Interesting question and I am sure you could receive a variety of answers.
My perspective based on discussions I had with a consultant MD is a difference in focus. Where the medical doctor is driven by the balancing of risk to the patient, the scientists approach maybe to discuss mechanisms and wanting to understand the physics behind the process of a treatment or a symptom.
Something that resonated when we were actually discussing my son, is that sometimes extensive testing might eventually tell us something, but in the end medical testing could cause harm or distress, which the doctor would ultimately be responsible for. By contrast, known correlation between condition A and B means that by treating A we can avoid the risk of B and potentially avoid both without needing to worry about understanding why.
1. biophysics is the study of biological processes and materials through the theories and tools of physics; the application of physical methods to analyze biologic problems and processes.
2. The study of physical processes (for example, electricity, luminescence) occurring in organisms.
You can't compare noun and adjective.
Definitions from Oxford languages:
medical
Biophysics refers to interdisciplinary science, which employs various methods and techniques of physics, to investigate different biological phenomena. In biophysics, numerous physical quantities such as temperature, pressure, stress and field intensity, optical and electrical properties of biological cells can be studied.
Medical is related to the practice of medicine, which is used to diagnosis, treatment and prevention of various diseases.
I believe that biophysics is the application of physics in the biological fields and is outside the biological body. As for medical physics, it is the application of physics in the diagnostic and therapeutic medical fields
Both biophysics and medical physics apply the principles of physics to molecular biology as it relates to medicine. While much of what is learned through a biophysics program can be applied to a medical physics program, these two areas of study are very different and require candidates to possess varying skillsets. The main difference between biophysics and medical physics is that biophysics deals with understanding the structure, dynamics, interactions, and function of biological systems, while medical physics uses this understanding to make significant discoveries in medicine.
Medical Physics is geared towards the use of the concepts of Physics in the diagnosis, treatment/management of human diseases such as cancer, nerve damage etc.
Biophysics deals solely with combining Physics concepts with biology to the study of biological cells. For example, studying the electrical signalling
in neurons and bacteria.
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