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Medical physics

The medical physics department, based on The James Cook University Hospital site, provides a range of front line patient services, as well as behind the scenes scientific support to a variety of other clinical services.

The aim of the medical physics department is to improve patient outcomes through the application of physics and engineering to medicine. This work is performed by an enthusiastic team of medical physicists, clinical technologists and assistant staff.

Medical physicists are health care and professions council (HCPC) registered clinical scientists and our clinical technologists are registered with the register of clinical technologists

The department includes four sections:

  • Radiotherapy physics
    The application of physics and engineering to radiotherapy cancer treatment
  • Nuclear medicine
    The application of physics using radioisotopes to assess physiological function and treat cancers
  • Clinical measurement
    The application of physics and engineering to assess physiological function
  • Medical photography
    The recording of clinical conditions presented by patients

Support for the trust’s diagnostic radiology services is provided by an external contract with the regional medical physics department based in Newcastle.

Head of department: Orla Hayman
Email: [email protected] 
Tel: 01642 282845

What we do

The staff in the department perform a variety of tasks, such as:

  • scientific and technical support covering all aspects of radiotherapy treatment planning, treatment delivery and imaging;
  • design and construction of devices for use within the trust;
  • administration of therapeutic radioisotopes;
  • provision of patient monitoring and advice to surgeons in theatre;
  • radioisotope imaging; and
  • repair, commissioning, calibration and quality assurance of linear accelerators and other equipment.

The department contributes to the regional training in all its specialties as part of the practitioner training programme (PTP), the scientist training programme (STP) and the higher specialist scientific training scheme (HSST).  

We also provide training of clinical scientists under the Association of Clinical Scientists’ route 2 scheme. Furthermore, we host a number of work experience placements every year within the department.

In addition, we have a strong track record for research, development and innovation, recognising as we do the important contribution that workforce diversity and inclusion makes to innovation.

We are heavily involved in clinical trials and staff regularly present work at conferences and in peer reviewed journals.

We have a members of staff who are actively involved with innovation in the trust providing assistance to other departments in bringing their ideas to fruition by working closely with Health Innovation North East and North Cumbria and other academic, national health service and private organisations within the region.