Introduction To Clinical Medical Physics Practice. 1-9 Credit Hours

Catalog description

This course allows students to observe professional medical physicists in a clinical setting and learn the roles of various other medical professionals in the Radiology and Radiation Oncology medical clinic. Students participate in simple tasks related to medical physics data and are shown how to evaluate data to provide reports and tables. Students are also trained in basic safety and ethical issues in clinical medicine and the professional conduct of the medical physicist, following the guidelines established in AAPM Report 109. This material is intended to cover ethical issues in clinical medicine and in the professional conduct of the medical physicist .The term ethics is used here in the sense of a permissible standard of conduct for members of profession. While different people may have different opinions of what is ethical professions always have certain ethical standards or codes of conduct that are compiled in written form and are generally by practitioners. In addition to becoming familiar with written codes of conduct, the student shall be introduced to commonly encountered situations in which a choice of actions is available, some of which would be considered unethical and some of which be considered ethical, according to current standards of care of practice. These would include more specific issues that arise with respect to recent patient privacy concerns and legislation specific to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and compliance both in clinical practice and research. A case-based approach in a seminar setting with class participation is utilized. This allows the student to put him or herself in the place of an individual who faces an ethical dilemma and to explore variations of the case that is presented. Other faculty members are also encouraged to attend, to offer comments, and to relate situations that they encountered either first- or secondhand.