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D3 Clinical Leadership
D3 takes pride in the knowledge and expertise of its team of physicists and radiation therapy experts. Learn more about our staff below:
Marc Sontag, PhD, Vice President Clinical Affairs
Ron Lalonde, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer
Dwight Earl Heron, MD, Chief Medical Advisor
Marc Sontag, PhD, Vice President Clinical Affairs Top
Dr. Sontag, our Vice President for Clinical Affairs, leads our research and development effort and has major responsibility for contributing to new program development. The D3 Research Division focuses on the development of advanced protocols and processes to support advanced radiotherapy such as IMRT for moving targets and IGRT. Dr. Sontag has over 25 years of clinical and research experience as a medical physicist. He is board certified by the American Board of Radiology, has been elected a Fellow of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, and is a member of ASTRO, Dr. Sontag completed a PhD in medical biophysics at the Princess Margaret Hospital, University of Toronto, where he studied under Harold Johns, PhD and Jack Cunningham, PhD. While in Toronto, Dr. Sontag developed the landmark modified Batho and ETAR methods of heterogeneity correction. Prior to joining D3, Dr. Sontag was Director of Physics at Duke University and then at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Earlier, he held faculty appointments at Thomas Jefferson University and the University of Pennsylvania. Currently he is a Clinical Professor of Radiation Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Sontag is the author or coauthor of more than 50 peer reviewed publications. He has been awarded several National Cancer Institute and commercial research grants totaling several million dollars. He has served on scientific advisory boards of radiation oncology corporations and holds several patents for radiation oncology technology.
Ron Lalonde, PhD DABR, Chief Scientific Officer Top
Dr. Lalonde completed a PhD in medical biophysics at Princess Margaret Hospital, University of Toronto, Canada, and a clinical medical physics residency at the Hamilton Regional Cancer Center in Hamilton, Canada. Previously, he has worked for NOMOS Corporation, where he assisted in the development of one of the first IMRT planning systems, CORVUS, and was scientific director of the BAT project, an ultrasound image-guided therapy system. A veteran in the clinical medical physics field, Dr. Lalonde has worked at cancer centers in both Canada and the U.S. Dr. Lalonde has held appointments at Temple University School of Medicine and McMaster University, and is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. His current research interests are in stereotactic body radiotherapy and the clinical application of IMRT and IGRT.
Dwight Earl Heron, MD, Chief Medical Advisor Top
Dr. Heron serves as the Vice Chairman of Radiation Oncology, and Associate Director of the Residency Program for UPMC’s Department of Radiation Oncology. He is also an Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Heron specializes in providing consultation for head & neck, breast and gynecological cases to D3 customers. His expertise has been used extensively to implement and refine D3’s Physician Training program, and to develop IMRT standard treatment guidelines. Dr. Heron leads D3’s group of consulting physicians.
Dr. Heron is a graduate of Fairfield University, and received his MD from the University of Rochester. Dr. Heron is the author of numerous published articles and research papers. He has been awarded the Presidential award for his presentation entitled “Conventional 3D vs. IMRT for Adjuvant Treatment of Gynecologic Malignancies” by the Society of Gynecologic Oncology. He also received the RSNA Roentgen Resident Research Award and has been featured on the cover of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology and Physics for innovative use of IMRT and PET-CT.
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