Aiming for patient safety indicators in radiation oncology - Results from a systematic literature review as part of the PaSaGeRO study.

Background: Patient Safety Indicators (PSIs) allow the evaluation of safety levels in healthcare settings. Despite their use in various medical fields, a specific and comprehensive PSI catalogue for radiation oncology (RO) is lacking. The Patient Safety in German Radiation Oncology (PaSaGeRO) study aims for the development of a specific PSI catalogue in radiation oncology.

Multichannel laser diode to polymer waveguide array coupling with a double-aspheric lens.

An optical system for multichannel coupling of laser arrays to polymer waveguide array probes with a single biconvex lens is developed. The developed cylindrical module with 13 mm and 20 mm in diameter and length, respectively, enables coupling of eight individual optical channels using an aspheric lens. Specific coupling with crosstalk below -13 for each channel and quasi-uniform coupling over all channels is achieved for a waveguide array with 100 µm lateral facet pitch at the incoupling site.

On the Fabrication and Characterization of Polymer-Based Waveguide Probes for Use in Future Optical Cochlear Implants.

Improved hearing restoration by cochlear implants (CI) is expected by optical cochlear implants (oCI) exciting optogenetically modified spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs) via an optical pulse generated outside the cochlea. The pulse is guided to the SGNs inside the cochlea via flexible polymer-based waveguide probes. The fabrication of these waveguide probes is realized by using 6" wafer-level micromachining processes, including lithography processes such as spin-coating cladding layers and a waveguide layer in between and etch processes for structuring the waveguide layer.