Thomas Lab at CUAnschutz / TJU

Department of Radiation Oncology, CUAnschutz

David Thomas


Associate Professor


Associate Professor
Division of Medical Physics
Department of Radiation Oncology
University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
[email protected]
www.thomas-lab.com
www.cuanschutz.edu
As an Early Stage Investigator, a common thread in my early research career is the development of new quantitative methods that combine theoretical analysis with experimental in‐vitro and in‐vivo data to help address fundamental questions across a number of fields, from physics to vascular biology. I have developed a multidisciplinary research portfolio that spans from in‐vivo preclinical imaging to improving imaging of human breathing motion. My work has led to over 50 peer-reviewed articles, over 100 conference presentations, and 10 international awards for research. My current research focus is designing innovative approaches to measuring radiation dose distribution in-vivo.
CLINICAL ACTIVITIES:  
Primary clinical activities: 

My primary clinical responsibilities include radiation treatment plan checks, patient specific quality assurance (QA), machine QA, patient treatment planning, patient dosimetry measurements, and general physics troubleshooting and support. support. I am the lead physicist for the Radiosurgery treatment machine, and I am responsible for all of the machine troubleshooting efforts and routine quality assurance (QA). I provide physics services for the SRS program and have designed patient treatment plans for over 30 SRS cases in the past 6 months. I provide physics services to the Rocky Mountain Gamma Knife center, and have been performing the machine daily and monthly QA, and covering and planning radiosurgery treatments. I have supported about 200 patients’ SRS treatments in the past year. I provide Physics coverage for LDR Prostate seed cases, as well as providing physics coverage for the Tomotherapy machine at Loantree (2016-2020), including; onsite physics coverage including treatment planning and patient specific QA; monthly machine QA; troubleshooting and performing physics QA after service when required.  I have been the lead physicist for past two major software upgrades to the departments Record and Verify (Aria) system. Overall, I spend 32 hours a week on direct patient care physics activities.

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RESEARCH AND SCHOLARSHIP:  

A common thread in my early research career was the development of new quantitative methods that combine theoretical analysis with experimental in‐vitro and in‐vivo data to help address fundamental questions across a number of fields, from physics to vascular biology. I have developed a multidisciplinary research portfolio that spans from in‐vivo preclinical imaging to improving imaging of human breathing motion. My work has led to 44 peer-reviewed articles (21 in the past 5 years), including 11 first-author and 1 senior author, as well as over 50 conference presentations, and 8 awards for research. My current research focus is designing innovative approaches to measuring radiation dose distribution in-vivo, and the implementation of advance computational methods and artificial intelligence to improve the quality and safety of Clinical Radiation Therapy. 

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PUBLICATIONS/SCHOLARSHIP:

Number of original articles in peer-reviewed journals (TOTAL):  44       
First-author:                            12                                
Senior-author:                         1                      
Other co-author:                      31   
Number of book chapters:      2          
Number of published or presented Refereed scientific abstracts (TOTAL): 68
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PUBLIC AND UNIVERSITY SERVICE ACTIVITIES/ PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY MEMBERSHIPS/HONORS:

·         Department representative in School of Medicine Faculty Senate (2016-2018)
·         Invited reviewer for national AAPM meeting (2014 – Present)
·         Member of the Scientific Review committee for the UC Protocol Review and Monitoring System (PRMS) (2020)
·         American Association of Physicists in Medicine, member