BACKGROUND Public health services in the Soviet Union and its satellite states in Central and Eastern Europe were delivered through centrally planned and managed networks of sanitary-epidemiological (san-epid) facilities. Many countries sought to reform this service following the political transition in the 1990s. In this paper we describe the major themes within these reforms. METHODS A revi...

This work validates the use of an amorphous-silicon, flat-panel electronic portal imaging device (a-Si EPID) for use as a gauge of patient or phantom radiological thickness, as an alternative to dosimetry. The response of the a-Si EPID is calibrated by adapting a technique previously applied to scanning liquid ion chamber EPIDs, and the stability, accuracy and reliability of this calibration ar...

this paper presents a new methodology for the automated inspection of pipes. standard inspection systems are based on closed-circuit television cameras which are mounted on remotely controlled robots and connected to remote video recording devices. the main problems of such camera-based inspection systems are: 1) the lack of visibility in the interior of the pipes and 2) the poor quality of the...

A new gamma camera based on hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) pixel arrays to be used in nuclear medicine is introduced. Various performance characteristics of a-Si:H imagers are reviewed and compared with those of currently used equipment. An important component in the a-Si:H imager is the scintillator screen. A new approach for fabrication of high resolution CsI(Tl) scintillator layers,...

Anonymous authentication can give users the license to misbehave since there is no fear of retribution. As a deterrent or means to revocation, various schemes for accountable anonymity feature some kind of (possibly distributed) trusted third party (TTP) with the power to identify or link such misbehaving users. Recently, schemes such as BLAC, EPID, and PEREA showed how anonymous revocation can...

BACKGROUND The radiation field on most megavoltage radiation therapy units are shown by a light field projected through the collimator by a light source mounted inside the collimator. The light field is traditionally used for patient alignment. Hence it is imperative that the light field is congruent with the radiation field. METHOD A simple quality assurance tool has been designed for rapid ...

BACKGROUND This study was designed to compare the quality assurance (QA) results of four dosimetric tools used for intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and to suggest universal criteria for the passing rate in QA, irrespective of the dosimetric tool used. MATERIALS AND METHODS Thirty fields of IMRT plans from five patients were selected, followed by irradiation onto radiochromic film,...