Visit Report on the Queen Elizabeth Hospital

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Visit Report on the Queen Elizabeth Hospital

Introduction

For my visit on the applications of physics, I went to Queen Elizabethhospital

on the 10th of November 2004. The Queen Elizabeth hospital operates

the largest critical care unit in Europe, which is combining intensive

therapy with high dependency units. The hospital situated in Selly Oak

is a distance of one and a half miles from the SellyOakHospital

between them there are approximately 5900+ employees. Queen Elizabeth

Hospital is aimed, to the adult population mainly in the West Midlands

and offers a range of health services; bone marrow transplant,

chemotherapy, cancer, renal and trauma services etc.

The QueenElizabethHospital has been ranked at three stars in 2001-02

and treats over 650,000 patients each year.

The two aspects of physics which I investigated were:

* Gamma Camera

* Ultrasound

Applications of physics.

* Gamma camera

The first application of physics that I witnessed was the Gamma camera

in the nuclear medicine department. This basically involves the

patient being injected with a gamma emitting-isotope, this radioactive

substance then sends back images of the internals of the patient. The

half-life of the isotope is to suit the time of the diagnostic tests

and the convenience of the patient so there isn't a lot of radiation

they are exposed to.

Below is an example of a gamma camera.

[IMAGE]

* Ultrasound

Ultrasound was another application of physics which I saw in QueensElizabethHospital

. The use of ultrasound which I saw was the ultrasound scan. This is

mainly used for pregnant women to see if the foetus has any

abnormalities, or check on progress and growth. The rays in ultrasound

have a very high frequency which is above the human audible range.

Here you can see an image made using ultrasound to see a foetus's

progress, growth and if the foetus has any abnormalities.[IMAGE]

Gamma camera.

Gamma cameras and Single Photon emission computerized Tomography

(SPECT) scanners are used for planer and tomographic imaging of gamma

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