BMPS is the main professional body and scientific organization, founded in 2009. It is the voice of medical physicists practicing in Bangladesh. BMPS is charged with a mission to start medical physics practice in Bangladesh by disseminating scientific and technical information, fostering the educational and professional development of medical physics and promoting the highest quality medical services for patients.

BMPS has stated objectives to encourage the application of physics in medicine.

  • To promote medical physics education and training and related activities in Bangladesh;
  • To promote the advancement in status and standard of practice of the medical physics profession;
  • To organize and or sponsor national, regional and international conferences, meetings or courses;
  • To collaborate or affiliate with other scientific organizations by taking appropriate steps to carry out, support, and to encourage research and development as well as to establish medical Physics course curriculum for universities / institutions / medical college hospitals;
  • To promote the co-operation and the communication with other medical physics organizations outside the country;
  • To provide a forum for persons who are engaged or interested in the field of medical physics and to arrange scientific meetings and discussions;
  • To initiate measures to effectively disseminate worldwide information in this field to all members of the Society;
  • To promote the academic status of medical physics and its educational regulations in the medical institutions where medical physics work is carried out in Bangladesh and to encourage appropriate authorities to implement the suggestions laid down by the Society;
  • To provide rules and regulations for the development of Qualified Medical Physicists (QMP) through the Society Committee.

BMPS scientists whose clinical practice is dedicated to ensuring accuracy, safety and quality in the use of radiation in medical procedures such as medical imaging, radiation therapy and radiation protection. We are generally known as medical physicists and are uniquely positioned across medical specialties due to our responsibility to connect the physician to the patient through the use of radiation producing technology in both diagnosing and treating people. The responsibility of the medical physicist is to assure that the radiation prescribed in imaging and radiation therapy is delivered accurately and safely.

One of the primary goals is the identification and implementation of improvements in patient safety for the medical use of radiation in imaging and radiation therapy.

Medical physics is the application of physics to the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of human disease and disability. Medical Physics is a branch of physics that is associated with the practice of medicine. The different disciplines of medical physics are Therapeutic Radiological Physics, Diagnostic Imaging Physics, Medical Nuclear Physics, Medical Health Physics. In modern time there are many medical equipment come to our treatment sectors. This equipment need high quality control and precise treatment planning. Medical physics discuss about these techniques.

Personnel who has earned B.Sc., M.Sc. or a Ph.D. degree in medical physics known as medical physicist. The responsibilities of a medical physicist usually include clinical service and consultation, research and development, and teaching. In a survey (2002) done by AAPM it has been observed that the majority portion (76%) of Medical Physicist work in radiotherapy, 15% in imaging physics, 3% in nuclear medicine, 4% in health physics, 1% in engineering and 1% in administration. The primary responsibility of medical physicist is clinical (78%), Academic (8%), research (5%), administrative (3%), in regulatory (4%) and 2% in product development.

Therapeutic Radiological Physics deals with the therapeutic applications of x-ray, gamma ray, neutron, electron, and charged-particle beams, radiation from sealed radionuclide sources, the equipment associated with their production, use, measurement, and evaluation, the quality of images resulting from their production and use, medical health physics associated with this subfield.

Diagnostic Imaging Physics deals with the diagnostic applications of x-rays, gamma rays from sealed sources, ultrasonic radiation, and radio frequency radiation and magnetic fields, the equipment association with their production, use, measurement and evaluation. the quality of images resulting from their production and use, medical health physics associated with this subfield.

The safe use of x-ray, gamma ray, neutron, electron, and other charged particle beams or radionuclides in medicine (for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes). The instrumentation required to perform appropriate radiation surveys. The medical physicist often serves as radiation safety officer.

Comparing the scenario with other countries in Bangladesh in all disciplines of medical Physics people are working except in Radiation Oncology Physics, Diagnostic Imaging Physics. They are working mainly in the nuclear medicine departments associated with University hospitals. The Nuclear Medicine Centres of the country are under the direct control of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC). From the very inception of these centres, BAEC, with the help of IAEA fellowships, has developed a good pool of trained manpower in this field. But the situation of medical physics manpower in radiotherapy is completely different. In Bangladesh the medical physics in radiotherapy and x-ray diagnosis is poorly developed. Radiation Oncology Physicist, Diagnostic Imaging Physicist hold professional appointments in a clinical radiotherapy department of a hospital and diagnostic centres.

Cancer can be treated in three ways- surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Surgery is the art, practice or work of treating tumour by operative procedures. Chemotherapy is the treatment with drugs that kill cancer cells or make them less active. Out of these three techniques radiotherapy is the cheapest way and curative in early stage of cancer. Usually combined therapy is also useful in certain stages of cancer.

The main aim of radiotherapy (RT) is to deliver doses of radiation to eradicate a tumour, while nearby tissues or normal structures should be spared as far as possible. Usually, radiotherapy has been based on delivering of uniform radiation doses to all target volumes (Tumour). The uniform dose approach describes the best possible tumour control for the case in which all regions of the tumour have exactly the same biological characteristics and sensitivities to radiation. In radiotherapy technique a team comprises of radiation oncologist, medical physicist, radiotherapy technician, medical dosimetrist, work together for the treatment of cancer. In radiotherapy, the jobs of a medical physicist are shielding calculation, equipment commissioning, planning of patient procedure, calibration of radioactive source, management of special procedure, calibration and quality assurance, development of new devices and technique, radiation safety and regulatory compliance.

The population of Bangladesh is estimated about 160 million living on an area of 143998 km2, the number of cancer patients equals 2000 out of 1,000,000 inhabitants per year. According to WHO, countries like Bangladesh with such a number of cancer cases need 2 teletherapy machines (e.g. a Linear Accelerator Linac per 1 million people).

For 160 million Bangladeshi we need approx. 320 megavoltage teletherapy machines. Bangladesh needs 160 radiotherapy facilities to cover an optimal standard of radiotherapy treatment. This means minimum 500 qualified medical physicists are required in future to satisfy the demand in radiotherapy and more if we are considering the need in diagnostic radiology departments.

In Bangladesh there are presently 20 radiotherapy centres with with 18 linear accelerators and 17 Brachytherapy units and 13 Co-60 teletherapy machines. A good number (16) of Medical physicists having MSc degree in this subject are recently working in these hospitals. It is a very regretful matter that the most meritorious students of Bangladesh do not know of this updated and applied subject under physics due to lack of information and opportunity. In home and abroad there are great opportunities for students having M.Sc. degree in Medical Physics. At this moment only Gono Bishwabidyalay offering this subject (Honours and Masters course).

The numbers of the cancer patients are growing everyday worldwide as well as in Bangladesh. The complexity in the radiation therapy treatment of this disease requires more qualified medical physicists. So for better future for the cancer treatment in Bangladesh we have to give more emphasis in this subject as soon as possible. We hope the number of medical physicists will increase in the near future and also the professional level of competence will increase rapidly after 2-3 years.