Medical Physics degree programme

A new degree programme in Medical Physics will start at Bielefeld University in the winter semester 2024/25. The degree programme is admission-restricted and designed for a maximum of 30 students. The application deadline for the degree programme is mid-July.

It is not only GPs who are currently in short supply in OWL, but also medical physics experts. The Faculty of Physics at Bielefeld University is facing up to this challenge and has launched a new degree programme in Medical Physics. Nowadays, every hospital with a radiology department must have a medical physics expert to operate the facility. They are responsible for the monitoring and safety of the equipment to ensure radiation protection and to monitor the radiation exposure of patients and the doctors involved. Nowadays, every new computed tomography system and every interventional facility must be supervised by medical physicists, so there is a great need for experts with the relevant specialist knowledge. The new degree programme in the Faculty of Physics at Bielefeld University meets this need. The programme consists of a Bachelor's degree course in which the basics of physics as well as basic knowledge of medicine and medical physics are taught. The subsequent planned Master's programme will then build on these foundations. Specific knowledge of radiation physics, radiation protection and the Medical Devices Act will be taught.

Graduates in medical physics are in demand far beyond the market of medical physics experts. Almost all methods used in modern medicine have their origins in physics and are constantly being improved and expanded. New ultrasound examination devices are now handy and transmit their image data directly to a tablet. New electrical impedance tomography systems are used to monitor the lung function of respiratory patients. Endoscopes provide ever more detailed and gentle insights and interventions. Microwaves and radio frequency radiation are used via intravenous probes for the local treatment of tumours. None of these innovations would be possible without physics.

Several professorships at the Bielefeld Faculty of Physics have been working very closely with doctors for years, e.g. to investigate genetic changes in the heart in collaboration with the Heart and Diabetes Centre in Bad Oeynhausen, to study multi-organ failure caused by infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, to develop new imaging techniques that make it possible to see through blood during an operation, or to develop new, highly sensitive diagnostic devices.

Anyone interested in this exciting field can now study it in Bielefeld from the coming winter semester. Admission to the degree programme is restricted, so applications must be submitted by mid-July 2024 at the latest.

MSR, 24.06.24