North Central Chapter HPS-AAPM Joint Meeting, April 29, 2005

The North Central Chapters of the Health Physics Society (HPS) and the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) held a joint meeting at the Pyle Center, University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin.  The morning session was a joint meeting of the two chapters, with afternoon breakout sessions.

The meeting was supported in part by HPS and AAPM affiliate members, including Fluke Bio-Rad, Global Dosimetry, Image Technology, Inc, Scientific Instrument Sales, International Specialty Products, MEDTEC, 3DLine USA, Siemens Medical Solutions, Proxima Therapeutics, Bard, IMPAC Medical Systems, Sun Nuclear Corporation, Medical Products Unfors Instruments, Tomotherapy Inc, North American Scientific, Nucletron, Standard Imaging, GAMMEX, Scanditronix/Wellhofer, and CMS Inc.

Eric Hendee (NCCAAPM) and Jeff Brunette (NCCHPS President-elect) started the meeting with some opening remarks, and Bruce Thomadsen provided a few memories of John Cameron, a leading figure in medical physics and health physics at the University of Wisconsin.

Leola DeKock of the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services (DHFS), Radiation Protection Section, provided details of proposed radiological decontamination training programs for emergency personnel to be conducted by DHFS and staff from the Radiological Emergency Assistance Center/Training Site (REAC/TS).  DHFS is hoping to schedule two such training sessions within Wisconsin in 2005.

Douglas Simpkin of St. Luke’s Medical Center, Milwaukee, gave a presentation on the recently published NCRP Report #147, Structural Shielding Design for Medical X-Ray Imaging Facilities.  Doug’s presentation included some historical aspects of the revision of NCRP Report #49, some theoretical concepts used in the development of Report #147, and some sample calculations made using the new methodologies.

Bruce Thomadsen of the University of Wisconsin provided an overview of the use of Y-90 microspheres, and safety considerations for their use in therapeutic procedures conducted in interventional radiology.

Four University of Wisconsin physics students made presentations on their work:

Michael Meltsner – Automatic Brachytherapy Delivery System: a report on the development of a robotic arm for the implanting of brachytherapy seeds used in the treatment of prostate cancer.

Wes Culberson – A New Ionization Chamber for Measuring the Effects of Aperture Size on Low-Energy Brachytherapy Sk Measurements: a new chamber design that accounts for anisotropy in the measurement of I-125 and Pd-103 seeds.

Reed Selwyn – Gel Dosimetry: the development of gels for use in 3-dimensional dosimetry using radiation-induced density changes.

Jonathan Nye – Cyclotron Production of I-124 for Diagnostic and Therapeutic Purposes: I-124 is produced from solid TeO targets for use as a PET or therapy isotope.

After the lunch break, the chapters held separate breakout sessions, which, for HPS included the chapter business meeting.  Mike Lewandowski from 3M made a presentation on the NCCHPS Science Teacher Workshop conducted at the Wisconsin Association of Physics Teachers (WAPT) convention , UW-Oshkosh campus on October 30, 2004.  Mike provided feedback from attendees and then led a discussion by the STW Committee on improvement and goal-setting for future workshops.  It is the consensus of the Committee that the Chapter should try to host one or two regional workshops of this type per year in the future.

Jeff Brunette of Mayo Clinic (and also a member of the Minnesota Advisory Committee) provided an update on the Minnesota Agreement State effort.  While regulations have not yet been issued, Minnesota plans to become an Agreement State in the fall of 2005.  Jeff followed this with a presentation on dose reduction efforts at the Mayo Clinic PET Cyclotron for PET pharmacists and cyclotron engineers.

The meeting was wrapped up with a tour of the University of Wisconsin’s PET Cyclotron, used for producing research isotopes.