Technical Note: A standardized automation framework for monitoring institutional radiotherapy protocol compliance

Sarah Quirk, Jordan Lovis, Kailyn Stenhouse, Lukas Van Dyke, Michael Roumeliotis, Kundan Thind

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Purpose: To establish a framework for the standardization of monitoring radiotherapy protocol compliance. Methods: An automated protocol compliance tool was developed using best practice in software design and a flexible framework to easily adapt to changing institutional standards. The Eclipse scripting environment was used to develop the application with the scripting application programing interface (API) and direct data extraction from ARIA. For each institutional protocol, external validation was specified in a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) file that stores protocol specific constraints and evaluates compliance of the data from Eclipse and Aria. This tool was applied prospectively to a cohort of prostate cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy with a prescription regimen of 60 Gy in 20 fractions. Results: The prospective evaluation was performed on 58 prostate cancer patients. For this cohort, the mean (standard deviation) pass rate is 92.3% (6.1%). The overall fail rate is 6.0% (5.8%); the percentage of these failures is in 2.6% in Patient Assessment, 0% in Simulation, and 97.4% in Treatment Planning. Conclusions: A protocol compliance application is developed and implemented in a standard radiotherapy information system. The application functionality is demonstrated on a cohort of 58 patients undergoing prostate radiotherapy, which highlights the utility of assessing adherence to institutional protocols. A unified method must be available for the community to ensure consistency in compliance reporting.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2661-2666
Number of pages6
JournalMedical physics
Volume48
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2021
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • automation
  • clinical trial
  • informatics
  • protocol compliance
  • quality assurance
  • standardization

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biophysics
  • Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Technical Note: A standardized automation framework for monitoring institutional radiotherapy protocol compliance'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this