Automation: The Future Of Radiotherapy

Radiotherapy rapidly evolves with new innovations. Our institution has embraced innovation, with the use of automation, to ensure that wait times between simulation and treatment date are minimal. The automation used are: MIM automatic contouring workflows, Scripted planning solutions, scripted quality check within planning system reconciling plan and patient information in Record and verify system, and QA delivery on the Linac. Automation is expected to improve plan quality by means of standardization. Quality is measured by way of pass / fail criteria on a broad scorecard and pass / fail criteria at the QA stage. These initiatives aim to decrease the time the patient’s pre-treatment journey takes. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate automation used and to time the planning process from start to finish, in comparison to non-automated plans. 20 patients of varying treatment sites were identified, 10 with automation and 10 planned without. Patient cohort were standard radical breast or palliative spine patients, with all plans being either VMAT or IMRT techniques. All patient plans were timed from when CT was completed until Plan QA was analyzed. OAR and PTV delineation were performed on MIM, and all plans developed using a treatment planning system. QA was performed with software for automated plans, and Physics performed patient specific QA with an independent quality assurance tool for non-automated. The table demonstrates the timing differences for each stage between automated and non-automated plans. The average plan from end of CT until QA analysis with plans generated with automation was 2 hours 43 minutes. Conversely, plans with no automation were finalized in an average of 7 hours 38 minutes. The biggest time saver is the Perfraction QA software that could be delivered on any compatible Linac within minutes of plan check completion. This proved that same day treatment in urgent cases wouldn’t be a viable option unless utilizing all the automation software in place. The introduction of automation into our organization has proven that patients can receive high quality same day radiotherapy treatment. Automation has streamlined the planning process, taking out manual intervention, delivery the same quality of care in a safe environment.Tabled 1Abstract 2705; TableMIM ContouringPlan generation (breast)Plan generation (Spine)Plan CheckQAAutomated Plans (mins)1245473115Non-Automated Plan (mins)271329784302 Open table in a new tab