STUDY GUIDES

BASIC RADIOLOGICAL PHYSICS COURSE

Textbook: Foundation of Radiological Physics - Author: C.B. Saw

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            My teaching of basic radiological physics starts with an introduction to radiation in Chapter 1.  This chapter is intended to remind the students that they are studying in a radiation environment.  A session on mathematics to explain exponential decay follows Chapter 1.  At this time, the students should have met with the radiation safety officer of their institution to discuss radiation effects, compliance with regulatory requirements, practice in a radiation environment, and radiation emergency in a hospital.  These meetings with the radiation safety officer are important since each hospital must meet its own regulatory requirements, in addition to those required by state and federal governments.  Any unintended use of radiation can cause serious injuries to the patients, staff personnel, and the students themselves.  To emphasize the need to practice safe use of radiation, Chapters 13 and 14, which deal with health physics, are taught immediately following Chapter 1.  After that, Chapters 6 to 10 are taught for the basic understanding of the atomic and nuclear models.  Lastly, the interaction of radiation with matter is discussed in Chapter 11.  After completing Chapter 11, the students should be ready to proceed with specialized courses in radiation oncology, nuclear medicine or diagnostic radiology.  The textbook, Therapeutic Radiological Physics is written as an advanced textbook to follow this Foundation of Radiological Physics textbook for the radiation oncology track.