Dr. Cynthia Keppel
SMARTBreast Corp.
Abstract:
Technological advances spurred by the demands of physics research find applications in many disciplines, including providing benefit to society through the treatment and diagnosis of disease. As an example, the over 3,500 hospital-based nuclear medicine departments in the U.S. perform over 10 million procedures each year, positively impact countless lives, and generate over $1 billion in revenue. The medical technologies of tomorrow may be underway in physics research
laboratories today; the same advanced instrumentation built to monitor subatomic particle interactions may be engineered into lifesaving devices. This colloquium highlights the deep, practical relationship between discovery-level experimental nuclear physics and clinical
breakthroughs. The presentation will detail the origin and creation of some specific devices, with a focus on molecular breast cancer imaging and detection.