Wearable Radiation Dosimeter for Biomedical Applications

External-beam radiotherapy as used in cancer treatment works through delivering radiation, in the form of a tightly-focused beam of photons or protons, to a patient. This radiation is then distributed through body tissue (photons more so than protons), targeted at tumours - the aim being to kill off the cancerous cells and reverse the tumour growth.

An issue in treatment is that the radiation is also delivered to neighbouring areas, which damages otherwise healthy tissue and may cause secondary tumours. To limit this, a radiation dosimeter sensor can be placed over the targeted area, to measure the radiation delivered. This can then be transmitted wirelessly to a nearby PC, allowing real-time monitoring of the actual radiation dosage delivered by the doctor.

Solution Description

A prototype was developed including a Bluetooth-enabled dosimeter sensor package, a base station connected to a PC, a software appliation to control the monitoring session, and extensions to allow communication with a centralised data store.

Awards

The project was exhibited at the Brunel Engineers Showcase at Brunel University, May 2013, where it won the Anson Fund Prize for innovation in design and engineering relating to medical applicaions.

Project/Author Information

This project was undertaken as a final year MEng Group Project at Brunel University, London by Chris Hunter, Simon Vella, Asim Jan and Seth Asenso, under the supervision of Professor Akram Khan and with the support of Rutherford Appleton Laboratories and MediWise Ltd.

For more information about the project, please read the final report.

For more information about the author of this website, please visit tirumena.co.uk, read my CV or e-mail me.