This seminar will report on the latest developments presented during the 7th Workshop on Medical Applications of Spectroscopic X-ray detectors. The Workshop is held every 2 years and unites researchers from hospitals, industry, academia and research organizations. The presentation will summarize key results, themes, and messages from the workshop and is intended for interested individuals in science, medicine or the general public.
Within clinical radiology spectral x-ray imaging has now entered routine clinical practice. This improvement in patient care has arisen from the development of photon counting. This method of measuring individual x-ray photons has enabled higher spatial resolution, lower x-ray dose, and multi-energy imaging.
The technology has its roots in the 1980s and 1990s when the High Energy Physics community centered around CERN developed a combination of segmented silicon sensors and very large-scale integration (VLSI) readout circuits to enable precision measurements at unprecedented event rates. By the late 1990’s, several groups had proofs of concept and by 2008, pre-clinical spectral photon counting CT systems were under investigation by several groups.
In 2011, leaders in the field decided to bring together engineers, physicists, and clinicians to help to address the scientific, medical and engineering challenges associated with guiding the technology towards clinical adoption. 13 years later the first scanners equipped with spectroscopic X-ray detectors have obtained FDA approval for clinical use and a large quantity of pre-clinical data suggests a huge potential for high quality morphological and perhaps functional imaging. However, many technical and medical challenges remain and the need for this highly specialized workshop remains.
Bio
Professor Anthony Butler is a highly reputed scientist in the CT imaging community. He is a radiologist with an interest in developing new imaging technologies. In 2007 he was one of the founders of MARS Bioimaging Ltd, a company formed to commercialise spectral imaging technology. He remains on the board and is Chief Medical Officer.
Anthony has more than 150 scientific publication (H-index >30). He has won more than 10 awards for his research including awards from the Royal Society of NZ and the Royal Australian College of Radiologists. He is the lead investigator on over $12 m of NZ government research grants and co-investigator on more than 30m of other grants.
At Te Whatu Ora, he works as a clinical radiologist with an interest in both Emergency and O&G radiology. At the University of Otago, he is Director of Imaging within the Department of Pathology. As a CERN Alumni he continues to collaborate with the Medipix3, Medipix4, and CMS groups.
Affiliations: Head of Imaging, University of Otago, Christchurch
Consultant Radiologist, Canterbury District Health Board
Chief Medical Officer, MARS Bioimaging Ltd.
Qualifications: MBChB - Medicine 1998 - University of Otago
GradDipSc - Physics 2006, University of Canterbury
FRANZCR - Radiology 2005, The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists
PhD - Engineering 2007, University of Canterbury
Michael Campbell (EP-ESE)