Six recipients from across Canada recognized for their ground-breaking work and excellence in innovation
Ottawa, ON – May 4, 2021 – Today the Rideau Hall Foundation announced the recipients of the sixth annual Governor
Halifax, NS
Dr. Robar is being recognized for integrating 3D printing into the treatment of skin, breast, head/neck and gynecological cancers. The software, now being deployed by Adaptiiv Medical Technologies Incorporated at leading cancer centres worldwide, enables the design of patient-specific radiotherapy accessories that improve treatment accuracy and patient experience.
Dr. James Robar is a globally-recognized medical physicist, the Chief of Medical Physics at Nova Scotia Health Authority, a professor of radiation oncology at Dalhousie University and a specialist in the high technology of radiotherapy—a treatment technique used for roughly half of all patients with cancer. He is also co-founder and CSO at Adaptiiv Medical Technologies, a rapidly growing medical-tech firm in Halifax, with the mission of improving the accuracy of cancer treatment. Dr. Robar completed his Doctorate in Medical Physics at the University of British Columbia in 2000 and residency in Medical Physics at the BC Cancer Agency in Vancouver in 2003, before relocating to Halifax. At Dalhousie University he founded new Masters and Doctoral programs in Medical Physics, the first of their kind east of Quebec, and has grown these programs by a factor of five since 2015. As a scientist, serial inventor and entrepreneur, Dr. Robar has pioneered multiple advancements improving imaging and treatment delivery for radiotherapy. These technologies include enhanced imaging to improve the accuracy of targeting tumours with radiation, hardware and software detecting sub-millimetre motion of patients to improve the precision of treatment, planning algorithms to provide improved sparing of healthy tissues and organs, and turnkey solutions allowing intelligent design of 3D printed, patient-specific accessories used during radiotherapy.