Medical Physics...

Medical physics is a very diverse field that applies the knowledge gained in other areas of physics (such as high energy physics) and applies this knowledge to heal people. There are many, many examples of this. One very important example is the technology that went into building the particle accelerator at SLAC


which has been adapted so that they may be used in hospitals

to treat cancer patients. These machines all make electrons go very fast. In the case of medical accelerators, these electrons (other particles can be created and used as well) are directed at cancer within patients to stop it from growing.

However, what we are most interested in telling you about has to do with computer software technology that has been developed at SLAC, the EGS4's Monte Carlo code. This software is now used by thousands of medical physics researchers as a way of estimating how much energy from the medical accelerators is being deposited in the cancer. This sub-field of medical physics is called radiotherapy treatment planning and it appears that ALL radiotherapy treatment planning that is done in the future will be based directly or indirectly on the EGS4's Monte Carlo code!

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