Problems of Quality Assurance Program Design for Radiation Therapy Facility
Lenny Massarski, D.Sc.
First, my greetings to a new professional society. Let me express hope that the number of SEAMP members will increase and our cooperation will be fruitful. I have a very simple question on medical physics history: Do you know where medical physics started? I think most of you would answer “in America”. However this statement is not quite right. The Institute of Roentgenology, Radiology and Cancer has been founded in 1918, in Petrograd (presently St. Petersburg ), Russia by Prof. M.I. Nemenov, Doctor of Medicine and Prof. A.F. Ioffe, Doctor of Science, one of the most famous physicists. Wilhelm Conrad Röentgen personally approved this project. It was the first specific research institution for roentgenology and radiology in the world. Later the institute was renamed to the Central Research Institute for Roentgenology and Radiology. It became a basis for fundamental and applied developments in the field of roentgenology, radiology, radiobiology, nuclear medicine and radiation medical physics. Read more..
Measure of Image Quality
Victor Gurvich, Ph.D.
My career in medical physics and engineering started at Mosrentgen, Inc., the largest company of the former Soviet Union produced X-ray equipment. It was not my choice but my fate and I never regretted it. Evaluation of image quality on the monitors of our expensive diagnostic machines equipped with X-ray image intensifiers was then one of the most important and annoying problems. Researchers and developers tried to create the system of physical parameters characterizing image quality. However, our customers and radiologists from medical centers were not satisfied with the measurements and did not believe that the correlation between clinical diagnostic value of an image and its physical characteristics was good.It became clear that an observer or physician interpreting the image is an unalienable part of the imaging chain. Read more..
Tumor Volume Variation in Proton Radiotherapy Planning
Alexei Chvetsov, Ph.D.
The accuracy of 3D conformal dose calculation and radiation delivery to static tumors is rapidly approaching its theoretical limit. The advent of image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) and our ability to observe patient motion in real time has brought on a realization that a patient’s geometry, including the tumor and normal tissue changes with time. Time-dependent target definition and tracking have become priorities in radiation therapy. A significant amount of research is being devoted to set-up-uncertainties, breathing motion and image-guided radiation therapy. Read more..