Dr. Brooks approached Professors Hendrickson and Fagerstrom about attending the Nigerian Association of Medical Physicists (NAMP) conference during the second month of her Medical Physics residency. They encouraged her to submit current research to present so she could broaden her network, and they wanted to support her passion for standardizing radiotherapy quality assurance practices, global oncology, and educational outreach.
She was invited to give two oral presentations about reference plan development and validation and dosimetry audit assessment and comparison. Following the conference, she was invited to serve as a board member on a panel dedicated to promoting innovative research for graduate-level medical physicists. Her travel was funded through the Alexander Rodney Muir Endowment fund.
Presentation Summaries:
A validated framework for developing reference plans: Evaluating global clinical trial credentialing and PSQA systems
This study presented a practical framework to develop and validate a set of reference plans and perturbations that can be used to assess and compare the differentiability of various audit and PQSA methodologies. The Global Quality Assurance of Radiation Therapy Clinical Trials Harmonization Group (GHG) has developed this framework as part of their ongoing work to test the comparability of their audit systems; this framework supports their work of aligning international dosimetry audits across the globe.
PI and co-PI: Stephen F. Kry, Ph.D., University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; Joerg Lehman, Ph.D., Calvary Mater Newcastle Hospital, AUS.
Investigators: Fre’Etta M.D. Brooks, Ph.D. UW Medical Physics resident; Mohammad Hussein, Jessica Lye, Christopher L. Nelson, Nakamura Mitsuhiro, Mallory C. Glenn, Patricia Diez, Rushil Patel, Maddison Shaw, Ileana Silvestre Patallo, Miriam Barry, Catharine H. Clark.
A multi-institutional approach to quantifying the differences among international dosimetry auditing methodologies
This study assessed and compared the performance of end-to-end audits currently offered by six international clinical trial dosimetry audit agencies with the goal of harmonizing audits and reducing overlap in multinational trials while maintaining quality. This effort was led by the GHG.
In general, the agreement demonstrated amongst the auditing methodologies, particularly system sensitivity to detecting errors, suggests that reciprocity of clinical trial credentialing processes could be adopted by these varied agencies. This would streamline the clinical trial process and decrease the number of barriers to clinical trial participation.
PI and co-PI: Stephen F. Kry, Ph.D., University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; Catharine H. Clark, Ph.D., National Physical Laboratory, UK.
Investigators: Fre’Etta M.D. Brooks, Ph.D. UW Medical Physics resident; Joerg Lehmann, Mohammad Hussein, Jessica Lye, Christopher L. Nelson, Mitsuhiro Nakamura, Patricia Diez, Rushil Patel, Peter Greer, Hideaki Hirashima, Julianne M. Pollard Larkin, Rebecca M. Howell, Christine B. Peterson.
