My research interest is in the area of IMRT, in particular in the following 3 areas :
1. Dosimetry of small radiation beams as used in IMRT.
2. Regional Monte Carlo as applied to IMRT.
3. Real-time monitoring of treatment delivery in IMRT or fully-automated treatments
IMRT (Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy) is an advanced technique in Radiation Therapy for cancer treatment. The goal is to deliver as much dose to the tumors while as little to the normal tissues as possible. Technological advances allow the radiation to be controlled very precisely by complicated linear accelerator design. Parallel advances in computerized treatment planning systems allow the dose delivery to be optimized as well as calculated accurately. Items 1 and 2 above are directed towards these areas of advanced dosimetry improvement. Quality assurance and safeguarding errors, which could be critical in these complicated modalities, is a major concern and is the focus of the 3rd item. Our philosophy is that the nature of these complicated processes should be analyzed in a very systematic manner, and the limitation of a self-contained, self-checking system should be evaluated critically and an independent cross-checking system should be in place to prevent any catastrophic accidental mistreatment
Graduate Students:
Selected References:
Link to Pubmed Publications1. M. Woo and R.Nordal Commissioning and evaluation of a new commercial small rodent x-ray irradiator. Biomed Imaging Interv J 2006; 2(1):e10
2. M. Woo and A. Nico Impact of multileaf collimator leaf positioning accuracy on intensity modulation radiation therapy quality assurance ion chamber measurements. Med. Phys.. 32(5), 1440-1445, 2005.
3. M. Woo and N. Videla An Automated Procedure for the Quality Assurance of Electron Beam Output and Energy Med. Phys. 31(5), 972-974, 2004.
4. M. Woo and K.H. Ng A Model for Online Interactive Remote Education for Medical Physics Using the Internet J Med Internet Res., March, 31; 5(1): e3, 2003.
5. M. Woo, A.W. Lightstone, G. Shan, L, Kumaraswamy, Y. Li Automatic Verification of Step-and-Shoot IMRT Field Segments using Portal Imaging. Med. Phys. 30(3), 348-351, 2003.
6. M. Woo, P. Charland, B. Kim, and A. Nico Commissioning, evaluation, quality assurance and clinical application of a virtual micro MLC technique. Med. Phys. 30(2), 138-143, 2003
