I've had a very busy day today full of an eclectic mix of tasks so I thought it might be a good day to do a bit of "day in the life of"/ reflecting. It's also Healthcare Science week so the perfect opportunity to share! 07:20 Arrive at work. I'm "on the early" which means … Continue reading Day in the life of a (trainee) radiotherapy physicist
Tag: radiotherapy
Future life tips
Creating a new category to add my thoughts on management, leadership and teaching so I can document best practice and have a place to refer back to it in the future! Today's pointer is about the importance of being an open and welcoming senior member of staff. If you want (very) junior members of staff … Continue reading Future life tips
Ion chamber change
This week's excitement involves an ion chamber change on one of our Linacs. The ion chamber is an integral part of the Linac.... Our old ionisation chamber being removed from the Linac head. Fun fact- the blue cable ties are more radio-resistant than the black and white cable ties and so don't become as brittle … Continue reading Ion chamber change
“To save patients’ lives!?”
3 months in radiotherapy and I still have my patient empathy. Perhaps a little too much. We had lectures last week and as part of one on radiation safety, the Radiation Protection Advisor asked, “Why do we do what we do?”. Now I’ve worked with him previously and he’s lovely and so without any hesitation … Continue reading “To save patients’ lives!?”
Ode to brachytherapy
It's my second month in my specialist placement and so I've moved on from a dosimetry rotation into a brachytherapy rotation. Seeing a brachytherapy operation in my rotational placement was the first time I thought "maybe I want to be a radiotherapy physicist" and so this was a big deal for me! Brachytherapy uses sealed … Continue reading Ode to brachytherapy
Radiotherapy Physicist Week 1
My new desk detritus! I'm one whole week into my career as a radiotherapy physicist! I've got my professional hedgehogs mug, my bunnies 2020 calendar, my homemade diary cover and I am ready to smash it! I have learnt an astonishing amount in just one week, from the uses of in-vivo dosimetry to the use … Continue reading Radiotherapy Physicist Week 1
Vascular ultrasound
#MedicalPhysicistOnTourPart2 Today in Medical Physics on Tour Part 2, I spent the morning in Vascular Ultrasound. Vascular scientists perform routine and urgent ultrasounds on the vascular (blood vessel) system all over the body to diagnose and rule out a range of conditions including Deep Vein Thrombosis, aneurysms and checks on fistulas used for kidney dialysis. … Continue reading Vascular ultrasound
Radiotherapy Patient Pathway
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
TCP & NTCP
Radiotherapy has a lot of abbreviations and today I've had to relearn some of the most annoying of them all: TCP= Tumour Control Probability NTCP= Normal Tissue Complication Probability For a good radiotherapy treatment we want TCP>= 0.5 and NTCP <=0.05 A/N: WHY ARE THERE SO MANY ABBREVIATIONS WHICH ARE ALWAYS USED TOGETHER AND HAVE … Continue reading TCP & NTCP
ART*- less of an art, more of a science.
*(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.
"You're obviously not a scientist" 