Why are you a Medical Physicist?

On February 1, 2018, just a few days before the Super Bowl game, which by the way was held in Minnesota for the first time in 26 years, the NFL Gospel Celebration was held at the university my daughter attends. She served as an usher for the performance (though no cell phones were allowed so there were no selfies with the guest artists or NFL players). Just days before one of the biggest games of their career, players, coaches, friends, family and fans gathered for a night of inspiration, praise and gospel music. In spite of the many ways that they could have been spending the time leading up to the big game, these players and fans chose to spend the time celebrating their faith, which for many is their source of strength and inspiration in the tough world of the NFL.

As medical physicists, it is important for us to also take time to celebrate our source of inspiration. What is it that keeps you going at the end of a long day when nothing seemed to work but there are still patients to treat? How do you cope when the young patient whose care you have been assisting with succumbs to his or her disease, when you don't get the grant that you are depending on, when you lose one or more of your top clients, when your administrator/boss tells you that your performance is lacking? Do you turn to your source of inspiration, whether that be a higher power or altruistic motive? Do you remember why it is that you chose Medical Physics in the first place? Do you stop to ponder how your work has impacted others for the better?

I believe that we all need something (or someone) to believe in. We need a foundation for our work that is strong enough to withstand the rough times that will inevitably come. Why? It's because why we do can be as important as what we actually do. Our motives and objectives paint the worldview in which we see our work, and it's those things that get us through the most demanding or difficult aspects of our profession. Did you pursue Medical Physics because you loved science and math, and discovering how things worked, but wanted to apply your abilities to improving human health? I know that is true for many of us. It is certainly true for me.

During the fall of my senior year in college, I had a bit of an identity crisis. I was a physics major and had worked for several years in my professor's nuclear physics lab. I knew how to bring up the proton beam on our 2.7 MV Van de Graff particle accelerator and conduct PIXE (Proton Induced X-Ray Emission) experiments to determine elemental composition of a variety of samples — including the ashes of a person who police suspected was poisoned with arsenic! As I signed up to take my GRE exam and started thinking about graduate school applications, I realized that I just didn't care about nuclear physics enough to spend my life in that field. Yes I liked the hands on experiments and cool "toys," but deep inside I didn't really care about quarks or "God particles." I just wasn't inspired.

Not wanting to see me forego graduate school, my professor (sort of reluctantly) told me about the field of Medical Physics. Wow - what a revelation. I had no idea such a career path involving physics even existed (this was pre-internet, so the ability to seek out career opportunities was essentially left to word of mouth). So, as President of the Society of Physics Students, I organized a field trip to the University of Michigan (about 3 hours away) to meet with my professor's brother, Dr. Richard Hichwa, who just happened to be a medical physicist working in PET research. He showed us the first PET image I'd ever seen, and it showed the foci of Parkinson's disease, unlocking the mystery of what part of the brain was affected by this crippling disease. I WAS HOOKED because I WAS INSPIRED!

To be able to see into the human body and find disease or the cause of disease — without having to cut open the patient — was incredible. From that moment on I realized that medical imaging was the career for me, and I have loved it ever since. Sure there are still hands on experiments and cool "toys," but when I see the images, I know that I have taken part in a miracle — seeing into the human body and discovering its form and function. The information obtained from these images makes a difference in the lives of millions of people each day around the globe, and can lead to the discovery of new knowledge aimed to reduce human disease and suffering. That's my reason for doing what I do. That's what gets me through long days and difficult situations.

Coming into this New Year, I hope that each of you can put your story into words. Write it down or tell it to your family or coworkers. Look inside and ask yourself why you became a medical physicist. Think about what makes this career so gratifying for so many of us. Keep that knowledge close to the front of your mind as you go about your daily work. Whether in the clinic, research lab, factory, business office or regulatory department, you are taking part in a field that at its very foundation is about helping people. I hope that you feel as good about that as I do, and that focusing on your inspiration allows you to be the best medical physicist that you can be, enjoying what you do (even the bad days), because you know why you are doing it.

PS — only 1 other student went on the field trip with me, Kevin McCollough. We stayed with his family in Ann Arbor and got to know each other a bit better. This August will be our 32nd wedding anniversary. I found my career and my husband in a single road trip. How's that for efficiency?