2nd EFOMP-EUTEMPE didactic Webinar and Masterclass
Publication Date: Nov 4th, 2020 16:09, Category: EFOMP Announcements
The 2nd EFOMP-EUTEMPE webinar will take place on Tuesday 10th, November 2020 12:00 CET and masterclass on Tuesday 24th, November 2020 12:00 CET.
Webinar:
Building robust QC protocols for the assessment of medical x-ray imaging systems
Masterclass:
Assessing the performance of the Synthetic Mammography mode: what should a QC physicist do?
by Hilde Bosmans and Nick Marshall, Leuven, Belgium
In the webinar, we will cover the steps needed to create robust QC protocols for use by medical physicists. We consider a “robust” protocol to be one that covers the following aspects. The protocol should answer the technical or legal requirements of the regulatory body in your country, have clearly defined tests, testing frequencies and action limits. Such a protocol should uncover changes in system performance, including fault conditions, yet also give meaningful feedback on the imaging performance achieved using the modes programmed or requested by the operators. Daily quality surveying is also part of the task. The inclusion of a relevant image quality assessment is always challenging, and the extent to which this can be achieved is discussed. We will try to illustrate these points with examples throughout the talk. We can’t guarantee to make protocols “fun”, but hopefully you will find the exercise interesting!
In the masterclass, we will cover a range of topics, from some of the basics of SM generation, how the SM image might be used and what options are available to physicists performing quality control (QC) and perhaps even performance assessment. Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) systems can generate a synthetic mammogram (SM) from the DBT dataset. This image can be put to a number of important uses, offering an overview of the breast, quick navigation for the radiologist through the 3D dataset, and of course reducing dose if used instead of a separate 2D digital mammography acquisition. However, the availability of SM images also raises some potentially difficult questions for medical physics services, depending on how this mode is integrated into routine clinical service. Medical physicists have to strike a balance: we must not impede the implementation of the latest advances in the clinic, yet we have a role in safeguarding the quality of the service.
Dr Hilde Bosmans is team leader of the medical physics experts in radiology in the University Hospital of the KU Leuven and for more than 100 centers in the Belgian breast cancer screening. She is also professor at the KU Leuven. The creation of appropriate QC protocols is a crucial part of her activities. With a team of medical physics experts, PhD students and post doc researchers it is worked to better understand quality and patient dose in radiology and then feed new dose or quality measures back into routine protocols. Hilde Bosmans is also project leader of the EUTEMPE courses for medical physics experts in radiology.
Dr. Nicholas Marshall is a professor and senior medical physics expert in the Medical Physics Group at the Universitair Ziekenhuis Leuven, Belgium. Before moving to Leuven in 2009, he worked as a clinical medical physicist in the UK, in Newcastle upon Tyne and at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London. He has contributed to a number of working groups and QC protocols over the years including those of the IPEM and EUREF. He is currently a member of the EFOMP Digital Breast Tomosynthesis QC protocol working group and consultant on the EFOMP angiography system QC working group. Current research interests include the development of methods to assess the imaging performance of mammography, general diagnostic and dynamic x-ray imaging systems.
EFOMP webinar series are permanently accessible via EFOMP's elearning platform