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.	2010 HPS Midyear Topical Meeting Radiation Risk Communication to the Public 24-27 January 2010 Albuquerque, NM
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20 November 2009

What Is the Difference Between Health Physics and Medical Physics?

What is the difference between health physics and medical physics?

Health Physics is the branch of physics or biophysics concerned with radiation physics and radiation biology, which deals with the safe use of ionizing and nonionizing radiation in academic, government, industrial, medical, nuclear power, research, and other civilian and military applications of radiation.

Medical Physics is the branch of physics or biophysics that is associated with the application of radiation physics in medicine at a clinic, hospital, private practice, or university. It includes the fields of diagnostic radiological physics, medical health physics, and medical nuclear radiological physics and therapeutic radiological physics.

Diagnostic radiological physics deals with the diagnostic application and safe use of x rays, gamma rays from sealed sources, ultrasonic radiation, radio frequency radiation, and magnetic fields used primarily in diagnostic radiology and cardiology and to a lesser extent in other areas of medicine.
Medical health physics deals with the safe use of x rays, gamma rays, electron or other charged particle beams, neutrons, radionuclides, radiopharmaceuticals, and radiation from sealed radionuclide sources for both diagnostic and therapeutic purposes in patients and human research subjects. Medical health physicists interact with physicists from other fields of medical physics and with physicians, technologists, nurses, and other personnel in branches of medicine that utilize radiation in patient care and research.
Medical nuclear radiological physics deals with the diagnostic and therapeutic application and safe use of radiopharmaceuticals primarily in nuclear medicine (sometimes called molecular imaging) and endocrinology.
Therapeutic radiological physics deals with the therapeutic application and safe use of x rays, gamma rays, electron or other charged particle beams, neutrons, and radiation from sealed radionuclide sources used primarily in the treatment of cancer.

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