CURRICULUM VITAE - ETH Zürich

2003 – today Computing and Networks
As a modern clinic, the clinic for radio oncology at Inselspital is based on a
contemporary computing and network system. Most important is the use of a clinical
information system. At the Division of Med. Radiation Physics, since November 2007,
the ARIA system from Varian Medical Systems is used.
2003 – today Patient Specific Quality Assurance
Quality assurance (QA) plays an important role in radiotherapy. One particular part of it
is the patient specific QA which aims to perform verification and documentation of the
treatment fields delivered to a patient. In order to do so, the physicist analyzes the
corresponding information. Typical tasks are the check of delivery parameters, the
matching of reference and portal images, the independent calculation of monitor units,
the verification of dose delivered to the patient (in vivo dosimetry).
2004 – today Brachytherapy
Brachytherapy aims to treat cancer patients by bringing a radioactive source nearly to or
even within the tumor tissue. Using this technique, many different tumor sites can be
treated. The role of the physicist in brachytherapy is determined by dosimetric purposes,
treatment planning as well as quality assurance and radiation safety.
2005 – today Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy (IMRT)
IMRT aims to tailor the dose distribution to the tumor while, simultaneously, organs-atrisk
are avoided. Using inverse treatment planning systems (Helios and Masterplan), the
so-called beamlets are optimized. The delivery of intensity modulated beams is
accomplished by the use of dynamic or static multileaf collimators.
2005 – today Radiation Protection
In a hospital such as the Inselspital, ionizing radiation is used for diagnostic as well as
therapeutic purposes. The Division of Med. Radiation Physics takes the lead of the
radiation protection at Inselspital.
2006 – today Image Guided Radiotherapy (IGRT)
IMRT must be accomplished by using IGRT techniques in order to guarantee that the
dose is delivered to the correct location. By this means, inter- and intrafraction motion
must be taken into account. An important issue in this context is the use of an electronic
portal imaging device (EPID) for online patient setup.
2007 – today Implementation of new equipment
In radiotherapy, it is of great importance to use equipment which is state-of-the-art and
which fits adequately to the hospital’s strategy. Thus, new equipment must be installed in
order to keep the therapy on a high level. Examples of installations are:
- Spring 2007: CT (Philips) for treatment planning purposes
- Summer 2007: Upgrade of treatment planning systems (Masterplan)
- Autumn 2007: Upgrade of clinical information system
- Winter 2007: Brachytherapy using permanent seeds
2007 – today Adaption of the clinic’s strategy
The clinic for radio oncology at Inselspital, Berne, has to define and modify its strategy
in terms of radiotherapy.
D. Reports of Research Activities
1998 – 1999 IMRT Verification Using the SLIC-EPID
Intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) is a new technology which aims to deliver the
dose conformally to the tumor. It is a matter of common knowledge that IMRT leads to
steep dose gradients and that a special QA procedure is needed. In this project, a
scanning liquid-filled ionisation chamber (SLIC) electronic portal imaging device (EPID)
is investigated on its feasibility to measure portal dose distributions for dynamically
applied fields. For this purpose, a diploma thesis (P. Manser) was conducted which
showed the limits of this specific EPID to enable portal dosimetry for dynamically
applied fields. This project was a collaborative work between the Swiss Federal Institute
of Technology (ETH), Zurich, Switzerland and the Inselspital and University of Berne,
Switzerland.
4/12