Rock Mackie

 Rock Mackie

Rock Mackie, PhD, is an emeritus professor in the department of medical physics and human oncology and the Vice Chair for the Board of Visitors at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. He was born and raised in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in Canada and received his B.S. in physics from the University of Saskatchewan before receiving his PhD in physics from the University of Alberta. 

Over the course of his career, Mackie has published over 165 papers within the past 36 years. Mackie’s career focus has been on making radiation therapy and imaging more efficient for cancer patients. In addition to his academic contributions to medical physics, his career has also been marked by his entrepreneurship. He founded TomoTherapy, Inc., which helped to develop tomotherapy. Tomotherapy is akin to a combination of a CT scanner and a linac, and has become the most widely used cancer therapy treatment globally. He has also co-founded other medical technology companies such as Geometrics, and helps invest in and conduct research for Shine Medical Technologies as well as Wisconsin Brewing. His current research has been focusing on developing a proton therapy machine for cancer treatment. 

Tomotherapy uses technology used in both CT scans and linac (linear acceleration) to efficiently deliver radiation therapy to cancer patients. During tomotherapy, the patient lays down in a machine that looks quite similar to a CT machine. The “CT component” of tomotherapy allows physicians to monitor the patient’s anatomy during and between appointments, and adjust the radiation beam accordingly. In other words, CT technology allows physicians to monitor a tumor’s growth between appointments, and then adjust the radiation beam to precisely target a tumor that may have moved because of weight loss or shrinkage, for example. This allows physicians to hone in on cancerous tissue while sparing healthy tissue more efficiently. The linac portion of tomotherapy allows physicians a greater amount of “movement” around the patient. Physicians can either deliver multiple radiation beams while the patient moves through the machine in “fixed” tomotherapy, or a beam can “trace” a patient as the patient is held stationary. Tomotherapy has helped make radiation treatment much less invasive, and has made it much more precise. 

Literature Cited:
Hellpap, Andrew. "'Rock' Mackie Brings Expansive Entrepreneurial Talent to Lead New InnovationInitiative." UW Health, www.uwhealth.org/news/thomas-rock-mackie-to-lead-innovation-initiative/52527.
"T. Rockwell Mackie." Department of Medical Physics University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, www.medphysics.wisc.edu/blog/staff/mackie-t-rockwell/.
Newman, Judy. "UW-Madison's 'Rock' Mackie rocks business plan contest." Wisconsin State Journal, madison.com/wsj/business/uw-madisons-rock-mackie-rocks-business-plan-contest/article_b593833f-7bd0-5b8e-9524-8196b40a664b.html. 
PubMed. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Mackie%20TR[Author.