Researcher Profile- Dr. James Robar

What is your current research project?  

Dr. James Robar

I am involved in several research projects with the common theme of improving radiation therapy or radiosurgery.   One recent effort is the development of a new technology to detect a patient’s body position during the delivery of high-energy x-ray beams, in order to monitor and ensure accuracy of treatment. Right now, my research team is focusing on stereotactic radiosurgery—a non-invasive treatment of benign or malignant tumours, as well as of conditions such as arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) or trigeminal neuralgia.  The technology that we are developing allows us to read out the patient’s head position in three dimensions, 200 times per second and with sub-millimetre precision.  If the patient moves, we will know, and can interrupt treatment.  The technology uses an array of novel capacitive sensors.

How did you become interested in your research topic? 

A few years ago, I came across a black paint that was highly electrically conductive.  You could apply a thin layer to virtually any material, and then use the painted region, for example, as a switch by touching it.  But when I experimented further, I realized that it was detecting the approach of my hand long before it had made contact, and with high sensitivity.  This is basic physics!  I then 3D-printed a ring-shaped prototype that could, for example, be placed around a patient’s head.  The detector element was very thin, so it wouldn’t disturb the incoming radiation beams. At the time, my five-year-old Keira helped me paint on the eight detectors.  With some basic data acquisition and math (mostly by me, not Keira), pretty soon we were creating doodles on a monitor by waving our hands in the air.  It was fun and proved the concept. 

What has been unexpected about your findings so far? 

Since the human body allows a high capacitance, but plastic does not, the detector can effectively “see through” an immobilization mask that the patient may be wearing for treatment.  This wasn’t a property that we originally thought about, but it is exactly what we want.  It also provides a key competitive advantage – other real-time approaches have to monitor the patient’s skin, which gives a poor surrogate for the position of a brain tumour.

What’s innovative about your research? 

Nobody has built a system like this before, to our knowledge.  With the help of Dalhousie ILI, we filed a patent. Now, through collaboration with our industry partner Brainlab AG and with support from ACOA, we are working on this technology to bring the tech to patients worldwide.

One word that best describes how you work: matinal

What technology can’t you live without?  The GPS chart plotter on my sailboat.  It keeps me on target.

How do you envision your research benefiting the “public at large”?

We foresee all of our research projects as improving outcomes for patients, increasing efficiency of care, or improving the patient experience.  Also, by doing the R&D within a graduate program, we educate many medical physics trainees – who will be the next generation of clinical physicists and innovators.