Imaging - Specialist Services
MEDICAL PHYSICS DEPARTMENT
The department provides specialist scientific services to clinical departments of the Sydney West Area Health Service. Medical Physics Staff are grouped in three sections:
- Radiation Safety
- The Medical Physics department is responsible for radiation safety within the Sydney West Area Health Service. Lee Collins, who is the Stream Leader of the Allied Health Division, is the Radiation Safety Officer. One medical physics technician assists with radiation protection duties.
- The Medical Physics department is responsible for radiation safety within the Sydney West Area Health Service. Lee Collins, who is the Stream Leader of the Allied Health Division, is the Radiation Safety Officer. One medical physics technician assists with radiation protection duties.
- Radiation Oncology Physics
- This group provides scientific support for the Radiation Oncology department including radiation safety as it applies to radiotherapy procedures (refer to link***). The Head of the Radiation Oncology Physics Group, Gary Arthur, is the current Head of Medical Physics.
- Diagnostic Physics
- The Diagnostic Physics group is divided into sub-sections:
- Nuclear Medicine and Ultrasound
- Radiology
- Neuroscien
- The Diagnostic Physics group is divided into sub-sections:
NUCLEAR MEDICINE & ULTRASOUND
- The Nuclear Medicine Physics section comprises two full-time physicists plus two physicists employed as research assistants.
- There is usually has a number of postgraduate and /or undergraduate students on-site undertaking research as part of their academic studies.
- The group is responsible for scientific support in Nuclear Medicine including:
- Procurement and quality control of instrumentation,
- Safe handling of unsealed sources (in conjunction with the Radiation Safety Officer and his staff),
- Development and validation of procedures, particularly those involving computer analysis and support of computers used for imaging and scientific purposes.
- Scientific support is also provided to the Nuclear Medicine Department at Nepean Hospital.
- The group is actively involved in research in collaboration with several local Universities and has attracted several competitive grants (ARC (SPIRT), Heart Foundation, Brain Foundation, Westmead Charitable Trust).
- Our Staff also participates in teaching of Nuclear Medicine professionals both locally and internationally, employing a full-time education coordinator.
RADIOLOGY
- There are two full-time Radiology Physicists responsible for quality control of all x-ray equipment in the Sydney West Area Health Service.
- The stream leader also actively works in this area, particularly in teaching.
- The X-ray equipment includes general radiography, fluoroscopy, dental radiography, mammography and CT.
- Testing of x-ray equipment includes:
- Routine quality control at set intervals
- Acceptance testing of new equipment
- NSW, EPA compliance testing
- Testing of mammography equipment to RANZCR and NAR standards.
- For patient safety:
- radiation exposure to pregnant patients is estimated and monitored as needed, with the relevant records kept in the radiology physics office.
- Radiology Physicists also provide consultancy on radiation shielding and dosimetry.
- As a part of a revenue raising exercise for the Medical Physics Department, the radiology physics group also provides all the above services to a number of health services in NSW other than Sydney West Area Health Service.
NEUROSCIENCE
- There is one Physicist who provides physics and computer support in neurophysiology to the department of Psychiatry and the Brain Dynamics Centre (refer to link***).
- He is responsible for :
- Development and support of EEG recording systems
- Development of physiological models for EEG and ERP
- Functional MRI study acquisition and analysi
In addition to providing scientific support, staff members in Medical Physics are actively involved in research and development with strong University links. Most senior staff also have teaching commitments, including the training of overseas students in all aspects of medical physics. These students are usually sponsored by the IAEA.
Current research projects include:
- Development of filmless nuclear medicine & ultrasound
- Improvement of gated cardiac SPECT through use of temporal filtering and corrections for effects of respiratory motion.
- Quantitative reconstruction for multi-energy radionuclides using measured attenuation.
- Development of algorithms for registration of SPECT with anatomical modalities
- Motion correction for neurological SPECT
- Quantification of receptor uptake in movement disorders
- Incorporation of anatomical information in SPECT reconstruction
- Novel applications of iterative reconstruction
HOURS OF OPERATION
08:30 to 17:00 on normal working weekdays.
FURTHER INFORMATION
| Head of Diagnostic Physics | Prof. Brian Hutton |
| nbh@imag.wsahs.nsw.gov.au | |
| Telephone : | (02) 9845 6533 |
| Fax : | (02) 9891 5385 |
