Workshop attendees zero in on CT protocols, practical solutions during hands-on conference
At the second annual CT Protocol Optimization Workshop (CT-POW), physicians, technologists, and physicists gained new ideas from UW’s CT protocol optimization team and left with practical solutions to optimize CT imaging practices.
The event was organized by CT Education and Collaboration Collective (C-TECC) and took place from Aug. 10-11. Over 50 people attended this year’s workshop.
“We used university space to make the Wisconsin Idea real,” Tim Szczykutowicz, PhD said. “I have always felt charged with sharing what we develop at Wisconsin with the world. This conference was about sharing what we create, and perhaps more importantly, teaching other sites how to work as a team like we do.”
The hands-on conference is dedicated to enhancing CT protocols and workflows. During lectures, labs, and classroom activities, speakers covered topics including new photon counting optimization considerations; CT contrast agents and enhancement principles; interventional CT; and multi-material phantom scanning and spectral decomposition.
For physicists, Dr. Szczykutowicz hopes they left with the knowledge, tools, and new ideas to help them offer expertise to their clinical partners.
While the technologists in attendance were familiar with the issues discussed at the workshop, Dr. Szczykutowicz said the goal was for them to leave feeling empowered to use new solutions to tackle challenges at their home institutions.
“We stressed multiple times at the conference how a tech is the center of protocol optimization: Nothing happens without their input and action,” Dr. Szczykutowicz said.
Additionally, 11 industry representatives attended the workshop.
“I hope they left with a broader understanding of the problems we face in CT imaging to make them better at building solutions to those problems,” Dr. Szczykutowicz added.
Faculty Presenters:
- Tim Szczykutowicz, PhD – Organizer
- Greg Avey, MD
- Meghan Lubner MD
- Prashant Nagpal, MD
- Giuseppe Toia, MD, MS
- Martin Wagner Dr. sc. hum.
- Ran Zhang, PhD
C-TECC Staff and Student Presenters:
- Courtney Goetsch (R)(CT)- Organizer
- Carrie Bartels (R)(CT)
- Rachel Bladorn (R)(CT)
- Zahra Alyani Nezhad, MS
- Aria Salyapongse, MS
- Kelsey Schluter (R)(CT)