01/21/2026
By Amanda Vozzo
Date: Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2025
Time: 4 - 5 p.m.
Location: Ball 210
Ivan Buzurovic, Associate Professor of Medical Physics in Radiation Oncology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School will give a talk on “Automation, Optimization and MRI-Only Workflows in Modern Brachytherapy."
Abstract: Recent advances in imaging, automation, and computational optimization are reshaping brachytherapy within precision radiation oncology. Automated and feedforward inverse planning strategies for high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy address planning variability and time constraints by improving dosimetric consistency and enabling rapid intraoperative decision making through robust optimization formulations and clinically integrated algorithms. In parallel, MRI-only brachytherapy treatment planning leverages improvements in image acquisition, distortion correction, and applicator reconstruction to eliminate CT imaging, simplify workflow, and reduce systematic uncertainties associated with multi-modality registration. These developments reflect broader trends in medical physics toward tighter integration of imaging, computation, and delivery, enabling adaptive workflows and more direct translation of physics-based methods into routine clinical practice. Collectively, they position modern brachytherapy as a testbed for scalable, data-driven innovation with direct impact on treatment quality and reliability.
Bio: Ivan Buzurovic, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Medical Physics in Radiation Oncology at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. He earned his Ph.D. in Control Systems and Medical Robotics. Prior to his tenure at Harvard, he was affiliated with Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. His expertise lies at the intersection of medical physics, control systems, and robotics applied to cancer treatment. He specializes in brachytherapy, medical robotics, and image-guided radiotherapy. His work often focuses on 4D real-time tumor tracking and improving the efficiency of treatment planning for cancers such as cervical and skin cancer. His research includes developing new techniques for catheter detection and dose deviation measurement in high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy. He has co-authored significant clinical practice guidelines, including those for the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) regarding radiation therapy for skin cancers.