China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Medical and Biological Applications of Low Energy Accelerators
Published in Vlado Valković, Low Energy Particle Accelerator-Based Technologies and Their Applications, 2022
Establishing a nuclear medicine facility is a major undertaking that requires careful planning, contributions from multiple stakeholders, the support and approval of the relevant authorities, secure funding and a detailed implementation strategy. Detailed strategic planning is particularly important in developing countries, where nuclear medicine may currently be unavailable, and the benefits and complexities of nuclear medicine imaging and therapy may not be clearly appreciated (IAEA 2020b). The accreditation of staff and their departments, with full documentation of procedures to international standards, will soon become a requirement, and this need is addressed in an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) publication on quality management (IAEA 2015). This publication takes a systematic approach to the needs for nuclear medicine practice with regard to assessment, premises, human resources, equipment and quality assurance and quality control, medical physics and radio pharmacy support, radiation protection and safety and clinical applications.
Education and Training during COVID-19 Pandemic
Published in Kwan Hoong Ng, Magdalena S. Stoeva, Medical Physics During the COVID-19 Pandemic, 2021
Jeannie Hsiu Ding Wong, Annette Haworth, Ana Maria Marques da Silva, Vassilka Tabakova, Kwan Hoong Ng
Medical physics is a scientific discipline that is embedded in the clinical environment. Education and training of medical physics require close integration of academic and clinically based training. This professional requirement was set by the International Organization for Medical Physics (IOMP) to ensure that programmes worldwide meet defined criteria (IOMP, 2012, IOMP, 2020). Traditionally, most programmes include a significant teaching component, with significant student-to-student and student-to-lecturer interaction (Haworth et al., 2020). Although some programmes are operated only at a university campus, the professionally accredited MSc programmes are typically related to contemporary clinical practice and most often linked to teaching hospitals (Wong et al., 2019, IOMP, 2020).
Brachytherapy Dosimetry
Published in Arash Darafsheh, Radiation Therapy Dosimetry: A Practical Handbook, 2021
Christopher L. Deufel, Wesley S. Culberson, Mark J. Rivard, Firas Mourtada
At its most fundamental level, the role of the medical physicist is to ensure the safe and accurate delivery of radiotherapy. Recently, incident learning systems (ILS), root cause analyses, and failure modes effect analyses (FMEAs) have been employed to help predict and understand errors in the radiotherapy process.
A Five-Year report on the conception and establishment of the MSc Radiation Biology at the Technical University of Munich
Published in International Journal of Radiation Biology, 2021
Carmen Kessel, Michael J. Atkinson, Thomas E. Schmid, Klaus Trott, Jan J. Wilkens, Natasa Anastasov, Michael Rosemann, Omid Azimzadeh, Soile Tapio, Simone Moertl, Ulrike M. Kulka, Michael Abend, Matthias Port, Christina Beinke, Mona Mustafa, Frauke Neff, Daniela Pfeiffer, Pascal Berberat, Stephanie E. Combs
So far, 25 students have graduated from the program. Their theses projects show the variety of directions in radiation biology offered to the students in our setting (Table 2). When the first two classes were polled during their studies as to what they wanted to do after their degree, 69% indicated that they would be interested in a Ph.D. (Combs et al. 2019). Following their careers after graduation, we learned that eight of the past graduates have already started a Ph.D. in radiobiological research, and a further five of our more recent graduates are currently looking for a Ph.D. project. Three of the students with a medical degree before their Master’s degree decided to take their knowledge and interest in radiobiological research back to medicine to qualify as radiation oncologists. According to our latest feedback, other graduates started jobs in the industry, as trainee to be a medical physics expert or in government institutions.
LINAC based stereotactic radiosurgery for multiple brain metastases: guidance for clinical implementation
Published in Acta Oncologica, 2019
Dianne Hartgerink, Ans Swinnen, David Roberge, Alan Nichol, Piotr Zygmanski, Fang-Fang Yin, François Deblois, Coen Hurkmans, Chin Loon Ong, Anna Bruynzeel, Ayal Aizer, John Fiveash, John Kirckpatrick, Matthias Guckenberger, Nicolaus Andratschke, Dirk de Ruysscher, Richard Popple, Jaap Zindler
A planning-CT with preferably 1 mm, but ≤2 mm thick contiguous slices is fused to the contrast-enhanced stereotactic MRI. Preferably the planning-CT is enhanced with Iodine contrast to also visualize the BM on the planning-CT. By default, the planning-CT is 100 kV and combined with dose modulation (mAs) in order to achieve the optimal soft tissue contrast. A dedicated head filtration kernel with beam hardening correction is advised. Ideally, a small collimation is chosen (e.g., 64 × 0.6 mm). It is recommended that a reproducible methodology is used with a well-defined protocol for image registration of the MRI with the CT. The position of the BM visualized on both the MRI as the CT (if visible) can be used to check the quality of the registration. To minimize the risk of registration errors and to identify unexpected geometric distortion correction errors or artifacts of the MRI, an independent check of the registration has to be performed by a medical physicist and/or radiation oncologist.
Education and training to support radiation protection research in Europe: the DoReMi experience
Published in International Journal of Radiation Biology, 2019
Andrea Ottolenghi, Klaus-Rüdiger Trott, Vere Smyth
From the original HLEG-driven formulation of the WP3 plan of work it was always intended to investigate possible ways of rebuilding the European Masters course. A review of courses available at the start of DoReMi showed that undergraduate university teaching was largely restricted to training in the principles, rules and regulation of radiation protection to medical students as part of radiology modules. However, these training units contained very little teaching of radiobiology. Most education and training in radiation biology at the postgraduate level was part of Master Courses in Medical Physics. In some universities this extended to complete teaching modules, e.g. in University of Stockholm, in others it was just a small series of lectures closely based on the foundations of radiation protection rules as defined by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP). Another important mechanism of spreading the current concepts and results of radiobiological research are postgraduate teaching courses which radiation oncologists are expected to attend to qualify for professional accreditation. They are usually concentrated into one week with up to 6–8 lectures per day, most of which are addressing aspects of the radiobiology of early and late normal tissue damage.