A new five-year contract with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority will award $30 million in funding to Dart-Dose, Dartmouth's Physically-Based Biodosimetry Center for Medical Countermeasures Against Radiation according to Harold Swartz, a radiology professor at Dartmouth Medical School. The contract, signed Aug. 15, will reenergize Swartz's ongoing radiation detection project, he said.
As principal director of Dart-Dose CMCR an organization founded at DMS last year Swartz leads a team of 30 scientists and engineers in developing the dosimeter, a new radiation exposure technology that can estimate the amount of radiation a person has received, Swartz said.
Swartz's team will focus the first 18 months of the contract on improving the dosimeter, which measures high levels of radiation by examining tooth enamel. The team aims to eventually receive Food and Drug Administration approval and manufacture the dosimeter in large quantities. BARDA would then stockpile the machines and distribute them to various locations throughout the country so that during catastrophic nuclear events, trained personnel could immediately be deployed to those areas, Swartz said.
The dosimeter will help facilitate medical triage and will minimize treatment delays, according to radiology professor and Dart-Dose Associate Director Benjamin Williams.
"The aim of the dosimeter is to identify and consciously separate those people who require serious medical care from those who haven't received large enough doses [of radiation] to need attention, thus better allocating resources," Williams said.
Dart-Dose aims to use the funding to increase the dosimeter's measurement precision and further automate the machine, according to Swartz. The team hopes that the dosimeters will eventually be able to provide accurate results within 10 minutes of activation, he said.
"If there is a large-scale event involving hundreds of thousands of people and the health care system is completely overwhelmed, we must be able to respond," Swartz said.
The team also plans to increase the machines' durability in unstable weather conditions, according to Ann Flood, a Dart-Dose associate director and DMS professor of community and family medicine.
"The machine has to be robust enough to handle wind and rain, especially if we're using it in tents," Flood said.
Flood, who analyzes questionnaire data to determine the most efficient and comfortable method of testing, works with cancer patients at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston to test the dosimeter's accuracy and to explore the social implications of the new technology, she said.
There are two "senses of comfort" among individuals using new technology, according to Flood.
"There is the literal: Does it smell? Is it clean? And then there is the fear," she said. "For many, radiation is a scary and dangerous, very abstract concept, so we are trying our best to make the device as comfortable and accessible as possible."
In the case of a terrorist attack or major nuclear detonation, the dosimeter could alleviate mob anxiety by providing immediate answers and consolation in a chaotic setting, Flood said.
The team has worked alongside General Electric to assimilate its dosimeter into the existing radiation detection system as seamlessly as possible, according to Swartz. The collaboration has provided valuable expertise by allowing Dart-Dose to tap into a network of specialized knowledge and automation experience, Swartz said.
Swartz stressed the importance of the new technology's practical applications.
"This is a real, unmet need," Swartz said. "If you look at the guidance and what people are told to do in the event of a major nuclear event, the guidance is often inadequate and erroneous. We here at DMS are meeting a real national need."
Biodosimetry can also provide important insight into the medical field at large, Swartz said. The same instruments that measure radiation can be used to measure oxygen in human tissues and can improve cancer therapy through personalized treatment.
"The interesting and challenging part involves doing something we're already doing and making it better," Swartz said. "My enthusiasm is that we're doing something good for society."
