SU‐F‐T‐101: Insight into Dosimetry Workload and Planning Timelines: A 6 Year Review at One Institution

Purpose: To elucidate realistic clinical treatment planning workload and timelines to improve understanding for patients, payers, and other institutions involved in radiotherapy processes. Methods: A web based tool was developed using Oracle Express (Oracle Corp, Redwood City, CA) which allowed communication between the physicians and staff about the current state of the patient plan. For 6 years, all patient courses were logged and time‐stamped in 22 discreet steps which detailed start and stop times for simulation, contouring, and treatment planning tasks. This data was combined with the treatment planning database (TPDB) using the Eclipse Scripting API (Varian Medical Systems, Palo Alto, CA) to cross‐identify plans between the two systems. This time data was analyzed across our dosimetry staff and treatment modality. Results: In 6 years, 110,477 patient statuses were time‐logged for 9683 courses of treatment using our internal software. The courses contained 8305 unique patients who were binned into one of 11 diagnosis site categories. 8253 courses could be reconciled against the TPDB using timestamp data from patient statuses. The average planning volume per dosimetrist was 375.8 ± 142.4 plans per year with the average number of planning revisions per dosimetrist of 71.0 ± 27.1 plans per year. The median treatment planning times by modality ranged from to 48.3 hours for IMRT plans 5 fields or less to 119.6 hours for IMRT with 8 or more fields. Two arc VMAT, three arc VMAT, and 3D plans median times were 89.1 hours, 113.8 hours, and 50.9 hours respectively. Conclusion: Using our web based tool, we have demonstrated the ability to quantify treatment planning timelines and workloads which could help in setting appropriate expectations for patients, payers, and hospital administration. COI: Author received monies from Varian Medical Systems for research and teaching honorarium.