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SU‐GG‐T‐258: Solutions to Transforming a Radiotherapy Clinic with Multigenerational Equipment into a Paperless and Filmless Facility
Author(s) -
Yan Y,
Dou Y,
Weng X,
Cox C
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
medical physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.473
H-Index - 180
eISSN - 2473-4209
pISSN - 0094-2405
DOI - 10.1118/1.3468649
Subject(s) - dicom , medical physics , quality assurance , image guided radiation therapy , picture archiving and communication system , fluoroscopy , computer science , digital imaging , tomotherapy , medical imaging , medicine , multimedia , digital image , image processing , artificial intelligence , radiation therapy , radiology , pathology , image (mathematics) , external quality assessment
Purpose: To present solutions to transforming a radiation therapy clinic with multigenerational equipment to a paperless and filmless facility. Methods and Materials: Becoming paperless and filmless (digital) is not only more efficient and cost effective but also more environmentally friendly, however not all equipped systems are digital ready. Here we present in‐house developed digital solutions for those clinics with a similar clinical setting and the inclination of becoming digital: CT and analog simulators, Philips Pinnacle 3 RTP systems, BrainLAB iPlan RTP systems, conventional LINACs with IGRT capabilities, TomoTherapy units and planning systems, brachytherapy planning and delivery systems, stereotactic radiosurgery modalities and hyperthermia apparatus. A few software systems have been developed to either upgrade purchased systems or interface involved ones. System customization procedures were also performed to get them ready for a digital clinic. Results: An add‐on system, PortalSim, was developed to transform a conventional analog simulator to a digital fluoroscopy and dynamic simulation system with DICOM connectivity; a RT image pumping utility, iPump, was devised to interface BrainLAB ExacTrac IGRT system and Record and Verify (R&V) system; a DICOM screen dumping tool, ScreenBee, was created to capture computer screen of any system that lacks the effective communication channel with R&V system. Some RTP systems have been customized to meet digital requirements. As a result, all clinical data and documents from plans to quality assurance reports are consolidated in one place in digital form. Conclusion: Having a centralized data management clinical setting without using paper and radiographic film is the way to go for a digital radiation therapy clinic. Scanning everything is one of the solutions some may think of, but it is laborious and not truly paperless. There are better solutions by in‐house system development and system customization.