Medical Imaging Research Unit
Director:
Prof Tania Douglas
E-mail: Tania.Douglas@uct.ac.za
This new research unit
forms a part of the Allan Cormack Institute for Medical Imaging. Allan MacLeod
Cormack was a graduate of the University of Cape Town and a Lecturer in the
Department of Physics from 1950 to 1956.
While seconded to Groote
Schuur Hospital in 1956, Cormack initiated a research project which laid the
foundation for the development of the computed tomography (CT) scanner. This
pioneering research earned him a share of the Nobel Prize for Medicine in
1979. After a long and distinguished career at Tufts University in Boston,
Professor Cormack died in May 1998.
Mission
The
mission of the institute is to conduct world-class research in medical imaging
that specifically addresses the health care needs of Africa. The institute
has a multidisciplinary focus, attracting talented physicists, engineers,
computer scientists and medical doctors. In addition to cutting across departmental
boundaries at UCT, the institute also facilitates active collaboration with
other universities and organisations in South Africa and abroad.
The research focuses on
the role of medical imaging in health care problems such as trauma, cancer,
tuberculosis, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, neuromuscular disorders,
and alcohol abuse, all of which are highly relevant to Africa.
The participants are engaged
in projects which utilise medical imaging techniques to study some of these
health care problems. These projects include:
- low-dose digital X-rays
for trauma and TB screening;
- a navigator for neurosurgery;
- teleradiology;
- functional brain imaging;
- measurement of cancer
cell topography;
- characterising neuromuscular
function;
- positioning patients
for proton therapy; and
- screening of children
for foetal alcohol syndrome.
Services
offered
Three-dimensional
measurement of objects with a volume of 10x10x10 cm3 to an accuracy of 30
microns.
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