Free online courseUltrasound Physics for Radiology: Fundamentals, Doppler and Artifacts

Course Description

Build a clear, practical understanding of ultrasound physics for radiology and everyday scanning decisions. This free online course bridges the gap between equations and what you see on the screen, so you can explain image behavior, choose better settings, and recognize why artifacts appear instead of guessing. Whether you are a student, technologist, resident, or a clinician who uses ultrasound at the point of care, you will gain the confidence to connect core physics to image quality, Doppler measurements, and safe scanning habits.

You will start with the fundamentals of sound waves and how frequency, wavelength, and propagation speed depend on the medium. From there, the course ties intensity and decibels to what matters clinically, including attenuation in soft tissue and why deeper structures demand different tradeoffs. You will see how pulse-echo imaging relies on timing and pulse parameters, and how reflection, refraction, scattering, and acoustic impedance shape what is transmitted back to the transducer. These principles quickly become intuitive tools for troubleshooting: understanding why interfaces look bright, why shadows form, and why angle and tissue type change the look of an exam.

The course also clarifies how transducers work and why design choices matter, from piezoelectric behavior to matching layers and damping. You will learn how common imaging modes create information differently, and how controls like time gain compensation help balance the image without distorting interpretation. As the course advances, you will connect beam geometry, focusing, steering, and spatial compounding to resolution tradeoffs, making it easier to justify choices that impact axial, lateral, elevational, and temporal resolution.

Doppler is covered in depth with a focus on real measurement quality: angle correction, preferred insonation angles, continuous versus pulsed wave Doppler, and what sets limits such as aliasing and the Nyquist relationship to PRF. You will also strengthen your ability to interpret spectral displays and understand how scale changes affect what you perceive. Finally, you will learn to identify frequent artifacts and the physics behind them, plus essential safety concepts including thermal and mechanical indices. Short quiz-style exercises reinforce key decisions, helping you translate physics into consistent, high-quality imaging practice.