Medical Physics Program - Course Descriptions
Course Descriptions
MPHS 502 (/PHYS 284). Medical Imaging Technology. 3 crs. The major state of the art imaging modalities utilized in the clinic such as x-ray, CT, magnetic resonance, ultrasound, PET/SPECT, MRI and nuclear medicine imaging will be reviewed in terms of physical principles, operation and performance parameters. Prerequisites: Consent of the instructor.
PHYS 285. Computational Physics. 3 crs. This course introduces methods and techniques that are used to solve physical problems with computers and simulations via contemporary computer programming languages. Prerequisites: Consent of the instructor.
MPHS 501 (/PHYS 286). Radiological Physics & Dosimetry. 3 crs. This class is designed to construct a theoretical foundation for ionizing radiation dose calculations and measurements in a medical physics context and prepares graduate students for proper scientific presentations of in the field of x-ray imaging and radiation medicine. Prerequisites: Consent of the instructor.
MPHS 511 (/PHYS 287). Radiation Therapy Physics. 4 crs. Building on the concepts of radiation interaction and dosimetry techniques and bring them into clinical realm of patient therapy. The students will learn clinical applications of radiation dose computation, and measurements as used in radiation therapy of various diseases including cancer. Ionizing radiation producing devices such as external beam photon therapy, electron beam therapy, brachytherapy, imaging modalities, simulation, treatment planning, radiation delivery, treatment verification and quality assurance will be the focus of this course. Prerequisites: MPHS 501 or PHYS 286 and Consent of the instructor.
MPHS 517 (/PHYS 290). Clinical Medical Physics Laboratory. 2 crs. The goal of this course is to use laboratory activity, and/or special lectures to reinforce and enhance theoretical topics learned in various medical physics courses. The students will have firsthand appreciation of physics in action by participating in procedures and activities for clinical imaging and radiation therapy treatment. The topics will broadly include absolute dosimetry, relative dose measurements, patient quality assurance, imaging quality assurance, radiation beam modeling, treatment planning, proton therapy, brachytherapy, stereotactic radiotherapy, and adaptive radiation therapy. Prerequisites: MPHS 501 or PHYS 286 and Consent of instructor.
MPHS 505 (/PHYS 279). Ethics and Professional Issues in Academia and Clinical Practice. 1 cr. This class is designed to keep the learners abreast of professional and ethical challenges in medicine, medical physics, biomedical engineering, and applied radiation sciences. The topics include ethics, professionalism, physicist-physician communications, patient interactions, conflict of interest, confidentiality, plagiarism, negotiation, relationships with vendors, and career planning. Prerequisites: Consent of instructor.
MPHS 503 (/PHYS 292). Health Physics and Radiation Safety. 3 crs. This course will provide students with an understanding of radiation health physics in the areas of radiation protection, shielding, regulatory guidelines, and dosimetry. It is designed to provide the students with a general background in health physics and radiation protection for individual and population groups against the harmful effects of ionizing. Prerequisites: Consent of instructor.
MPHS 601 (/PHYS 293). Radiation Biology. 3 crs. This course is intended to lay the groundwork for understanding how ionizing radiation interacts with biological tissues. It will go over basic cell biology topics, how ionizing radiation interact with cell, radiation damage formation and cancer induction, radiation therapy fractionation schedule, and other relevant topics such as radiation toxicity, mutagenicity, and carcinogenesis. Prerequisites: MPHS 501 or PHYS 286 and Consent of instructor.
MPHS 500 (/PHYS 299). Graduate Research. 6 crs. The students will conduct research on current clinical issues of interest in medical physics throughout the MS program. The topics may include diagnostic and therapeutic aspects of a radiation medicine clinic at either fundamental or translational level. The student will submit a final thesis summarizing their research followed by an oral examination on the topic of their research. Prerequisite: none
MPHS 504 (/PHYS 278). Current Topics in Medical Physics. 1 cr. This class is designed to keep the learners abreast of recent innovations in medical physics, biomedical engineering and applied radiation sciences. The students will choose an active area of clinical interest from medical physics and develop an understanding of the topics through systematic medical physics related literature search, and electronic resources to synthesize and prepare a presentation and complete a final report. Prerequisite: none
MPHS 602 (/PHYS 279). Technical Documents Review. 1 cr. This course will evaluate both the communication skills and the knowledge of the learners in a classroom format. The students are expected to cover current task group reports on various topics from the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, IAEA technical documents, ICRU reports, and Estro booklets. Prerequisite: MPHS 504 or PHYS 278
BIOL-430. Biostatics. 4 crs. Provides an understanding of the basic methods and underlying concepts of statistics that are used in public health decision-making. Among topics explored are descriptive statistics, probability, sampling, hypothesis testing and non-parametric statistics.
PHSC-317. Structures & Functions in Therapeutics. 2 crs. This course is designed to provide the student with the fundamental knowledge of the general structure and function of the human body. A short introduction to basic cell structure, tissues, human development and physiological control mechanisms & membrane transport is given at the beginning of the course to help the student acquire a better understanding of human anatomy and physiology. Instruction using the systemic approach has been adopted for this course. This method provides a better correlation among the tissues and organs and their functions of a particular system and between the systems themselves. A systemic approach also promotes the understanding of structure and function of the human body. The lectures are designed to give the student fundamental and essential knowledge of the human body’s various organ systems. Slide projections, power point presentations, computer simulations and lecture outlines are used as teaching aids in this course. Work in the laboratory provides students with the opportunity to study prosecuted cadaver materials, anatomical models, and physiological applications. Students are further guided by printed laboratory organization and objectives.
MPHS 605 Special Topics in Medical Physics 1. 3 crs. This course will offer review of current topics and themes interest in medical physics. These novel topics would build on the concepts and curriculum presented in the core medical physics program. The instructor-led course will encompass established pathways and patterns of research in biomedical sciences, radiopharmaceutical therapy, advanced in vivo dosimetry, quantitative imaging, nanoparticle therapy, radiological engineering, applications of robotics and artificial intelligence in medicine. Prerequisite: MPHS 501 or 502
MPHS 606 Special Topics in Medical Physics 2. 3 crs. This course will offer review of current topics and themes interest in medical physics. These novel topics would build on the concepts and curriculum presented in the core medical physics program. The instructor-led course will encompass established pathways and patterns of research in biomedical sciences, radiopharmaceutical therapy, advanced in vivo dosimetry, quantitative imaging, nanoparticle therapy, radiological engineering, applications of robotics and artificial intelligence in medicine. Prerequisite: MPHS 501 or 502
MPHS 607 Special Topics in Medical Physics 3. 3 crs. This course will offer review of current topics and themes interest in medical physics. These novel topics would build on the concepts and curriculum presented in the core medical physics program. The instructor-led course will encompass established pathways and patterns of research in biomedical sciences, radiopharmaceutical therapy, advanced in vivo dosimetry, quantitative imaging, nanoparticle therapy, radiological engineering, applications of robotics and artificial intelligence in medicine. Prerequisite: MPHS 501 or 502