Vietnam Volunteer: I Crossed the Road and More!

 

Help Me Cross the Road!

Well I managed to make it across the road. I did learn that while bikes will go around you don’t expect cars and trucks to do the same especially when they show no sign of slowing down and have blasting horns.
Of course it is not too late to donate and no fear of doubling the donation if I don’t make it across the road. Just go to:
https://give.everydayhero.com/au/apsig-5
Just add a comment like “crossing the road” so I can acknowledge your donation. Thanks again to all those who have already donated.
I will submit a report to APSIG regarding the project in HCMC so should not talk about it here, but I did go to two hospitals in another part of the country for three days at my own expense, so will just mention something I did at each of them to give you some understanding of the work required.
At one hospital I was really impressed because the RT turned part engineer turned physicist had made his own 1D automated water tank and was able to use the 3D printer at the university to manufacture some parts. He also wrote the software to drive it. It looked as good as any commercial product. However when he started taking measurements he couldn’t understand why he was getting different results in the water than his “water” phantom. When I looked into it he had an acrylic phantom which he thought was water equivalent so I was able to show him the manual and the correction for attenuation which was about a 10% correction for depth.
At the other hospital they had started electron beam therapy and used the TPS to calculate MUs. I thought I’d do a check on their reference applicator and found that under the reference conditions the TPS gave 200 MUs to give 2Gy. However then I looked at another applicator and found somewhat alarmingly that it gave the same result. In fact no applicator or cut out factors were being used. I went through all the theory with them, including manual calculation of the MUs, but unfortunately had no time to do any actual measurements.
I am writing to both hospitals to see how I can help further. Time and money permitting I hope to return in a private capacity to check through the electron beam therapy process, especially to the first hospital to assist in implementing electron therapy. This hospital had carried through on a previous recommendation of mine to move the foam cutter and melting pot out of a store room and place it in a room with ventilation. Because of this I expect their implementation of electron therapy is imminent.
I hope this gives you some idea. Of course that is not all I did, most of the work was in HCMC and included work on a TrueBeam.
Thanks again for your donations to APSIG. Although I doubt I will be physically involved I’m excited about the future work in Cambodia and Laos where they are just beginning radiotherapy, for I believe it will reap enormous benefits, both for the physicists and in turn the patients.
Regards
Gary

2 Comments

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Lyn Oliver

Lyn Oliver · September 9, 2018 at 1:56 pm

Gary’s email shows the lighter side of volunteering abroad to aid cancer centres across the Asia-Pacific.

It is exciting to note that APSIG members have never been more active than right now with Nikki Shelton in Cambodia and Gary Arthur and Jeff Harwood in Vietnam (directly funded by APSIG fund raising). Laos will also benefit from our support and an expression of interest for volunteers will be sent out soon. We should be very proud that our small group stands up very well compared to the similar groups in the US and Europe that benefit from many more members than ours.

However, we need your donations to continue to help these centres, its as simple as that. Even a small donation from members, family and friends can go a long way and help provide education and training to physicists that will aid many patients into the future. Please donate at https://give.everydayhero.com/au/apsig-5​.

Cheers,
Simon
APSIG Chair

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