Tag: RBWH

PRIMPS 27 Branch Meeting – Recap

Michael Bernardo
Photo: PRIMPS 27 attendees

PRIMPS 27 was held on Friday, 29th March 2019 from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm at the Education Centre in The Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital campus.

The event focused on applications of MRI in diagnostic imaging and in radiation oncology.

PRIMPS 27 – Presentations
The talks can be viewed below:

MRI in radiation therapy treatment planning – Jason Dowling, A/Prof
Viability of MRI-only proton treatment planning using synthetic CT – Matthew MacDonald
ADC as a biomarker from MRI – Shermiyah Rienecker, Ph.D
Is AI ready for End to End Care? – Elliot Smith, Ph.D

Open Forum – AI and Machine Learning
An Open Forum was held after the talks to discuss the state of AI and machine learning in healthcare and how ACPSEM members can respond to this growing area.

Chris Noble led the discussions and highlighted some of the key issues raised by the use of AI and machine learning software, namely:
– How will AI be used in Medical Physics?
– Who is liable for the outcomes?
– Who has responsibility?
– How should ACPSEM members interact with Software as A Medical Device (SaMD)?
– Do we have sufficient expertise?

The general opinion was that ACPSEM members should position themselves in such a way that they are able to assess and verify the outcomes (e.g. diagnosis, treatment plans) that the software produces. Identifying the usefulness of apps, managing risks of adopting the software and being a part of the procurement process were also discussed.

More opportunities for professional development targeted specifically at this fast growing field are required.

Photo: Chris and Elliot discussing regulation of AI and machine learning software

NEWSFLASH: ACPSEM training grants

Tanya Kairn

The list of successful applications for the 2018 round of ACPSEM training grants has been published on the national ACPSEM website. Of the 26 grants awarded, four went to Queensland radiation oncology departments:

  • Princess Alexandra Hospital
  • ICON Toowoomba
  • Sunshine Coast University Hospital
  • Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital

Congratulations to everyone involved in the successful applications and sincerest thanks to everyone who submitted an application, for your ongoing support of medical physics training in Queensland.

PRIMPS 21 Recap

Scott Crowe

The Progress and Research in Medical Physics Series turned 21 on the 3rd March. The meeting, held at the Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital, featured presentations from:

  • Michael Bernado, on the new Sunshine Coast University Hospital.
  • Samuel Peet, on the Catalyst HD optical surface monitoring system.
  • Trent Aland, on a novel film dosimetry digitisation technique.
  • Alex Livingstone, on the development of an independent Monte Carlo dose checker.
  • and our chair, Tim Ireland, on monitoring dose to the lens of the eye.

There was a impressive turnout with students from the QUT Masters course; and clinical physicists coming from the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba and even Rockhampton (over 500 km away) Discussions continued over drinks at the Normanby.

PRIMPS 21

Scott Crowe

PRIMPS 21 will be held on the 3rd March, from 3-5PM, at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital Education Centre. We already have registered presentations from RBWH and BTS, but it would be great to get updates from as many centres as possible. So if you have been doing some work and want to share it with your peers or get a discussion started, please let us know when you RSVP your attendance with the branch secretary, Emma Spelleken. The flyer for the event is available here.

After PRIMPS we will be migrating to the Normanby Hotel for some lively scientific discussion.

RBWH Education Centre
RBWH Education Centre

2016 update from RBWH Nuclear Medicine

Scott Crowe

The Department of Nuclear Medicine, RBWH, has approval, and is in the planning stage, for an expansion of our TGA licensed Radiopharmaceutical laboratory that supplies PET tracers to a number of PET facilities in Queensland. This expansion includes a new Clean Room for sterile manufacture, additional hot cells and synthesis modules.

In 2016 we added 68Ga-Dotatate and 68Ga-PSMA-HBED to FDG to the compounds we distribute to other hospitals, as well as supporting a substantial increase of the in-house demand. A number of new tracers also came online for clinical and research use, including 18F-GE-180 (neuroinflammation), 18F-GE216 (Alzheimer’s disease), nucleophilic 18F-DOPA, 68Ga-pentixafor (overexpression of CXCR4 receptors).

Our State-wide 177Lu-TATE therapy service expanded by 50%, increasing the availability of radionuclide therapy to patients suffering neuroendocrine tumours. This coupled with production of 177Lu-PSMA617 for prostate therapy should lead to a very exciting 2017.

Our Research Radiochemist, Melissa Latter (pictured), won a very prestigious Churchill Fellowship. She will be visiting overseas centres to gather expertise which will allow us to establish a premier manufacturing and training site for translational radiopharmaceutical science. We also have 4 staff starting on their TEAP journey; Soren Lummis and Dominique Scott in Radiopharmaceutical Science and Orrie Dancewicz and Shaun Patford in the DIMP program.

Dr Melissa Latter was awarded a 2017 Churchill Fellowship for travel overseas to investigate translational Radiopharmaceutical science