ea5c7cf76