• Question: How did you decide to specialise in the area in which you are currently working?

    Asked by sarahf100 to Charlotte, Dhvanil, Frank, Jim, Leila on 12 Mar 2013. This question was also asked by crazycoley123, midnight, owlie.
    • Photo: Leila Nichol

      Leila Nichol answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      When I did my training, that included placements in Diagnostic Radiology (X-rays/CT scans etc), MRI and Radiotherapy. Radiotherapy was the section that most interested me most, I liked learning about high energy X-rays for treatment purposes, and I wanted to work in cancer care as it is close to my heart, plus there are the most jobs in radiotherapy generally. I’m glad I made the choice to be where I am currently.

    • Photo: Jim O Doherty

      Jim O Doherty answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      Good question! I did the UK training program which puts you in 3 month placements where Physics is used around the hospital. At the end of that training period you have to pick one are that you really liked. Mine was an area called Nuclear Medicine, and our main focus is on cancer diagnosis and treatment, although we also do lots of treatments and scans that are not cancer related

    • Photo: Charlotte Kemp

      Charlotte Kemp answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      As Jim and Leila have said, we’ve each trained in three areas initially. I did Radiotherapy, Radiation Protection and Physiological Measurement. I knew straight away that i wanted a job in Phys Meas as it had so much variety to it compared to the other areas. In Phys Meas you learn about ANY measurement on the body, so you could be involved in theatres (monitoring spines), on wards (monitoring the brain), doing urodynamics (studies involving your waterworks), blood flow, and also be involved in development work, doing analysis on data or building new devices or systems for other staff groups to use…The only downside is that this area of medical physics is small and so there are less jobs to choose from. But if you are good and work hard you will make it!

    • Photo: Dhvanil Karia

      Dhvanil Karia answered on 13 Mar 2013:

      I did Medical Imaging purely out of interest after Biomedical Engineering ( I got fascinated by MRI imaging method in the last year of college and that was it). Further, during my job at the Royal Marsden Hospital, London I got into radiotherapy which as also very very interesting and in the meantime I got this opportunity to do a PhD in it so I grabbed it with both the hands 🙂

      So to sum it I think it was mishmash of Interest X Opportunity X Luck X Hardwork that got me where I am right now 🙂

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