In addition to core courses in physics, anatomy, and physiology, students interested in Biomedical physics at Franklin study the following courses and conduct related research.
Ultrasound Technology: Ultrasound is integrated in the health profession and medical education curriculum these days because of its expanding clinical utility. Not just in human medicine, ultrasound has become a major diagnostic tool in veterinary practice as well. Ultrasound also finds its common use in exercise and sports science both diagnostically and therapeutically. Therefore, this course will be very useful for students who plan to pursue a career as physicians, surgeons, chiropractors, optometrists, physician assistants, physiotherapists, sonographers, cardiovascular technologists, veterinarians, or sports and exercise trainers.
Radiation and Health: This course will provide students with an introduction to the principles of radioactivity and its applications in medical diagnosis. A study of basic physics and chemistry as it applies to radiation and the human body (radiobiology) is followed by an overview of major topics in the field of medical physics: x-rays and their uses in medical imaging, physics of nuclear medicine imaging, ultrasound imaging, magnetic resonance imaging, and radiation therapy for cancer. The course will also include a summary of basic principles for measuring radiation exposure, and different methods of monitoring and protecting against chronic exposure to radiation.
Biomedical Optics: This course will be broadly divided into three categories: geometrical, physical, and visual optics that are pertinent to human-eye-related biomedical and clinical applications. It will begin with the discussion of foundations of geometrical optics describing the behavior of light as rays during reflection, refraction, and dispersion, as well as analyzing optical images, designs and systems and the associated aberrations. The physical-optics aspect of this course introduces the wave model of light propagation and applies it in describing various phenomena like refraction and reflection, dispersion, interference, polarization, and diffraction. This will be followed by a concise deliberation of a few topics related to quantum nature of light and quantum optics. The final part of the course will address optics of human eye emphasizing the propagation and interactions of light in biological tissues and physiology of a visual system.
