Medical physicists are involved with the application of medical physics principles and techniques for prevention, treatment and diagnosis of cancer and the protection of the patients, staff and members of the public from ionizing and non-ionizing radiation hazards (More information).
At Institut Jules Bordet, the organizational structure of the Medical Physics Department integrates 4 specialities: Radiotherapy, Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Engineering. Overall, the Medical Physics Department is composed of 25 members, from which 15 physicists with an official recognition as medical physics expert (MPE via FANC accreditation). Every medical physicist is employed as a member of the Medical Physics Department and seconded to another department to perform specific and clearly defined tasks. This integrated organization facilitates inter-department clinical collaborations, allows multidisciplinary approaches and joined research project developments.
Radiotherapy
The medical physicist has the responsibility to accept, commission and regularly control the performance of radiotherapy equipment: linear accelerators, imaging equipment for treatment simulation (CT, PET-CT, MRI), treatment-planning systems. Together with the dosimetrists, they optimize and calculate the dose of radiation that will be delivered to the contoured structures to make sure that the tumor gets sufficient radiation to destroy it while sparing the normal tissues. Medical physicists have a pivotal role in :
- individualization of the treatments through adaptive radiotherapy
- optimization, validation and implementation of functional imaging
- setting up the MR-LINAC facility
- use of advanced methods for handling big-data to develop and validate predictive models in the actual personalized medicine scenario
Engineering
The role of the engineering team is the provision of the daily engineering service requirements to all three departments. To provide a fast and efficient response in the event of equipment breakdown and to ensure that communication and archiving workflows are operational. Another clinical task is to perform regular quality control checks to assure quality of the x-ray and electron beam output.
Nuclear Medicine
The nuclear medicine physicist provides assistance with the physical aspects of any new applications for nuclear medicine. It is a subfield in medical physics that pertains to:
- the therapeutic and diagnostic applications of radionuclides
- the equipment associated with their production, use, measurement and evaluation
- the quality of images resulting from their production and use
Radiology
Medical physicists in radiology have a leading role in the strategic planning, testing, safe use, and optimization of advances in medical imaging technologies and techniques.
The Department of Medical Physics is recognised for the clinical training of Medical Physics Experts by the FANC in radiotherapy and nuclear medicine. The department welcomes 2 to 3 physicists or engineers yearly to perform their 12 months internship to get their national accreditation.
The department is hosting other internships and master’s thesis students in collaboration with the Nuclear Metrology department and the LISA in ULB, as well as from ISIB, ESI, or IEPSCF.
Research projects
Project 1
Daily and accumulated delivered dose assessment of patient treated with pancreas SBRT
- Project leader : Akos Gulyban
Project 3
Quality Volume Histogram concept for personalized radioembolization based on MAA SPECT-CT simulation
- Project leader : Levillain Hugo
Project 4
Comparison between 4 and 8 partial arcs treatment for left breast cancer radiotherapy combining DIBH and VMAT
- Project leader : Poeta Sara
Project 5
Lymphocyte Sparing Radiation Therapy for stage III NSCLC: a dosimetric study
- Project leader : Henriques Patricia
Project 6
Standardisation of 68Ga PET/CT imaging resolution for multi-centre study
- Project leader: Marin Clémentine
The team
- Reynaert Nick, MPE, Head of the Medical Physics department
- Simon Stéphane, MPE, Associate Head of the Medical Physics department, responsible for GammaKnife, IORT, brachytherapy and TBI
- Levillain Hugo, PhD, Head of Research and Development
Radiotherapy
- Jourani Younes, MPE, Head Medical Physicist in Radiotherapy
- Burghelea Nicoleta Manuela, MPE, main focus on CTsim, DIR and functional imaging
- Coelho Teixeira Danilo, MPA, main focus on plan optimization and standardization
- Gulyban Akos, MPE, main focus on MRI for RT
- Henriques Fernandes Patricia, MPA, main focus on QM and plan optimization
- Paquier Zelda, MPE, PhD student in Medical Physics
- Poeta Sara, MPE, main focus on DIR and dose accumulation
- Rodriguez Garcia Diana, MPE, main focus on SGRT and QC-QA
- Sonia Sobczak, MPE, main focus on FilmDosimetry, BrachyTherapy and Commissioning
- Vandekerkhove Christophe, MPE, main focus on QC-QA, Brachytherapy and IORT
Nuclear Medicine
- Vanderlinden Bruno, MPE, Head Medical Physicist in Nuclear Medicine
- Marin Gwennaëlle, MPE, main focus on QC-QA and metabolic radiotherapy dosimetry
- Marin Clémentine, MPE, main focus on image processing
- Yimo Wadje Marie Christiane, MPE, Radioprotection
Radiology
- Michiel Dehairs, MPE, main focus on CT and MRI
- Gomes Leitao de Azevedo Daniel Ricardo, MSc, main focus on CT
- Chao Shih-Li, Ir, main focus on MRI
Engineering
- Guiot Thomas, Ir.,MSc, Head of Engineering
- Abdelkrim Zakariae, technician, main focus on QA-QC
- Kert Fabian, technician, responsible for 3D printing
- El-Hamdi Abdelhafid, technician, main focus on QA-QC
- Planchon Muriel, Personal Assistant Prof. Nick Reynaert and team assistant.
Last update : 17/03/2021