The only induction I would recommend to a friend.Me, yesterday, even before we got the toiletries goodie bag! I don't know about you but I've been to many a pointless induction in my time. The induction to NHS Nightingale London was revolutionary in that I came away from the day feeling buoyed up, supported and … Continue reading Nightingale Induction
Having spent 3 months in the radiotherapy physics department, I finally got the opportunity today to spend some time with the radiographers, scanning, planning and treating patients. This blog post will hopefully illustrate my understanding of the pathway that patients go through for their radiotherapy treatment as well as some reflections I have had over … Continue reading Radiotherapy Patient Pathway
*(Adaptive Radiotherapy) People are the worst, right? Humans have their own internal biases, their own ways of doing things, their own subjectivity and their own distractions. So why don't we just automate all treatment planning? This was certainly the attitude that I took at before beginning this placement in radiotherapy. It turns out that it's … Continue reading ART*- less of an art, more of a science.
I've always been taught the electromagnetic spectrum goes (in song form)... Radiowaves, Microwaves, Infrared... Radiation, Visible light, Ultraviolet, X-rays, Gamma rays. The assumption being that the higher the note sung (the later in the song), the higher the energy, the shorter the wavelength u.s.w. Therefore why are we calling my LINAC friends x-ray units?! Their … Continue reading What even is an x-ray?
I'm more than happy with how an "analogue" spirit level works. A cylinder with a slight upward curve in the middle (or a larger diameter in the middle) is incompletely filled with a spirit. This leaves a bubble which travels to the centre of the cylinder when on a flat surface. When on a slight … Continue reading Electronic spirit levels
Today we're scheduled to spend a whole day on radiotherapy machine quality assurance (QA), performing the monthly checks on a particular machine to ensure that we are operating within the approved procedures with which we're allowed to carry out radiotherapy. These checks include mechanical checks of the couch positioning and isocentres (laser, mechanical, radiation), dosimetric … Continue reading Patients come first!
Attended a radioactive substances lab audit today where the professor expressed an interest in renewing the license for using animals as part of the research and mentioned that the application for the license would involve at least 3 weeks of full time work. ASPA 1986 It turns out that there is not a special radioactive … Continue reading Mice don’t menstruate!?
Today we're learning about CT optimisation procedures. Getting to know the equipment you're using is the main gist. For example, different companies employ different methods for Automatic Exposure Control (AEC) e.g. by looking at maintaining constant noise in an image or having a reference mAs determined by a phantom for a standard sized phantom. Knowing … Continue reading CT Big Pharma
Today’s thought of the day: why don’t we have radiotherapy at the weekend? If each radiotherapy plan takes so long to plan, each fraction carefully calculated and patients told to clear their calendars for weeks and cancel their prior commitments, why don’t they continue their treatments at the weekends or over Christmas? It’s so much … Continue reading Why don’t we have radiotherapy at the weekend?
"You're obviously not a scientist" 