BIOIMG101x

INTRODUCTION TO BIOMEDICAL IMAGING

Course Syllabus
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Table of Contents
Contents
1.0 What is this Biomedical Imaging course about?

2.0 Who is the audience for this course?

3.0 What are the expected learning outcomes?

4.0 What is the learning pathway for the course?

5.0 How is the course content organised?

6.0 Approximately how long will it take to complete the course?

7.0 How do I navigate through the course?

1.0 What is this Biomedical Imaging course about?

Imaging technologies form a significant component of the health budgets of all developed
economies, and most people need advanced imaging at some stage during their life. All of us
are aware of the misinformation sometimes portrayed in TV dramas, which either exaggerates
the benefits or overemphasises the risks. This course will provide an introduction to the physics
and engineering of modern imaging modalities. It will introduce some of the key applications in
neurological disease, degenerative disease, reproduction and oncology. The course will include
modules that will be of interest to the general public, whilst also providing some advanced
modules which will contribute to professional development in health, engineering and the IT
industry.

2.0 Who is the audience for this course?

This course is designed with two audiences in mind.

1. The basic course: It is anticipated that this audience will have completed secondary
schooling (and particularly science subjects) as some biology, physics and chemistry
concepts are involved.

2. The advanced course: First tertiary year of applied mathematics or computer science
specialising in modelling is recommended. Health professionals wishing to update their
knowledge concerning medical imaging post-processing may wish to take this course as
part of their continuing professional development program.

3.0 What are the expected learning outcomes?

On completion of the basic course, you should:
Recognise that there is a need for different imaging modalities
Understand the basic principles of each modality
Understand the terminology of biomedical imaging
Understand the patient experience and why things happen during the imaging
procedure
Select the most suitable modality for a given clinical case
Provide basic advice on imaging modalities to your peers

Additionally, the advanced course will ensure that you have a:
Basic understanding how an image is reconstructed / visualised. OR
You understand the principles of image post-processing

4.0 What is the learning pathway for the course?

The following diagram shows how the course is designed. It is recommended that if you are
doing the basic course then you work through the introduction, the basic modules (coloured
blue) and then complete the case studies in the final module.

If you intend to do the advanced course, you are welcome to complete the basic course and
then complete the advanced sections (coloured orange). Alternatively, you can complete just
the assessment pieces from the basic course to test your understanding of the topics, and then
complete the related advanced modules.

Courseware

Case studies 1 week

MRI- 2 weeks

PET & SPECT - 2 weeks

Advanced PET & SPECT

Ultrasound - 2 weeks

X-ray - 1.5 week

Advanced X-ray

Advanced Ultrasound

CT - 1 week

Year 15

Advanced CT

Introduction - 0.5 week

Year 13

Advanced MRI

Prerequisites

5.0 How is the course content organised?

This course incorporates a Case Study which is introduced at the start of each section (an
outline of the sections and sub-sections is shown in the table below). This case study follows a
hypothetical patient required to undergo various imaging modalities for a medical condition.
Following the case study, each section has information relevant to that modality divided into
sub-section topics such as basic scientific principles, hardware and technology and clinical
applications. These early sub-sections form the basic course. Each sub-section has one or
several short quiz/zes. These quizzes do not contribute to your final grade, but let you know if
you have understood the key points. The final sub-section for each section of the basic course is
a marked quiz on that topic.
The advanced sub-section is then presented just after the assessment item, for each section.
Finally, a discussion forum has been integrated at the end of each section.
This table provides a summary of the course sections and sub-sections.

Week Section
1.

1 and 2

3.

Sub-sections

Introduction to
biomedical imaging

Welcome to the course

Survey
How to use this course
Myth busting
Can you guess what is imaged?
The need of Multimodality
Case study Meet our unlucky patient
Introductory Discussion

Episode 1: X-rays
Case study
Basic scientific principles
Technology
Contrast
Clinical applications
Assessment 1 (18%)
Advanced:
Advanced course - x-rays
Discussion
Episode 2: Computerised
Case study
Tomography (CT)
Basic scientific principles
Technology
Contrast
Clinical applications
5

4 and 5

Episode 3: Ultrasound
(U/S)

6 and 7

Episode 4: Magnetic
Resonance Imaging
(MRI)

8 and 9

Episode 5: PET and

SPECT

10.

Assessment Scenarios
(2)

Assessment 2 (18%)
Advanced:
Advanced course CT
Discussion
Case study
Basic scientific principles
Technology
Clinical applications
Assessment 3 (18%)
Advanced:
Advanced course U/S
Discussion
Case study
Basic principles Nuclear Spin
Basic principles the MR Signal
Basic principles Relaxation
Basic principles Spatial encoding
Basic principles Contrast
MR Technology
Clinical applications
Assessment 4 (18%)
Advanced:
Advanced course MRI
Discussion

Basic:
Case study
Basic principles
SPECT
PET
Quality control
Assessment 5 (18%)
Advanced:
Advanced course CT
Discussion
Final assessment (10%)

Note! To complete the basic course you must also complete the final section (Week 10
Assessment Scenarios) which involves reviewing 2 case studies/scenarios and answering
questions related to imaging modalities of relevance.

6.0 Approximately how long will it take to complete the course?

As you can see from the table, some of the topics run across more than 1 week. For the basic
course, one week of work involves approximately 2 -3 hours of work. Therefore, for the
ultrasound topic, for example, you will need to allow 4 6 hours to complete.
If you are doing the advanced course, estimates for how long this will take will depend on
whether or not you also complete the basic course content.

7.0 How do I navigate through the course?

When you first go to the course you will land in Course Info area, where you will see
announcements, course updates etc. This area also contains links to the syllabus (this
document) and general information about doing edX courses. There are several other tabs
across the top of the page:
Progress: This tab shows your progress and grades for all completed sections of the course.
Courseware: This area holds the course content videos, lectures, assessments etc. You should
generally work through the course in the order in which it is presented. The sections are listed
in the left-hand navigation bar and when you click on one of these then the sub-sections will be
displayed as shown here for the x-ray section.
Once you
click into a
sub-section
then each
of these will
consist of a
varying
number of
units
(between 1
and 10).
These are
displayed in
the
horizontal
bar across
the top of
the screen.
7

Tip! It can be easy to miss some of the content if your previous experience of learning
platforms uses navigation from the sidebar. In the edX environment you need to navigate using
both the left side bar and the bar at the top of the page.
There is a video tutorial demonstrating how to use the edX platform in the section called
Introduction to Biomedical Imaging. If you need additional help, the edX Demo course goes into
more depth on how to use the platform.

8.0 What are the assessment and completion requirements for this
course?
Basic course:
Please note that only the basic course is evaluated, as follows
-
-

5 quizzes (one for each episode) worth 18% each.

2 assessment scenarios at the end of the course (in week 10) worth 5% each.

The pass mark is 50%. In order to receive a certificate, all assignments have to be completed
within 2 weeks of the end of the course. The due-by-dates are displayed under the
Assessment sub-section titles on the left navigation pane.