TEACHING MEDICAL PHYSICS TO GENERAL AUDIENCES

By judiciously selecting topics and reading materials, one can teach a full semester course on medical physics appropriate for college stude nts not majoring in the natural sciences. This interdisciplinary field offers an opportunity to teach a great deal of basic physics at the f reshman level in the context of explaining modern medical technologies such as ultrasound imaging, laser surgery, and positron emission tomo graphy. This article describes one such course which combines lectures , outside visitors, varied readings, and laboratories to convey a sele ct subset of physical principles and quantitative problem-solving skil ls. These resources are also valuable for enriching the standard fresh man physics sequence for premedical students.