- Docente: Gastone Castellani
- Credits: 4
- SSD: FIS/07
- Language: English
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
- Campus: Bologna
- Corso: Single cycle degree programme (LMCU) in Medicine and Surgery (cod. 9210)
Learning outcomes
Describe the physical phenomena most relevant to biological processes and fundamental to the understanding of diagnostic and medical treatment. Define the physical basis of medical procedures and devices used for the diagnosis and therapy of diseases.
Course contents
The Medical Physics course is focused on the teaching of the basic mathematical and physical notions that will be used during the subsequent courses.
The course is divided in two parts:
I-Physical basis
Physical quantities and dimensions
Mechanics, vectors and basic mathematics
Fluid Mechanics : Ideal and real fluids
Oscillations and waves
Heat and Thermodinamics with application to metabolism
Optics: Geometrical and Physical
Electricity and Magnetism
Modern Physics and radioactivity
II- Applications to Medicine with particular focus on the physiological and clinical application such as modern imaging techniques (NMR, PET, SPECT etc)
Radiations in medicine. Radiation-matter interaction, physical quantities in dosimetry. Biological effects and interaction with tissues. Biological effects of ionizing radiation and dose-effect curve for the induction of cancerogenesis.
Radiotherapy: conventional and conformational radiotherapy
Diagnostic: Physical principles of imaging diagnostic. Morfological and functional analysis.
Diagnostic by X rays, radioisotopes, ultrasounds and nuclear magnetic resonance.
Elements of health physics: Radioprotection and quality control in diagnostic radiology. Basic radioprotection legislation.
Readings/Bibliography
Lecture notes will be distributed
Physics in Biology and Medicine 4th Edition: Paul Davidovits
Teaching methods
Frontal lectures
Exercises
Attendance to this learning activity is mandatory; the minimum attendance requirement to be admitted to the final exam is 66% of lessons. For Integrated Courses (IC), the 66% attendance requirement refers to the total amount of I.C. lessons. Students who fail to meet the minimum attendance requirement will not be admitted to the final exam of the course, and will have to attend relevant classes again during the next academic year.
Professors may authorise excused absences upon receipt of proper justifying documentation, in case of illness or serious reasons. Excused absences do not count against a student’s attendance record to determine their minimum attendance requirement.
Assessment methods
Final exam (written)
Teaching tools
Frontal lectures with Slides
Links to further information
http://www.iop.org/education/teacher/resources/teaching-medical-physics/page_54690.html
Office hours
See the website of Gastone Castellani