Dose Gel Awards

The 1st International Workshop in Radiotherapy Gel Dosimetry was held on 21-23 July 1999 in Lexington, Kentucky. Gel dosimetry employs chemical solutions embedded in gel matrices (e.g., polyacrylamide, agar, gelatin, ...) as a 3D dosimeters. Upon irradiation the optical and magnetic resonance properties of the solutions change and these changes can be measured by optical CT or MR imaging techniques. In the future, gel dosimetry may become a standard technique in conformal therapy, brachytherapy and for quality assurance of treatment planning systems.

COMP members are important players in the gel dosimetry community and two Canadians - Ken Chu and Chantal Audet - were co-winners of the best poster award at the Dose Gel workshop. Dr. Chu for his poster entitled "A novel fricke dosimeter using PVA cryogel" and Dr. Audet for her poster entitled "Polymer gel dosimetry using x-ray computed tomography: Feasiblity and potential application to stereotactic radiosurgery". Research excellence in gel dosimetry has been recognised quite frequently in Canada including the 1996 COMP poster award, the 1998 Sylvia Fedoruk award and one of the 1999 J.R. Cunningham Young Investigators' Symposium Awards. Surprisingly, this topic seems to evoke much less interest in the USA. At the annual meeting of the AAPM Dr. Chu had the "coveted" Thursday at 11:50 a.m. time slot (the last time slot of the conference) for his presentation.