PM Senior Scientist and Techna Affiliated Faculty Dr. I. Alex Vitkin has been honoured with the Michael S. Patterson Publication Impact Prize in Medical Physics for 2017 by the Canadian Organization of Medical Physics. The prize is awarded to a member of the Organization for a scientific article that has had a tremendous impact in the field of medical physics. Dr. Vitkin is being honoured for his article, “Speckle variance detection of microvasculature using swept-source optical coherence tomography”, published in a 2008 issue of Optics Letters.
In this article, Dr. Vitkin and his collaborators developed a computer algorithm for optical coherence tomography, a technique that is used to visualize and map blood vessels. When applied to the technique, the algorithm improved the ability to measure blood flow in very small vessels and provided a more complete map of the circulatory system in real time. This research has important implications for photodynamic therapy, in which light therapy is used to specifically target and destroy tumours, because monitoring how blood vessels respond to the therapy is a critical component of the procedure.
To date, the article has been cited approximately 300 times, demonstrating its influence among the research community. It has also been designated a Highly Cited Paper by Thomson Reuters, indicating that it has received enough citations to place it in the top 1% of all articles published in the academic field of Physics in the same publication year.