Dr. Donald E. Simanek wrote: But what about those who supposedly *need*
science in their profesions. Like doctors. What should we expect of them?
What should they learn of
physics? I urge everyone to read Peter K. Schoch's letter in the March
1998 Physics today, exposing the almost total lack of understanding of
physics exhibited in a textbook for medical students. If doctors really
*needed* physics, they surely aren't getting it from such books (and most
are that bad, in my experience). I heard a talk by a physicist who sat in
on courses doctors take at a large university, and was appalled by the
almost total misunderstanding of physics of the texts and the professors.
I've experienced talks by faculty of medical schools showing the same
thing. I'm convinced that if your life depended on your doctor's correct
knowledge of physics, you might as well say your prayers--it would do as
much good. Fortunately in most cases your doctor doesn't *need* to know
physics, except for a very few specialists in certain fields. Perhaps
doctors would be *better* if they knew physics well, but that's hard to
test.
My comment: Don is basically correct. It may be of interest to
relate my experience. I taught pre-med physics at the U of Wis-Madison in
the early 60s. My major appointment was in Radiology. All entering medical
students were required to have a year of undergraduate physics. Since the
grade in the physics course played a role in getting into medical school, I
found that cheating was more common in my pre-med physics class than in
other physics courses I taught. I became convinced that most medical
students would become aware of their need for a better understanding of
physics after they studied medicine. I sent a survey to all 400 medical
students and received returns from over half. The results were not very
complimentary to physics as a required course to medical school. Some
pointed out that it was rare for their medical school professors to apply
physics principles (which is just as well as they would likely have it
wrong!)
In answer to my question about "did you see a need for learning
more physics?" Only one student answered yes. Many years later I learned
that it was a medical student who who worked for me part time! I suspect
he was being kind.
It was in the early 70s I decided that it would be useful to have a
course "Introduction to Medical Physics." A text for such a course resulted
from the Medical Physics Workshop that we had at UW in the mid 70s. The
text Medical Physics was published by Wiley Bros. It has been long out of
print. The chapters dealing with physics of physiology were published as
"Physics of the Body" by Medical Physics Publishing (MPP) of Madison, Wis.
My efforts to convince knowledgeable authors to do an uptodate revision of
the chapters on medical instrumentation were unsuccessful. An attempt is
underway this year to produce such an updated text. The lecturers for our
Workshop onMedical instrumentation (see http://www.medphysics.wisc.edu/workshop98) will write chapters for a book
on the same subject to be published by MPP.( http://medicalphysics.org or
mpp@medicalphysics.org.) MPP is a nonprofit tax-exempt publisher I founded
in 1985 to publish text books for the field of medical physics at
reasonable prices.
I suggest that physics teachers who wish to make their course more
interesting to biological scientists would find some useful examples in
Physics of the Body. If you want a more interesting book about physics and
the body see How the Body Works by John Lenihan a distinguished medical
physicist in Glasgow, Scotland. (Also published by MPP in 1995)
There is a lot of interesting physics of the body. The physics of
getting the blood from the feet back to the heart is not trivial. How many
mention the wattage of the body when teaching about power. It strikes me
as more interesting than most more conventional areas of physics.
The only area I feel strongly about teaching in a physics course is
the physics of x-rays and radioactivity as it applies to medical uses. If
any of you want to receive an e-mail copy of my article EXPLAINING
RADIATION TO PATIENTS send a request to jrcamero@facstaff.wisc.edu. Best
wishes, John
John R. Cameron, winter home: 2678 SW 14th Dr., Gainesville, FL 32608
phones : 352/371-9865; Fax 352/371-9866 About May 15, 1998 we go to our
summer home: 2571 Porter Rd., P.O. Box 405, Lone Rock, WI 53556-0405
Phones: 608/583-2160; Fax: 608/583-2269 e-mail all year:
jrcamero@facstaff.wisc.edu