Tag: Research

Attendees

Paul Charles

Katrina Biggerstaff

Danielle Tyrrell

Discussion

Food and Drinks

PRIMPS 15 was held at the Norman Hotel on Friday the 27th of February. There were presentations from:

• Sarah Aliuddin (Biomedical Technology Services) talking about calculating dose for fluoroscopic procedures;
• Tanya Kairn (Genesis CancerCare Queensland) presenting foetal dose calculations for cranial radiotherapy;
• Katrina Biggerstaff (Princess Alexandra Hospital) describing the Gamma Knife system;
• Danielle Tyrrell (Mater Hospital) talking about pediatric total body irradiation treatments;
• Sylwia Zawlodzka-Bednarz (Mater Hospital) discussing the effect of output variation during step-and-shoot IMRT delivery;
• and Rebecca Murray (Radiation Oncology Queensland) presenting the results of an audit of how time is spent on QA procedures.

These presentations were followed by a round table discussion on QA, then drinks and food.

Presentations

Discussions

Food and drink

The 14th Progress and Research in Medical Physics (PRIMPS) meeting was held on the 21st of November at the Coorparoo Bowls Club. The event had a new format this time – we started with a number of proffered presentations:

• Bess Sutherland (Genesis CancerCare) spoke about the installation of a new Varian TrueBeam accelerator at the John Flynn hospital centre in Tugun;
• Sarah Aliuddin (Biomedical Technology Services) presented the results of an investigation into shielding for portable imaging in intensive care unit environments;
• Katrina Biggerstaff (Princess Alexandra Hospital) was investigating the linac fault documentation systems in place at different centres;
• and Simon Critchley (Radiation Health) talked about the evolution of safety regulations.

Chairs and tables were rearranged and we had a round table discussion, which touched on:

• the recent ACPSEM summer school program and what the invited experts had to say;
• the significance of cone-beam CT dose to patients undergoing radiation therapy treatments;
• the knowledge and skills that diagnostic imaging medical physicists could provide to radiation oncology departments (especially where MRI scanners are being adopted);
• the incorporation of “future proofing” into radiation bunker design (and the cost-benefit considerations);
• and the use of conservative estimates and factors in the calculation of shielding requirements.

Then there was pizza and beer.