ROMP TEAP completion schedule
The ACPSEM Radiation Oncology Medical Physics (ROMP) Training, Education and Assessment Program (TEAP) aims to provide the training and education required to become a certified radiation oncology medical physicist. The program is designed to be completed within 3 years by a…
Past RBWH treatment systems
The tables below list treatment units at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital prior to 2003; as transcribed from handwritten equipment records. Megavoltage treatment units Prior to 2003, these units were located in Block 8B (LA1 + LA2) and Block…
Miss Helen Farran
Miss Helen Elizabeth Anne Farran (B.Sc) succeeded Miss Dorothy Wellington (described here), the first clinical physicist in Australia, at the Melbourne Hospital. In 1947 Miss Farran was one of the trainers for a one year Radiotherapy course conducted at the Melbourne…
Radiotherapy in Australia: Pre-1900
The discovery of X-rays by Wilhelm Röntgen in 1895 prompted excitement around the world, including in Australia. The therapeutic application of “Röntgen rays” was explored almost immediately – here are the milestones of those early years in Australia. References Bailey…
Miss Dorothy Wellington
In 1977, Dr. Rutherford Kaye Scott presented the first Sir Peter MacCallum Lecture at the opening of the new wing of the Peter MacCallum Hospital in Melbourne, which was published with the title “The Radiant Years” in Australasian Radiology (vol….
Rotating phantom in TSET delivery
Embedded footage from experiment in Masters research project of Anthony Orth, which examined dose uniformity of various total skin electron therapy treatment techniques. Here, a RANDO phantom has been placed on a custom-made rotating platform, controlled by an Arduino system….
Historical Gammasonics advertisements
The following advertisements were taken from personal scans of Australasian Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine issues published in 1989 and 1990. Gammasonics provided (and continues to provide) equipment for medical physics departments.
RBWH Journal Club 2015
In September 2015 I began organising a monthly journal club meeting within the Radiation Oncology Medical Physics group at the Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital. Meetings involved a round-table discussion of the papers distributed a couple of weeks in advance. The…
Radiotherapy of Benign Disease
Radiation therapy was once widely used in the treatment of benign diseases. Leer et al (1996) reported that in 1948, at the Rotterdam Radiotherapeutic Institute, 3348 benign disorders were irradiated compared with 857 malignant tumours. Early therapeutic applications of radiation in Australia included the treatment…
Blinding in Sham Radiation Therapy
The use of clinical trials in the development of new treatment techniques (pharmaceutical or otherwise) is a necessary step in demonstrating the efficacy of that treatment. The gold standard for testing new techniques is the randomised controlled trial, where participants are…