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Steven J. Goetsch

STEVEN J. GOETSCH

Profession:  Medical Physicist

Birth:   April 28, 1950

Education:  
B.S. Physics, Michigan State University, 1972
M.S.  Health Physics, Northwestern University, 1974
M.S.  Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin, 1980
Ph.D. Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin, 1983

Certifications:  American College of Medical Physics, Radiation Oncology Physics, 1993.   American Board of Radiology equivalency, 2006.

Fellowships:  National Cancer Institute, Pre-Doctoral Fellow, 1982-1983.

Career:
Steven Goetsch received a Bachelors Degree in Physics (with Honors) from Michigan State University in June, 1972 working with Professor Peter Schroeder and resulting in his first publication in 1973.  He enrolled in the Graduate School of Northwestern University in the fall of 1972, receiving a Public Health Service Fellowship.  Mr. Goetsch studied with renowned health physicist Dr. Herman Cember and received a Masters Degree in Civil Engineering (Health Physics) in 1974.    He became Radiation Safety Officer and Corporate Safety Officer for Amersham/Searle Corporation in Arlington Heights, Illinois, a major radiation source and radiopharmaceutical distribution company.  During this time he was active in the Midwest chapters of the Health Physics Society and the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, joining both organizations in 1974.  He entered the University of Wisconsin Graduate School in Madison, Wisconsin in 1977 as a Research Assistant to Professor Herb Attix, with whom he would work for the next 13 years.  His graduate thesis work was conducted at the Gas Target Neutron Source laboratory under the direction of Paul DeLuca, Jr.   He was named a National Institute of Health Fellowship recipient in 1980 and received a Masters Degree in Radiological Sciences that same year.  Dr. Goetsch’s thesis was on Neutron Gamma Dose Separation by the Multiple Ion Chamber Method.  He was awarded the Doctor of Philosophy in 1983.  Dr. Goetsch was named Chief Physicist and later Director of the University of Wisconsin Accredited Dosimetry Calibration Laboratory.  His writing during that period included co-authorship with Herb Attix of a manuscript for calibration of iridium-192 high dose rate remote afterloaders which became a de facto national calibration standard and is still in use today.  Other writings included calibration of strontium-90 ophthalmic applicators and quality assurance in radiation therapy.  He was appointed a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medical Physics in 1984 and promoted to Clinical Associate Professor in 1989.  During his residence in Wisconsin he served as President of the North Central Chapter of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, and later as Chapter Representative to the Board of Directors.   Dr. Goetsch served for years on the AAPM committee which oversees the Accredited Dosimetry Calibration Laboratories and on a number of other committees and task groups.  In April, 1990 Dr. Goetsch became a Hospital Physicist and Associate Clinical Professor of Radiation Oncology at the University of California Los Angeles Medical Center.  Dr. Goetsch also taught an undergraduate course at California State University Long Beach in 1993 and 1994.  During his four years at UCLA medical center, he worked with neurosurgeon Antonio De Salles to develop a linear accelerator based stereotactic radiosurgery program.   Dr. De Salles and Dr. Goetsch co-chaired four conferences on stereotactic surgery and radiosurgery, and published both a videotape of one three day meeting and two books on these topics.   In September, 1994 he accepted the position of director of medical physics at the new San Diego Gamma Knife Center at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, CA.  Dr. Goetsch has been Director of Medical Physics at the Center since 1994 and supervised acceptance of the Model U Gamma Knife in 1994 and the Gamma Knife Model 4C in 2005.  During this time he has been a consultant to six other California Gamma Knife Centers and several national corporations.  He is a member of the Board of Directors of Medical Physics Publishing Corporation.  Dr. Goetsch has taught courses in Physics of Radiation Therapy and Physics of Diagnostic Radiology for Masters students at San Diego State University Department of Physics from 1994 to the present time.  His publications during this period include reports on the physics of radiosurgery systems, clinical reports on the use of the Gamma Knife in radiosurgery  and Quality Assurance in radiation therapy.  He has served as President, Secretary, Newsletter Editor and Education Chairman of the Southern California Chapter of the AAPM, organizing the Midwinter Workshop from 2000 to the present.   He was Local Arrangements Chairman of the national AAPM meeting in 2003.  He lives in San Diego with his wife and son.

 

Publications [Up to 15]:

  1. Goetsch, S.J., “Linac and Gamma-Knife based stereotactic radiosurgery:  challenges and successes of existing QA guidelines and paradigms”, ”, Int. Journal of Radiation Oncol. Biol. Physics, in press.
  2. Perks, J. Gao, M., Smith., V., Skubic, S., Goetsch, S. “Glass rod detectors for small field, stereotactic radiosurgery dosimetric audit”, Medical Physics, Vol. 32 (3), 726-732,  March, 2005.
  3. Linskey, M.E, Johnstone, P.,  O’Leary, M., and Goetsch, S. J.  “Radiation Exposure of Normal Temporal Bone Structures During Gamma Knife Stereotactic Radiosurgery for Vestibular Schwannomas”, Journal of Neurosurgery, Vol. 98, 800-806, April, 2003.
  4. Goetsch, S.J. “Risk Analysis of Leksell Gamma Knife Model C with Automatic Positioning System”, Int. Journal of Radiation Oncol. Biol. Physics, Vol. 52, No. 3, 869-877, March, 2002.
  5. Sneed, P.K., Suh, J.H., Goetsch, S.J., Sanghavi, S.N., Chappell, R., Buatti, J.M., Regine, W.F., Weltman, E., King, V.J., Breneman, J.C., Sperduto, P.W. and Mehta, M.P., “A Multi-Institutional Review of Radiosurgery Alone vs. Radiosurgery with Whole Brain Radiotherapy as the Initial Management of Brain Metastases, Int. Journal of Radiation Oncol. Biol. Physics, Vol. 53, No. 3, p.519-526, July, 2002.
  6. Bova, F.J., and Goetsch, S.J., “Modern linac stereotactic radiosurgery systems have rendered the Gamma Knife obsolete”, Point/Counterpoint, Medical Physics, Vol. 28, No. 9, September, 2001.
  7. Goetsch, S. J., Murphy, B.D., Schmidt, R., Micka, B.S., De Werd, L.A., Chen, Y. and Shockley, S. “Physics of Rotating Gamma Systems for Stereotactic Radiosurgery”, Int. Journal of Radiation Oncol. Biol. Physics, Vol. 43, No. 3, p. 689-696, 1999.
  8. De Salles, A.A.F., Solberg, T.D., Mischel, P., Massoud, T. F., Plascencia, A, Goetsch, S., De Souza, E., and Vinuela, F.,  “Arteriovenous Malformation Animal Model for Radiosurgery:  The Rete Mirabile”, American Journal of Neuroradiology, Vol. 17, p. 1451-1458, Sep. 1996.
  9. Almond, P.R., Attix, F.H., Goetsch, S.J., Humphries, L.J.,  Kubo, H., Nath, R. and Rogers, W.O., "The Calibration and Use of Plane-Parallel Ionization Chambers for Dosimetry of Electron Beams", Medical Physics Vol. 21, (8), p. 1251-1260, August, 1994.
  10. DeSalles, A.A.F., Hariz, M, Bajada, C.L., Goetsch, S.J., Bergenheim, T., Selch, M.T., Holly, F.E., Solberg, T. and Becker, D.P., "Comparison Between Radiosurgery and Stereotactic Fractionated Radiation for the Treatment of Brain Metastases", Acta Neurochirugica, Supplement 58, p.115-118, 1993.
  11. Goetsch, S.J., Attix, F.H., DeWerd, L.A. and Thomadsen, B.R., "A New Re-entrant Ionization Chamber for the Calibration of Iridium-192 High Dose Rate Sources", International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics, Vol. 24, Number 1, page 167-170, 1992.
  12. Goetsch, S., Attix, F., Pearson, D. and Thomadsen, B., "Calibration of 192Ir High-Dose-Rate Afterloading Systems", Med. Phys, , Vol. 18, No. 3., p. 462-467, May/June, 1991.
  13. Goetsch, S. and Sunderland, S., "Surface dose rate calibration of Sr-90 ophthalmic applicators", Medical Physics, Vol. 18, No. 2, p. 161-167, March/April, 1991.
  14. Ranallo, F., Goetsch, S., DeWerd, L., Liss, M.,  Borras, C.,  White, C., Barton, J., Mian, T., Malik, S. and Wolff, M., "Calibration and Use of the Wisconsin kVp Test Cassette", Medical Physics, Vol. 15, No. 5., P. 768, Sep/Oct 1988.
  15. Attix, F., Pearson, D.,  DeLuca, P. and Goetsch, S., "Comparison of the Bragg-Gray Theory Corollaries to Fast-Neutron Cavity Measurements at 14.8MeV", Health Physics, Vol. 38, p. 623-633, 1980.

Awards:  

National Merit Scholarship, 1968 through 1972

Best Student Paper, Symposium on The Neutron, Great Lakes Chapter, Health Physics Society, Dearborn, MI, April 28, 1983.

Named a Fellow of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, 2007

American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) Activities:

Member since 1974.  Member Midwest Chapter 1974 to 1990, North Central Chapter 1978 to 1990, Southern California Chapter 1990 to present.  President North Central Chapter 1986-87, Chapter Representative to Board of Directors 1987 to 1990.  Member Accredited Dosimetry Calibration Laboratory oversight committee 1985 to 1992, member of Annual Meeting Committee 1998 to 2005, Local Arrangements Chairman 2003, member of Development Committee 1998 to present (Chairman 1999 to 2001), member of TG 39 and TG 117.  President of Southern California Chapter 1998, also Secretary and Education Chairman.

Other Professional Organization Activities:

Civic Activities:

Member Public Safety Commission, City of Solana Beach, CA 2003 to 2007.  Member, Board of Directors, Community Emergency Response Team Del Mar/Solana Beach 2005 to present.  Chairman, Climate Protection Committee for City of Solana Beach.

Avocations and Special Interests:

Astronomy, public safety, community service.

Family:   wife Mona Goetsch, teacher and choir director.  Son David:  student.