Therapeutic radiographer shares MR-linac knowledge in Australia
Earlier this year, I attended the Australian Society of Medical Imaging and Radiation Therapy (ASMIRT) 2019 conference in Adelaide, Australia, to give a presentation about my experience using the MR-linac at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust in Surrey. Elekta invited me to attend after seeing my NHS Twitter takeover last year, which coincided with us treating the first UK patient on the MR-linac, demonstrating the power of social media.
ASMIRT is an annual combined medical imaging and radiation therapy conference. This year’s theme was ‘better together’ and aimed to bring people together to share information on the latest technologies, ways to achieve the best outcomes and make long-term friendships and global networks. I was therefore happy to contribute to this theme by sharing The Royal Marsden experience of using a novel technology. The conference took place over four days with several hundred radiographers in attendance and included a one-day student conference. There was a varied programme covering diagnostic and therapeutic radiography with speakers from across the globe, including several colleagues from the UK.
My session was 7:30am on Saturday morning; an early start for most but luckily there was a great turnout with some interesting questions. My presentation was entitled ‘Clinical implementation of MR-linac treatment,’ which included a background on installation of the system, the training that the full MDT (radiographers, physicists and doctors) underwent to enable us to use this machine, and the workflow that we used to treat our first patient in September 2018.
After the presentation I spent the next few hours chatting with radiographers from Townsville, Melbourne and Sydney who work in hospitals that are acquiring an MR-linac in the near future. They had many of the same questions our team had before starting work, particularly around the practical aspects of implementing and using a new piece of equipment. It’s reassuring to know that worldwide we face the same challenges but are also presented with the same opportunities when using a novel technology. Networking with radiographers from different countries provides opportunities for future collaboration, as we all work towards the same goals.
Nine years ago, I visited Australia as a student to spend two weeks of an elective placement at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne. It was great to be welcomed back so warmly and see some familiar faces, as well as seeing how radiotherapy has progressed on both sides of the globe. As the digital age makes the world smaller, and travelling is much easier and quicker this is a great opportunity for us to learn from each other on an international scale
Lead picture: MR-linac radiographer Gillian Adair Smith presenting at ASMIRT 2019.
Submitted by Gillian Adair Smith, MR-linac radiographer, radiotherapy department, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust.
Published on page 2 of the May 2019 issue of RAD Magazine.
