Photomedicine is an interdisciplinary branch of medicine that involves the study and application of light with respect to health and disease. Photomedicine may be related to the practice of various fields of medicine including dermatology, surgery, dentistry, optical diagnostics, cardiology, and oncology.

Examples

• PUVA for the treatment of psoriasis
• Photodynamic therapy (PDT) for treatment of cancer and macular degeneration
• Free electron laser
• Laser hair removal
• Optical diagnostics, e.g. Optical Coherence Tomography using infrared light of coronary plaques
• Confocal microscopy and fluorescence microscopy of in vivo tissue
• Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy for in vivo quantification of pigments (normal and cancerous), and hemoglobin
• Perpendicular-polarized flash and fluorescence photography of the skin

See also

• laser hair removal
• Rox Anderson

External links

• The Photomedicine Society
• Photomedicine and Laser Surgery journal
• Photodermatology, Photoimmunology, and Photomedicine

Miscellaneous

• Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital MGH and Harvard Medical School
• Article: Role of Photomedicine in Gynecological Ontology

Applied and interdisciplinary physics