The Bachelor's degree in Medical Physics is a new course offered in partnership by Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo (FMUSP) and Instituto de Física da USP (IFUSP), with classes taught at both institutions. USP, which already offered the course on Ribeirão Preto campus, had, in this academic year of 2022, the entry of its first undergraduate students of the modality in the capital, 25 in all.

To reinforce this new situation, a meeting was held in the FMUSP Congregation Room, on May 10th, 2022, between Professors and Directors representing the two institutions. In addition to discussing the course of undergraduation and the challenges involved in training a new professional, those present presented proposals for strengthening the partnership between Medicine and Physics.

Prof. Manfredo Harri Tabacniks, Director of IFUSP, began his speeches saying he was happy to witness a new professional career gaining prominence, in addition to demonstrating confidence in the University of São Paulo's ability to produce new specialists in the area. “I hope that Medical Physics at FMUSP will distribute professionals throughout the country and Latin America,” he said.

Professor Roger Chammas, Vice-Director of FMUSP, celebrated the new scenario brought by students with an interest in applied technology in the health area, which has the potential to "reinvent" the area. “For this, it is essential to train professionals with a physics perspective, but with the experience of Hospital das Clínicas (HC) and FMUSP”, he said, in addition to highlighting the area of Radiology, its specialization, as an important beneficiary of this expanding field. 

The idea of a partnership between FMUSP and the Physics IFUSP had its genesis more than a decade ago, as recalled by Prof. Elisabeth Mateus Yoshimura, Head of the Department of Nuclear Physics at IFUSP. “But, at this moment, it is necessary to look to the future and to the new students”, he pointed out, in addition to thanking everyone present for the work involved in the curricular and bureaucratic organization of the new course, concluding with the desire to make Medical Physics at USP the “best in Brazil”.

Stressing the support that the FMUSP can offer, Prof. Milton de Arruda Martins, President of the FMUSP Undergraduate Committee, made available to Professors and students of the new course the entire structure available to the Faculty, in addition to emphasizing the desire for complete integration between all Medicine classes.

The same sentiment was echoed by Prof. Tarcisio Eloy Pessoa de Barros Filho, Director of FMUSP, who, finally, chose to remember students in situations of vulnerability, emphasizing that they can have access to the various support programs offered by the Institution. He concluded by celebrating the “generation of new interfaces” that the junction between physics and medicine can provide.