Extending the application of measurement uncertainty analysis in Medical Physics
The research project seeks to demonstrate how measurement uncertainty analysis can be applied in the field of Medical Physics to improve patient safety and radiotherapy treatment success. The analysis is used to identify areas where additional resources would be best directed to achieve the largest improvement in the quantity of interest. To date, a number of papers have been written on the high dose medical imaging techniques of computerized tomography [1] [2] (to improve radiation dose estimates) and mammography [3](to improve image quality).
The research is now focussed on a type of prostate cancer treatment, and in particular, numerical values associated with the treatment used to assess treatment quality. The analysis method is being used to identify steps in the treatment procedure that have the greatest effect on these treatment quality values, so that these steps receive appropriate resources.
References
[1] K. J. Gregory, G. Bibbo and J. E. Pattison, “On the uncertainties in effective dose estimates from adult CT head scans,” Med. Phys. 35, 3501-3510 (2008).
[2] K. J. Gregory, G. Bibbo and J. E. Pattison, “Uncertainties in effective dose estimates of adult CT head scans: the effect of head size,” Med. Phys. (in press).
[3] K. J. Gregory, J. E. Pattison and G. Bibbo, “Uncertainties of exposure-related quantities in mammographic x-ray unit quality control,” Med. Phys. 33, 687-98 (2006).