Students of the Institute of Engineering Physics for Biomedicine (PhysBio) of the MEPhI have the opportunity to gain practical skills in the departments of radiation therapy right in the lecture room. In 2022, within the framework of the Priority-2030 program, the VERT virtual reality platform was purchased at the Engineering Physics Institute of Biomedicine, which is a model of a real room in the radiotherapy department.
Since the beginning of 2023, this program has been actively used to gain practical skills in dosimetric planning for students enrolled in the "Medical Physics", "Medical Physics of Radiation Diagnostics and Therapy" and "Medical Physics of Nuclear Medicine" programs. With the ability to visualize the linac, patient anatomy, and treatment plan in 3D, student practice becomes fully interactive, allowing for all kinds of clinical scenarios.
With the help of the VERT program, PhysBio students acquire the skills to perform measurements and dosimetric tests in accordance with modern clinical quality control protocols, simulate geometric errors associated with the displacement of the patient's position during treatment.
VERT software allows training on fully realistic Varian accelerator models, demonstration of various dose delivery techniques: 3D CRT (3D Conformal Radiation Therapy), IMRT (Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy) and VMAT (Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy), as well as calculation of histograms dose - volume and assess the load on the target and critical structures (organs). At the same time, imaging is available that allows you to combine CT, MRI and PET images.
Working with VERT makes it easier for students to move from theory to practice and gain the experience they need to work in radiotherapy departments without leaving the university. At the same time, the workload of the radiotherapy departments and the operating time of the accelerator do not affect the learning process.
The VERT system will be introduced into the accreditation program for medical physicists, which is being developed on the basis of MEPhI.
