By Tami Freeman

Imaging plays a major role in a vast range of medical applications – from scanning patients for signs of disease, to guiding radiation treatments, to studying small animals in the quest to develop new drugs. And, as you’ll read in this latest Physics World focus issue, it is even being used to investigate how neural networks develop in babies’ brains before and just after birth.

Created in collaboration with our sister website medicalphysicsweb.org, the new focus issue on medical imaging can be accessed free of charge in digital-magazine format.

Here’s a quick guide to what you can find in the focus issue on medical imaging:

• What goes on in babies’ brains? – How the latest magnetic-resonance-imaging techniques are being used to map brain connections in babies
• Nuclear-medicine techniques address small-animal imaging – Advances in high-performance molecular imaging
• OCT lines up for dermatology – Why the future is bright for optical coherence tomography in dermatology
• MRI enhances radiation treatment – Four research teams are working to create radiotherapy systems guided by magnetic resonance imaging
• Luminescence tracks oxygenation – Radiometric luminescence imaging could provide non-invasive monitoring of oxygen levels in tissues

There’s also a selection of research and industry news, as well as video interviews with some of the leading experts in the field.

Full members of the Institute of Physics will receive a print copy of the focus issue with their December issue of Physics World. But if you’re not a member or just want to access the issue now, then simply read it online.

I hope you find this focus issue stimulating and please do let us have your comments by e-mailing pwld@iop.org or leaving your remarks below.

Enjoy the issue!