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Title: Seeing the bigger picture: enablingadvanced image-guidance in gynecologic radiotherapy
Abstract: Despiteevidence that internal radiation therapy (brachytherapy) use in gynecologiccancer treatment is integral to successful therapy, use of these techniques hasbeen declining and access to advanced imaging to guide adaptive therapy islimited. The decline in popularity is in part owing to the complexity of theprocedure, requiring aids to make accessible imaging available andinterpretable, as well as low-cost yet effective training tools to improveuptake. This talk will focus on the creation of tools to aid radiation oncologyand medical physics teams to adaptively assess treatment qualityintraoperatively and provide high quality therapy, particularly inresource-constrained settings. The presentation will include an overview ofnovel 3D ultrasound imaging devices that have been recently translated intoclinical trials for intraoperative feedback during gynecologic brachytherapyprocedures and automated detection tools to aid in the interpretation of theseimages. I will also discuss opportunities to integrate multi-modality imagingwith sensing and tracking technologies intraoperatively and into traininginitiatives, as well as opportunities to develop advanced image processingtechniques with state-of-the-art deep learning methods to generate automatedtools that facilitate understanding of the images available for image-guidanceand image-based planning.
Bio: Dr.Jessica Rodgers joined the Department of Physics and Astronomy at theUniversity of Manitoba in 2022, following an NSERC postdoctoral fellowship inthe School of Computing at Queen’s University. Using her engineeringbackground (PhD in Biomedical Engineering (Western University, 2021) and BSc inMathematics and Engineering (Queen’s University, 2014)), Dr. Rodgers’ researchfocuses on creating clinically translatable tools for the medical physicscommunity. Her research interests are focused on ways to improve cancertreatment through computer-assisted interventions, including image guidance forradiotherapy of gynecologic and prostate cancers and navigation approaches forcancer surgeries. The impact andnovelty of her work has been recognized by both the scientific and clinicalcommunities, including with the SPIE Medical Imaging Siemens Young ScientistAward for Best Paper in Image-Guided Procedures, Robotic Interventions, andModeling Conference, American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) 1stPlace John R. Cunningham Young Investigator Award, and Young Investigator Awardat the AAPM Spring Clinical Meeting.