Introduction to Medical Physics

"Whilst the global impact of medical physics and medical physicists in medical imaging and radiotherapy keeps increasing, and there is an increased need for trained physicist, few textbooks are available that comprehensively cover all of the field of medical physics. This book aims to cover this gap and provide a resource for undergraduate and graduate students aspiring to become medical physicists by presenting in a well-structured format the essential knowledge-base required for in-hospital training and subsequent practice. The editors put together a team of practicing experts, comprising both clinical scientists and academics mostly from the UK and Italy, to cover each specialism in depth, with clear descriptions, explanations, supporting diagrams and figures.

Introduction to Medical Physics, 1st edition, has been well structured by the editors with a coherent choice of topics. The language is academic yet focused, and each chapter provides a smooth learning curve from basic to more advanced. As Director of the Medical Engineering and Physics MSc at King’s College London for the past few years I have observed how learners’ needs are changing. While students cherish the variety of opportunities that increasingly replace or complement traditional lectures/tutorials (workshops, practicals, visits, videos and online material) they also appear hungry for reliable introductory textbook material to consolidate their knowledge and review their learning. I would like to congratulate editors and authors, as I believe they have clearly met their objectives; this textbook promises to be an excellent reference for Medical Physics trainees, MSc students in Medical Physics, and also highly valued by 3rd year BSc students. Medical specialists and other professionals with an interest in Medical Physics will also appreciate the comprehensive coverage and the clear and detailed explanations."

• Enrico De Vita (Kings College London) in Medical Physics International Journal, vol.10, No.1, 2022

"Whilst the global impact of medical physics and medical physicists in medical imaging and radiotherapy keeps increasing, and there is an increased need for trained physicist, few textbooks are available that comprehensively cover all of the field of medical physics. This book aims to cover this gap and provide a resource for undergraduate and graduate students aspiring to become medical physicists by presenting in a well-structured format the essential knowledge-base required for in-hospital training and subsequent practice. The editors put together a team of practicing experts, comprising both clinical scientists and academics mostly from the UK and Italy, to cover each specialism in depth, with clear descriptions, explanations, supporting diagrams and figures.

Introduction to Medical Physics, 1st edition, has been well structured by the editors with a coherent choice of topics. The language is academic yet focused, and each chapter provides a smooth learning curve from basic to more advanced. As Director of the Medical Engineering and Physics MSc at King’s College London for the past few years I have observed how learners’ needs are changing. While students cherish the variety of opportunities that increasingly replace or complement traditional lectures/tutorials (workshops, practicals, visits, videos and online material) they also appear hungry for reliable introductory textbook material to consolidate their knowledge and review their learning. I would like to congratulate editors and authors, as I believe they have clearly met their objectives; this textbook promises to be an excellent reference for Medical Physics trainees, MSc students in Medical Physics, and also highly valued by 3rd year BSc students. Medical specialists and other professionals with an interest in Medical Physics will also appreciate the comprehensive coverage and the clear and detailed explanations."

• Enrico De Vita (Kings College London) in Medical Physics International Journal, vol.10, No.1, 2022

““Introduction to Medical Physics” is the result of a British-Italian cooperation in the series on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering by CRC Press. The authors mention undergraduate as well as postgraduate students as mainly intended readership in their preface. I may add interested readers to their list who are in active clinical service and wish to have a profound overview of the main fields of Medical Physics in one book at hand. To this end, the extensive register of 12 pages is of great value, too. The 15 chapters start with an introduction setting the outline of this book by Perry Sprawls who is well known for his free available teaching resources, especially on imaging physics. This is one item I noticed when reading this book, that some chapters put a special emphasis to list mainly free available resources and e-learning material as references. These are published by international organisations like the IAEA or can be found at the European EMERALD or EMITEL (Encyclopedia of Medical Physics) project website. The latter two projects pioneered the e-learning concept in medical physics and were led by Slavik Tabakov and his wife and many more collaborators, of which some have contributed to this book, too…This book is not intended to be a workbook including exercises for students…but more as a reference book that accompanies a series of lectures on Medical Physics. To this end, the last chapter on emerging techniques of phase contrast X-ray imaging, radiomics and ultra-high dose radiotherapy (FLASH) techniques serves well the purpose of showing students, what more interesting topics are currently up in Medical Physics and keeping them interested in future developments. For this and all other purposes mentioned above, I recommend this book to all interested readers!”

—Prof. Dr. Markus Buchgeister, Berliner Hochschule für Technik Berlin, Germany in EFOMP Newsletter, Spring 2023