Medical Physics
Summary
| Degree | Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) |
|---|---|
| Subject group | Natural Sciences and Computer Sciences |
| Standard program duration | 6 semesters |
| Admission requirements |
none
|
| Start of studies |
Winter semester
|
| Language | German |
| Further information | Website of Department of Physics |
Overview
To an ever greater extent, medicine is also applied physics. Modern medicine is inconceivable without highly complex and sophisticated devices, which have long been integral to hospitals and medical practices. Ultrasound imaging reveals deposits in arteries. Strong magnetic fields in MRI systems make muscles, organs, and fat visible. Physics plays a role not only in diagnosis, but also in treatment: Lasers cut more precisely than scalpels, and accelerators can destroy tumors with high-energy radiation while preserving the surrounding healthy tissue.
Experts are needed to develop and to use this complex technology. Medical physicists are needed. With their knowledge of physics, they help to make medicine better, safer, and thus more humane as well. They build a bridge between the disciplines, and also between industry and the hospital. Besides developing the necessary technologies, medical physicists often are the ones who put them to use in treating patients. This requires not only technical know-how, but also a sense of responsibility and skill in dealing with people.
This program is offered in cooperation with Ruhr-Universität Bochum, which is responsible for the medical part. It is a Bachelor’s degree program in Physics that is oriented toward a special and important application field, namely physical-technical aspects of medicine. Accordingly, the physics portions are only slightly reduced in comparison to a normal Physics program, to make room for the portion devoted to the subject of medicine.
Skills and knowledge
Students should come with a pronounced interest in natural sciences and should also be on friendly terms with mathematics, since this is an "almost normal" Physics program. Advanced courses at school in mathematics and physics are useful, but not essential. For this Bachelor’s degree program, the preparatory course in mathematics is helpful. It serves to refresh and supplement the mathematics students have learned in school. It is offered once a year, in September, and lasts three weeks.
Field of activity
As specialists, medical physicists are in demand in the job market – the need for experts continues to grow as the technology advances. At research centers and accelerator facilities as well as in medical technology companies, they develop, optimize, and test techniques and devices. As a result of research over the past few decades, for example, the procedures used in nuclear medicine have become faster and more precise. Thus radioactive substances make changes in tissues and metabolism visible.
At clinics and in medical practices, the use of equipment is monitored by medical physicists, who also perform managerial and advisory tasks. When it comes to radiation therapy for cancer patients, they work together with doctors in a team. To selectively destroy tumors, they plan the radiation doses to be administered from different directions with millimeter precision.