What is Medical Photonics?
Understanding the cause of diseases, early diagnosis of diseases and a specific effective treatment, these are the goals modern medicine tries to achieve. Light plays a key role in turning this ambitious vision into reality. In biomedical research, modern optical and photonic techniques allow for monitoring and manipulating life processes in cells and tissues on a molecular level. But also in clinical practice optical and photonic techniques are well established in many fields of medicine, like in ophthalmology, endoscopy or biomedical imaging.
Education in Medical Photonics
Currently, courses offered at medical faculties, life-science faculties or natural science faculties provide only a limited training in the interdisciplinary field of Medical Photonics. Although many master courses in life science degree programmes include medical topics as master programmes in physics and chemistry cover optical and spectroscopic topics, only very few master programmes pursue an interdisciplinary approach focussing on research and development of optical / photonic technologies for medical diagnosis and therapy.
To meet this demand the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Chemistry and Earth Sciences, and the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy decided to fill this gap by establishing conjointly the Master's degree programme Medical Photonics. All three faculties are already cooperating successfully within the Center of Medical Optics and Photonics (CeMOP).
The Master's degree program Medical Photonics is targeted at students with a Bachelor of Science degree in physics, chemistry, biochemistry and biology, but also at medical doctors and students of medicine. It provides students of these disciplines with the necessary training in the neighbouring disciplines and offers a comprehensive cross-disciplinary study programme. Aim of the M.Sc. Medical Photonics programme is to provide all students with the necessary knowledge and practical skills to use and develop optical/phontonic tools for biomedical research and clinical applications.
Each year around 30 students will be accepted for this programme.