IF you are a fresh graduate thinking of taking up medical physics, what better than to ask the ‘sifu’ himself.
Professor Dr Ng Kwan Hoong, the only academic don from Asia to win the prestigious Marie Sklodowska-Curie Award from the United Kingdom-based International organisation for Medical Physics, has 30 years of experience in the field and is going strong.
Back then, there was no medical physics programme in Malaysia and he only had his master’s degree, which he completed at the University of Aberdeen in 1980.
In 1995, while working as a science officer in University of Malaya (UM), he earned his PhD by studying the biophysical properties of breast lesions.
In 1998, he established UM’s Master in Medical Physics programme, which was accredited by the UK’s Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM). It is still offered to this day.
So what is medical physics? As described by its words, it is the application of physics to diagnose and treat diseases, and ensure safety in public health.
It is mostly a study of radiation and how it affects biological life forms.
“There are two frontiers in medical physics, with the main one being research in radiology, radiotherapy and nuclear medicine. The other is industrial, such as the development of scientific and medical devices,” said Ng.
In the latter, he cites the work of his mentor, Professor Dr John Cameron, who pioneered the invention of the bone densitometer in the 1960s.
“The expertise of medical physicists is in dosimetry — the science of measuring radiation—such as determining the right amount of gamma rays to treat brain cancer, ultraviolet light to treat jaundiced babies and laser energy to perform LASIK surgery.
“We also find ways to safely reduce radiation exposure in X-ray, computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Therefore, our work is mainly on radiation protection in medicine and public health.
“In medicine, one size doesn’t fit all. Patients have different responses to different treatments.
“Medical physics is moving towards a personalised level, such as radiogenomics and imaging phenotype, where treatment is catered to a person’s genes.
“In this respect, artificial intelligence is being studied to improve treatment outcome for specific patients with less side effects,” he said on the future direction of the field.
Ng said medical physics is not a multidisciplinary subject, but a transdisciplinary one, where students must have wide knowledge, such as pathology, physics, genetics, and a little bit of information technology and engineering.
He said for medical physicists to remain relevant, they must work alongside clinicians. They have to learn and take advantage of opportunities in the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.
The master’s programme he established, which has been running for 20 years, is one of two offered in Malaysia (the other is by Universiti Sains Malaysia) and the only one recognised by a British institute outside the UK.
It is a one-year course that he hopes to expand because “there are so many things to teach and learn”.
The first semester comprises the learning of broad-based subjects, like basic radiation, anatomy, physiology, computing and biostatistics. In the second semester, lessons will focus on core applications, which are radiology, radiotherapy and nuclear medicine.
With IPEM accreditation, the course is as good as those conducted in UK varsities and even trains foreign students from Singapore.
He said challenges in pursuing a postgraduate degree would always be there, citing the time he had to wait outside a hospital mortuary to collect heart samples of accident victims for his master’s research.
“People tend to overlook physics because it is an abstract subject, where the concepts are hard to visualise, leading to fear and apprehension.
“But the applications are everywhere. For example, we are exposed every day to radiation from our handphone networks, and the safety of that exposure becomes pertinent as phone technology evolves to become more powerful.”
In a lighter vein, he said it was medical physicists who win nobel Prizes for their inventions, while doctors made all the money in treating patients.
Today, as a retired academic, he focuses his work on public relations, advising government panels on health issues involving radiation exposure, such as the operation of the Lynas plant in Gebeng, Pahang, and future establishment of the 5G network.
So, what does it take to be passionate in medical physics?
For Ng, it is driven by his quest for better healthcare. Like establishing the UM Masters programme, the field needs a lot of hard work and investment to grow and bear fruit.
The stakeholders, including scientists and policymakers, should not look at their roles as a nine-to-five job, but to promote the practical aspects of the field.
To him, medical physics have no meaning if the professors do not practise what they profess.
Therefore, he strongly encourages them to go for professional accreditation, just like accountants, doctors, lawyers and engineers.
One such example, which he himself undertook early in his career, is the certification by the American Board of Medical Physics.
Like ACCA, FRCR and all the fancy abbreviations you put behind your name, it reflects the field’s relevancy and importance in our everyday lives.
Besides professional certification, building a solid peer network is another important aspect because, in a globalised world, medical physicists cannot work in silos.
Ng said he was fortunate to have a good mentor in Dr Cameron, who introduced him to many experts. Today, he has built a network spanning from Thailand to Brazil.
With his peers in Australia and the United States, he started an international mentoring initiative with 15 mentees.
“All it requires is goodwill to connect with people of the same passion,” he said.
In conclusion, he shared some words of encouragement that he came across in the Cup noodles Museum in Japan.
It goes like this: “Tenacity is the breeding ground for inspiration. you should develop the habit of thinking up new ideas day and night. Think, think and think again. Always look around you with a great deal of curiosity. Only a layman can come up with an idea that transcends the bounds of common sense.”