During the last decades technological innovations have been the major driving force behind the advancement towards precision radiation oncology. As such technology driven research and development is a lively interdisciplinary field.
Once innovative technologies get available, as prototype or clinical product, the journey towards their clinical implementation and more importantly the clinical evaluation can be started. The practical challenges coming along with the implementation of new technologies differ for external photon beam therapy, ion beam therapy or brachytherapy and need specific knowledge, equipment (e.g. phantoms and dosimetric devices), quality assurance procedures but need to be tackled adequately. In this context the efficient and safe translation into the clinical practice is an important step that is often overlooked.
Our research activities are truly team-based activities and range from the development of novel methodologies for commissioning procedures and quality management (QM) concepts, the development of workflows, to clinical pilot studies. Due to the fact that literally all delivery innovations come along with new imaging components and related software tools, software and hardware aspects are integral elements in our project. A major task is related to the commissioning and periodic quality assurance (QA) of upcoming AI based software solutions for adaptive and image guided therapy including MR guidance.
Mag.a Barbara Knäusl, PhD
Medical physicist