Image

IFIMED's main GOALS

at the Accelerator level

development of novel concepts for accelerators and beam instrumentation for medical applications

at the Detection level

development of cutting-edge technologies for particle and radiation sensors

research and development of innovative techniques and devices for medical and molecular imaging. These activities also include the emerging fields of online monitoring for hadrontherapy

research on those physical phenomena involved in the image formation process, with the aim of providing new models and reconstruction algorithms to improve the quality of medical images

at both levels

establishing appropriate training programmes for physicists, engineers and technicians to acquire the required knowledge and skills for operation and service of the devices associated with images and accelerators.

Research Groups at IFIMED


ACCELERATOR
Physics
IMAGING
for Medical applications

e-HEALTH

EU-funded International Projects

ENTERVISION European Training Network in Digital Medical Imaging for Radiotherapy
Started: Feb. 2011
4-year project coordinated by

Aims  at :
Reinforcing research in online 3D digital imaging and the training of professionals in order to deliver some of the key elements and building blocks for realizing the vision for early detection and more precise treatment of tumours.

Partners:
10 academic Institutes and Research Centres of Excellence and a leading Company in Particle Therapy
ENVISION: European Novel Imaging Systems for Ion Therapy
Started: Feb. 2010
4-year project coordinated by CERN.

Aims  at :
Tackling the problems both of on-line Dose Monitoring and of performing accurate Quality Assurance tests by developing novel imaging modalities that are related to the dose deposition and allow assessing the treated volume as well as deriving reliable indicators of the delivered dose. It concentrates on the detection of nuclear reaction products produced by the interaction of the beam with atomic nuclei of the tissue (positron emitting nuclides for ibPET, photons or light charged particles for ibSPAT).

Partners:
17 leading European research organisations, including industrial companies Siemens and IBA. The majority of the key European experts in this field are involved as well as the Hadron Research Facilities in Heidelberg and Pavia.
ULICE Union of Light Ion Centres in Europe
Started: Sept. 2009
4-year project coordinated by CNAO (Milan).

Aims  at :
Achieving greater access to hadron-therapy facilities for particle therapy research. The project is built around 3 pillars:
1. JRA : focus on development of instruments and protocols: new gantry design, improvement of fourdimensional particle beam delivery, adaptive treatment planning..
2. Networking : increasing cooperation between facilities and research communities wanting to work with the research infrastructure. .
3. Transnational access : 2-step approach, using a combination of pre-defined (within ULICE) clinical trial programmes to allow researchers to visit the facility, and radiobiological and physics experiments to take place.

Partners:
20 leading European research organisations, including industrial companies Siemens and IBA. Both existing European Hadron Research Facilities in Heidelberg and Milan are partners.
PARTNER Particle Training Network for European Radiotherapy
Started: Oct. 2008
4-year project coordinated by

Aims  at :
Reinforcing research in ion therapy and the training of professionals in the rapidly emerging field of hadron therapy. Training of researchers will help to improve the overall efficiency of ion therapy in cancer treatment, and promote clinical, biological and technical developments at a pan-European level.

Partners:
10 academic Institutes and Research Centres and 2 leading Companies