• Title/Summary/Keyword: Medical Physicists

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Medical Physicists in the Field of Radiation Therapy for Unlicensed Activity (방사선치료분야에서 의학물리사 무면허행위 여부)

  • Jeong, Seong-Hyeun;Kim, Seung-Chul
    • The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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    • v.13 no.12
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    • pp.869-879
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    • 2013
  • Modern medicine has not yet conquered behavior therapy for cancer radiation treatment, which is one of the professional groups involved in the justification of the act and reasonable human resources was analyzed. Radiation Oncology(Therapeutic Radiology) installed the role of the medical physicist in the current law, the act must have been within the limits given licenses, but the legitimacy of the act which can be given the current laws and regulations are not clear. Thus, certification and testing outside the medical physicist's research institutions, including the measures to be reflected in national legislation sought. Medical physicists, with the inherent illegality act because one of the areas to precluding the illegality of the content-based "medical law" and "Nuclear Safety Law", "medical technology in the field of radiation safety standards on management" was based on the interpretation. In conclusion, "medical law" and "in the field of medical technology on the management of radiation safety standards" that are consistent with the recognition of qualifications, increased activity in the radiation therapy and radiation safety management must deal with this will be feasible.

Impact of Planning Target Volume Margins in Stereotactic Radiosurgery for Brain Metastasis: A Review

  • Emmanuel Fiagbedzi;Francis Hasford;Samuel Nii Tagoe
    • Progress in Medical Physics
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    • v.35 no.1
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    • pp.1-9
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    • 2024
  • Margin inclusion or exclusion remains the most critical and controversial aspect of stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for metastatic brain tumors. This review aimed to examine the available literature on the impact of margins in SRS of brain metastasis and to assess the response of some medical physicists on the use of these margins. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses method was used to review articles published in PubMed, Embase, and Science Direct databases from January 2012 to December 2022 using the following keywords: planning target volume, brain metastasis, margin, and stereotactic radiosurgery. A simple survey consisting of five questions was completed by ten medical physicists with experience in SRS treatment planning. The results were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 26.0. Of the 1,445 articles identified, only 38 articles were chosen. Of these, eight papers were deemed relevant to the focus of this review. These papers showed an increase in the risk of radionecrosis, whereas differences in local control were variable as the margin increased. In the survey, the response rate to whether or not to use margins in SRS, a critical question, was 50%. Margin addition increases the risk of radio necrosis. The local control rate varies among treatment modalities and cannot be generalized. From the survey, no consensus was reached regarding the use of these margins. This calls for further deliberations among professionals directly involved in SRS.

Stereotactic Radiosurgery

  • Chung, Hyun-Tai;Lee, Dong-Joon
    • Progress in Medical Physics
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    • v.31 no.3
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    • pp.63-70
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    • 2020
  • Stereotactic radiosurgery is one of the most sophisticated forms of modern advanced radiation therapy. Unlike conventional fractionated radiotherapy, stereotactic radiosurgery uses a high dose of radiation with steep gradient precisely delivered to target lesions. Lars Leksell presented the principle of radiosurgery in 1951. Gamma Knife® (GK) is the first radiosurgery device used in clinics, and the first patient was treated in the winter of 1967. The first GK unit had 179 cobalt 60 sources distributed on a hemispherical surface. A patient could move only in a single direction. Treatment planning was performed manually and took more than a day. The latest model, Gamma Knife® IconTM, shares the same principle but has many new dazzling characteristics. In this article, first, a brief history of radiosurgery was described. Then, the physical properties of modern radiosurgery machines and physicists' endeavors to assure the quality of radiosurgery were described. Intrinsic characteristics of modern radiosurgery devices such as small fields, steep dose distribution producing sharp penumbra, and multi-directionality of the beam were reviewed together with the techniques to assess the accuracy of these devices. The reference conditions and principles of GK dosimetry given in the most recent international standard protocol, International Atomic Energy Agency TRS 483, were shortly reviewed, and several points needing careful revisions were highlighted. Understanding the principles and physics of radiosurgery will be helpful for modern medical physicists.

Annual Statistics of Radiation Therapy -1990- (방사선 치료 전국 통계 -1990-)

  • 대한치료방사선과학회
    • Radiation Oncology Journal
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    • v.9 no.2
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    • pp.361-367
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    • 1991
  • This paper on the status of radiotherapy machine and related facilities, clinical activities and radiation safety management is based on the statistical data which collected through the questionaire sent to a total number of 37 hospitals holding the Department of Therapeutic Radiology in Korea. It is true that the quality of instruments installed in the hospitals equal to that of the instrument in the industrialized conuntries' hospitals. But the clinical specialists and physicists who can utilize such instruments fall short of the required number, which might be a main factor in hindering the development of therapeutic radiology of Korea. According to the nation-wide cancer statistics, we can estimate the number of annual cancer patients as 45,000 to 50,000. As a result, probably around 25,000 should receive radiation therapy. It is expected that in the future the number of cancer patients to whom radiation therapy should be applied will become twice as much as that of the cancer patients in 1990. Given such a condition, the problem facing the Korean Society of Therapeutic Radiology now is to increase the number of medical doctors and physicists.

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Projecting the Radiation Oncology Workforce in Australia

  • Schofield, Deborah;Callander, Emily;Kimman, Merel;Scuteri, Joe;Fodero, Lisa
    • Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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    • v.13 no.4
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    • pp.1159-1166
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    • 2012
  • Research on radiation oncologists has indicated that there is a shortage in supply of specialist workers in this field internationally, and also within Australia. However, there are no current estimates as to what the future Australian radiotherapy workforce will look like. This paper aims to review the current status and capacity of the three main disciplines that make up the radiation oncology workforce in Australia and project the workforce supply and demand for 2014 and 2019. Using data on the workforce from a survey of all radiotherapy facilities operating in Australia in 2008 a workforce model was constructed. This study found that there will be a future shortfall of radiation oncologists, radiation therapists and radiation oncology medical physicists working in radiation oncology treatment. By 2014 there will be 109 fewer radiation oncologists than what will be demanded, and by 2019 this figure will increase to a shortfall of 155 radiation oncologists. There was a projected shortfall of 612 radiation therapists by 2014, with this figure slightly decreasing to a shortfall of 593 radiation therapists in 2019. In 2014, there was projected to be a deficit of 104 radiation oncology medical physicists with a persisting shortfall of 78 in 2019. This future projected shortage highlights the need for radiation oncology workforce planning.

Current Topics on Quality Assurance of X-ray Diagnosis in Japan

  • Katoh, Tuguhisa;Imamura, Keiko;Matumoto, Toru
    • Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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    • 2002.09a
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    • pp.13-16
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    • 2002
  • Recent topics on quality assurance (QA) of X-ray diagnosis in Japan were reported in this presentation. These were related to mass screening mammography (MMG), lung screening CT (LSCT), skin injury caused by interventional radiology (IVR) and traceable system of dosimeters for x-ray diagnosis. In these successful stories, the author would like to stress the cooperation of all the medical am: clinical staff including medical doctors, radiological technologists, medical physicists, manufacturers of medical devices and others.

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Basic Principles of CT Dose Index and Understanding of CT Parameter for Dose Reduction Technique (CT선량지표의 원리와 선량감소 방안에 관한 연구)

  • Kim, Jung-Su;Kwon, Soon-Mu;Kim, Jung-Min
    • Journal of radiological science and technology
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    • v.38 no.1
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    • pp.51-61
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    • 2015
  • Computed tomography(CT) using radiation have potential risks. All medical radiographic examinations should require the justification of medical imaging examinations and optimization of the image quality and radiation exposure. The CT examination was higher radiation dose then general radiography. Especially pediatric CT examinations need to great caution of radiation risk. Because of pediatric patient was more sensitive of radiation exposure. Therefore, physician should consider the knowledge of CT radiation exposure indicator information for reduce a needless radiation exposure. This article was aim to understanding of CT exposure indicator, size-specific dose estimates by American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) report 204, XR 25 and understanding of CT dose reduction technique.

Analytic Hierarchy Process for Prioritizing Radiation Safety Measures in Medical Institutions

  • Hyun Suk Kim;Heejeong Jeong;Hyungbin Moon;Sang Hyun Park
    • Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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    • v.49 no.1
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    • pp.40-49
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    • 2024
  • Background: This study aimed to prioritize policy measures to improve radiation safety management in medical institutions using the analytic hierarchy process. Materials and Methods: It adopted three policy options-engineering, education, and enforcement-to categorize safety management measures, the so-called Harvey's 3Es. Then, the radiation safety management measures obtained from the current system and other studies were organized into action plan categories. Using the derived model, this study surveyed 33 stakeholders of radiation safety management in medical institutions and analyzed the importance of each measure. Results and Discussion: As a result, these stakeholders generally identified enforcement as the most important factor for improving the safety management system. The study also found that radiation safety officers and medical physicists perceived different measures as important, indicating clear differences in opinions among stakeholders, especially in improving quality assurance in radiation therapy. Hence, the process of coordination and consensus is likely to be critical in improving the radiation safety management system. Conclusion: Stakeholders in the medical field consider enforcement as the most critical factor in improving their safety management systems. Specifically, the most crucial among the six specific action plans was the "reinforcement of the organization and workforce for safety management," with a relative importance of 25.7%.

Dosimetry of Brachytherapy Sources: Review of The AAPM TG-43 Formalism

  • Cho, Sang-Hyun
    • Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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    • 2002.09a
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    • pp.141-143
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    • 2002
  • In 1995, the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) Task Group 43 published a report dealing with the dosimetry of interstitial brachytherapy sources, generally known as the TG-43 report. Compared to previously adopted formalisms, a formalism proposed in this report provides a more accurate and systematic brachytherapy dose calculation method, especially for Ir-192 and other low energy gamma sources such as 1-125 and Pd-l03. In this lecture, an overview of the TG-43 formalism will be presented, along with the lecturer's experience in determining the TG-43 parameters by the Monte Carlo method and experimental methods such as TLD and radiochromic film.

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