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Abstract Submission - Category Descriptions

Select the Subject Category which best pertains to your Abstract.

Educational Topic - NEW in 2009

Category Sub-Category
(if applicable) 		Definition
Innovations in Medical Physics Education
    Submit a description of innovative medical physics educational activities for radiology residents, radiation oncology residents, medical physicists, technologists or others.  The projects can be scientific research, novel teaching strategies – team teaching or adult learning efforts, novel educational materials – lectures, websites, or other innovations.

Professional Topics

Category Sub-Category
(if applicable) 		Definition
Professional Practice of Medical Physics
    Organizational activities related to the performance of clinical medical physics procedures. This may include implementation and application of procedures, education related to the practice and issues specific to the practice environment.
Legislation and Regulation
    Abstracts that pertain to regulatory or legislative issues that effect medical physics or are impacted by medical physics. This includes federal and state agency interactions and federal and state legislative bodies. CRCPD, NRC, Congress, CARE, others.
Ethics and Legal
    Abstracts that pertain to litigation, law suits, contract preparation and reconciliation, ethics in patient care, in the workplace and in education and research.
Economics
    Abstracts that pertain to economic and financial issues that effect medical physicists. This includes reimbursement, compensation, billing, etc.
(Clinical) Education
    Abstracts that pertain to education and training of and by medical physicists. This may include the education of medical physicists, physicians, allied health and the public.
Administration and Management
    Abstracts that pertain to management and administration of and by medical physicists. This may include staffing, human relations, recruiting, disciplinary actions, equipment selection and procurement, facility construction and financing.

Joint: Imaging/Therapy Physics

Category Sub-Category
(if applicable) 		Definition
Joint: Target and Normal Organ Definition
  Molecular / Functional Imaging Use of novel molecular / functional imaging modalities for definition of target and/or normal tissue structures.

Image Registration / Fusion

Description and evaluation of methods for combining image data sets.
Joint: Image-Guided Procedures
  Modeling of Inter-Fraction Motion Acquisition, construction, and use of temporally varying volumetric patient models pertaining to inter-fraction motion (i.e., motion occurring between successive therapeutic deliveries).
Modeling of Intra-Fraction Motion Acquisition, construction, and use of temporally varying volumetric patient models pertaining to intra-fraction motion (i.e., motion occurring within a given therapeutic delivery).
Localization (Tomographic) Tomographic imaging of internal structures prior to or during therapy for the purpose of adjusting setup and/or delivery. All tomographic imaging modalities (CT, ultrasound, MRI, etc.).
Localization (Non-Tomographic) Localization of target and/or normal tissues by non-tomographic means prior to or during therapy for the purpose of adjusting setup and/or delivery. All non-tomographic methods, image-based (e.g., portal imaging, fluoroscopy, etc.) or non-image-based (e.g., RF tracking, infrared tracking, respiration monitoring, etc.) .
Margin Assessment Assessing margins for specific patients or populations of patients.
Correction Strategies Techniques for modifying patient setup, treatment plan, etc. based on online, offline, and/or adaptive guidance strategies.
Interventional Procedures Topics related to the use of imaging in the guidance of localized therapeutic procedures. Localized interventions include surgery (open and/or minimally invasive), interventional radiology, and brachytherapy. All imaging modalities. For example: MR-guided neurosurgery; Ultrasound-guided biopsy; Ultrasound-guided brachytherapy. Topics should involve novel imaging techniques applied to a given therapy, novel therapeutic techniques enabled by imaging, or both.
Joint: Hybrid Systems for Multi-Modality Imaging: New Technologies and Applications in Imaging and Image-Guided Therapy
   

In recent years a number of new hybrid multi-modality imaging systems have emerged, including MR-PET, CT-SPECT, CT-PET, X-ray-Ultrasound, MR-Optical, etc., with applications ranging from diagnosis to staging, guidance, and response monitoring. Such integrated hybrid systems (i.e., systems offering two or more imaging modalities within the same exam) offer a number of advances over conventional serial exams (in which the images are obtained sequentially on separate scanners). The John S. Laughlin Symposium this year will focus on such advanced, integrated hybrid modalities and their applications, seeking abstracts on cutting-edge research in technology development, image quality, image evaluation, and clinical applications.

NOTE: Those wishing to be considered for the John S. Laughlin Science Council Research Symposium MUST submit abstracts to this category only.

Proffered submission: Authors interested in being considered for the Symposium MUST:

  • Select the submission type: Science Council Research Symposium
  • Select the subject category: Joint: Imaging-Therapy / Advances in Image Guided, Locally Adaptive or Ablative Cancer Therapies
  • Select Oral presentation mode
  • Submit supporting documentation not to exceed 4 pages in length (up to 1 MB file size).

Junior Investigator Competition participants who also wish to be considered for the Science Council Research Symposium should consider the following:

  • JI Competition participants are eligible to be considered for the Symposium.
  • To be considered for the Symposium, authors MUST select the Joint: Imaging-Therapy / Advances in Image Guided, Locally Adaptive or Ablative Cancer Therapies category during submission.
  • To be considered for the Symposium, authors MUST signoff on the John S. Laughlin SC Research Symposium - Participation Acknowledgement during the submission process.

Young Investigator Competition participants:

  • Are NOT eligible to be considered for the Science Council Research Symposium.
  • May select Joint: Imaging-Therapy / Advances in Image Guided, Locally Adaptive or Ablative Cancer Therapies subject category during submission.

All abstracts submitted to the John S. Laughlin Science Council Research Symposium that are NOT selected for the symposium, will be considered for oral, moderated poster, or standard poster presentation.

  • Young Investigators who wish to participate in the Young Investigator Competition may submit to this category, but will not be considered for the Symposium.
  • Junior Investigators who wish to participate in the Junior Investigator Competition may submit to this category and will be considered for the Symposium.
Joint: Imaging for Therapy Assessment
    Imaging for monitoring and assessment of therapy response, including novel imaging methods (e.g., PET, MRI, ultrasound, and optical), molecular imaging and biomarkers, and relation to clinical infrastructure and clinical trials.
JOINT: SMALL ANIMAL IMAGING AND THERAPY
    Small animal IGRT. Topics related to pre-clinical imaging and therapy in small animals, including imaging systems, new treatment technology, multi-modality imaging, and pre-clinical studies. All modalities.
JOINT: Nanotechnology Applications in Imaging and Therapy
    Physics aspects of nanotechnology applications to radiotherapy and general cancer imaging and therapy.
Joint: Portal Imaging - New Technology
    Development and physical evaluation of new detectors or acquisition techniques for portal imaging applications.
Joint: Cone beam CT - New Techniques
    Development and physical evaluation of new cone beam CT techniques for radiation treatment planning, verification and monitoring.

Therapy Physics

Category Sub-Category
(if applicable) 		Definition
IMRT (photons, electrons, or particles)
  Optimization (General) Investigations of academic and/or pre-commercial optimization algorithms or methods for general applications.
Optimization (Motion) Investigations of academic and/or pre-commercial optimization algorithms or methods that are specific to motion correction or compensation.
Optimization (Robust, Probabilistic, Multicriteria)
 Investigations of extensions of optimization algorithms to be robust to treatment errors, explicitly include uncertainties, and/or are solved for a large space of cost function parameters.
Adaptive Radiotherapy Optimization utilizing sequential volumetric data to develop improved treatment plans for online or offline adaptive therapy.
Commercial Systems Evaluation or comparisons of commercial IMRT planning and delivery systems.
Clinical Applications Development of IMRT planning techniques; use of IMRT with specific clinical sites.
Delivery Description and/or evaluation of novel IMRT delivery systems.
Plan Verification Methods to verify IMRT plans with measurements or independent calculations and verification results
Quality Assurance Methods and procedures for IMRT treatment planning and beam delivery quality assurance.
Monte Carlo
  Methods Improvements in Monte Carlo techniques and modeling; photons, electrons, or particles.
Validation Validation of Monte Carlo planning with photons, electrons, or particles; clinical use.
Tx Planning and Delivery
  Clinical Planning Improvements in clinical planning methods with photons, electrons, or particles, excluding IMRT or Monte Carlo.
New Treatment Techniques and Systems New beam modalities and delivery systems with photons, electrons, or particles, excluding IMRT.
Dose calculations Development or investigation of dose computation methods with photons, electrons, or particles, excluding Monte Carlo.
Measurements
  New Dosimeters Evaluation of the characteristics of new dosimeters or evaluation of commercial dosimetry devices.
New Dosimetry Systems and Procedures Development and Evaluation of new phantoms, measurement systems and dosimetry procedures that are machine specific and/or treatment specific.
Clinical Measurements (Small Fields and Buildup Regions) Dosimetric measurements for small fields and buildup regions in uniform phantoms.
Clinical Measurements (Inhomogeneities) Dosimetric measurements for inhomogeneous geometry and interfaces.
Calibration and QA QA for planning, delivery or other processes/programs.
Brachytherapy
  New Isotopes and Radiopharmaceuticals Use of new isotopes and radiopharmaceuticals; also devices if not specific to a clinical site.
Treatment Techniques Dosimetry, delivery, and radiation safety of brachytherapy.
Emerging Clinical Applications Novel applications of brachytherapy to prostate, breast, etc.
Stereotactic Radiosurgery and Radiotherapy
  Cranial Dosimetry, planning, and delivery of SRS/SRT for intra- cranial applications.
Extra-cranial Dosimetry, planning, and delivery of SRS/SRT for extra-cranial applications.
Radiobiology
  Fundamental Radiation biology, animal experiments.
Outcome Modeling and Design of New Trials NTCP, TCP modeling from dose data for clinical trials and design of new clinical trials for dose escalation and fractionation studies.
Treatment Planning and Evaluation Use of radiobiological models in the treatment planning and evaluation processes.
Other (Therapy)
  General Radiation safety, thermal therapies, any other.
Informatics Information science, technology and processes related to information organization, communication and analysis in medicine.

Imaging Physics

Category Sub-Category
(if applicable) 		Definition
Radiography
  New Technology and Techniques Topics related to x-ray radiography, including DR and CR, detector design and characterization, image acquisition techniques, system design. They also include issues related to image acquisition and formation, e.g. scattered radiation, glare, etc. Abstracts concerning image processing, display, CAD, etc. should be submitted under respective categories, below.
Clinical Applications Clinical application of novel radiographic imaging technology and techniques.
Mammography
  New Technology and Techniques All aspects of breast imaging including digital x-ray mammography, tomosynthesis, CT, MRI, ultrasound, radioisotope imaging, optical and multi-Modality. Topics include novel detectors and their evaluation, instrumentation, system evaluation, and new techniques in mammography. Abstracts concerning image processing, display, CAD, etc. should be submitted under respective categories, below.
Clinical Applications Clinical application and/or evaluation of novel breast imaging technologies and techniques.
Fluoroscopy
    Topics related to real-time fluoroscopy, including digital techniques, imaging system design and characterization, new methods of performance characterization, and clinical studies.
Vascular, Endovascular, and Cardiac X-ray Imaging
  New Technology and Techniques Topics related to vascular, endovascular, and cardiac x-ray imaging. Abstracts on other modalities, including ultrasound, MRI, PET, etc., should be submitted their respective categories
Clinical Applications Clinical application of novel vascular or cardiac imaging technology and techniques.
Computed Tomography
  Reconstruction Techniques Topics in all aspects of CT reconstruction, including cone-beam CT reconstruction, new reconstruction techniques, methods for fast reconstruction, correction of image artifacts, etc.
Multi-Detector CT Topics related to the design and performance of multi-detector CT imaging technology (e.g., 64-slice CT scanners), including detector design, system evaluation, imaging performance, and dosimetry.
Cone-Beam CT Topics related to cone-beam CT, including the use of flat-panel detectors for cone-beam CT. Research related specifically to cone-beam CT reconstruction may be submitted in this subcategory or in "Reconstruction Techniques," above.
Tomosynthesis Topics related to general tomosynthesis imaging issues. Research concerned with a specific body site (e.g., breast) should be submitted in an application oriented subcategory (e.g., "Mammography"). Research to tomosynthesis reconstruction should be submitted in the subcategory of Reconstruction Techniques.
Clinical Applications Clinical application of novel computed tomography technology and techniques.
Nuclear Medicine
  New Technology and Techniques All aspects of Nuclear Medicine, including SPECT and PET, imaging system design, image acquisition, reconstruction, tracers, and clinical studies. Abstracts concerning image fusion of nuclear medicine images should be submitted in the Visualization and Image Fusion category. Those concerning image processing, display, CAD, etc. should be submitted under their respective categories.
Clinical Applications Clinical application of novel nuclear medicine imaging techniques.
Ultrasound
  New Technology and Techniques All aspects of Nuclear Medicine, including SPECT and PET, imaging system design, image acquisition, reconstruction, tracers, and clinical studies. Abstracts concerning image fusion of nuclear medicine images should be submitted in the Visualization and Image Fusion category. Those concerning image processing, display, CAD, etc. should be submitted under their respective categories.
Clinical Applications Clinical applications of novel ultrasound imaging technology and techniques.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  New Technology and Techniques All aspects of MRI, MRS and MRA, including image acquisition, reconstruction, new technologies, and clinical studies. Unless specifically related to MR, abstracts concerning image processing, display, CAD, etc. should be submitted under respective categories, below.
Clinical Applications Clinical application of novel magnetic resonance imaging technology and techniques.
Optical Imaging
    All aspects of optical imaging, including optical coherence tomography, detectors, lasers, image acquisition, reconstruction, and clinical studies. Abstracts specific to small animal imaging by optical methods may be submitted in this category or the Small Animal Imaging category. Unless specifically related to optical imaging, abstracts concerning image processing, display, CAD, etc. should be submitted under respective categories, below.
Multi-Modality Imaging
  CT + Nuclear Medicine Imaging techniques combining CT and nuclear medicine (e.g., PET) techniques. Abstracts concerning image fusion may be submitted in this categories related to image registration / fusion. Abstracts concerning display, CAD, etc. should be submitted under respective categories, below.
X-Ray + Ultrasound Imaging techniques combining x-ray and ultrasound techniques. Abstracts concerning image fusion may be submitted in this categories related to image registration / fusion. Abstracts concerning display, CAD, etc. should be submitted under respective categories, below.
Other Imaging techniques combining any modalities not listed in the above Multi-Modality Imaging subcategories (e.g., x-ray + optical). Abstracts concerning image fusion may be submitted in this categories related to image registration / fusion. Abstracts concerning display, CAD, etc. should be submitted under respective categories, below.
Non-Conventional Imaging
    All modalities with application in medical imaging not covered in other categories, including infrared imaging, impedance imaging, thermoacoustic imaging, MEG, and other topics.
Image Registration, Fusion, Segmentation, and Visualization
  Image Registration / Fusion Techniques for registration and/or fusion of image data, including any combination of (2D, 3D, and/or 4D) imaging modalities, deformable modeling, and related topics.
Image Processing and Segmentation Topics in all areas of medical image processing including new methodologies, image or feature enhancement, tissue segmentation, and clinical evaluation, as applied to any medical imaging modality.
Visualization / Rendering Techniques for rendering and display of medical image data.
CAD
  New Technology and Techniques Topics in computer-aided diagnosis, including new methodologies as applied to mammography, chest, CT and other modalities.
Clinical Applications Clinical application and/or evaluation of novel CAD technology and techniques.
Display and PACS
  Display Technology and Evaluation Techniques for display of image data, including display performance evaluation, new display technologies, 2D and 3D displays, and related topics.
PACS Technology, infrastructure, and techniques related to PACS.
Dosimetry, Radiation Protection, and Quality Control (Imaging)
  Quality Control Technology and techniques for imaging quality assurance, including topics related to the practice of diagnostic medical physics and radiology quality assurance (TQM, etc.). Included in this subcategory are topics of accreditation and regulatory interest, such as the ACR, FDA, etc.
Imaging Dosimetry and Radiation Protection All topics in the area of radiation protection, including shielding, safety, and dosimetry as related to medical imaging, including internal and external radiation sources. Special attention will be paid to submissions on new protection or dosimetry approaches. Abstracts concerning a given modality but focusing on dosimetric aspects (e.g., imaging dose in CT or PET) should be submitted under this category.
Image Science
  Imaging Performance: Measurement and Modeling Topics of fundamental image science and imaging physics, including measurement and mathematical modeling of detector performance, imaging system evaluation, linear systems analysis, new evaluation techniques, performance metrology, etc. Topics specific to a given modality may be submitted in this category or that of the modality, at the authors' discretion.
Observer Performance: Measurement and Modeling Topics related to model and human observer performance, including experimental and theoretical analysis of observer performance (ROC, LROC, FROC, 2AFC, MAFC, etc.) and analytical models of human or machine visual systems.
Other Aspects of Imaging
    Other aspects of imaging and diagnostic medical physics, including economics, history, demographics, relation to other fields of research, and other topics.

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