Program Information
Data Visualization From a Treatment Planning Tracking System for Radiation Oncology
K Cline*, C Kabat , Y Li , C Ha , N Kirby , S Stathakis , University of Texas HSC SA, San Antonio, TX
Presentations
SU-F-T-99 (Sunday, July 31, 2016) 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM Room: Exhibit Hall
Purpose:A treatment planning process tracker database with input forms and a TV-viewable display webpage was developed and implemented in our clinic to collect time data points throughout the process. Tracking plan times is important because it directly affects the patient quality of care. Simply, the longer a patient waits after their initial simulation CT for treatment to begin, the more time the cancer has to progress. The tracker helps to drive workflow through the clinic, while the data collected can be used to understand and manage the process to find and eliminate inefficiencies.
Methods:The overall process steps tracked are CT-simulation, mark patient, draw normal contours, draw target volumes, create plan, and review/approve plan. Time stamps for task completion were extracted and used to generate a set of clinic metrics, among which include average time for each step in the process split apart by type of treatment, average time to completion for plans started in a given week, and individual overall completion time per plan.
Results:Trends have been tracked for fourteen weeks of clinical data (196 plans). On average, drawing normal contours and target volumes is taking 2 – 5 times as long as creating the plan itself. This is potentially an issue because it could mean the process is taking too long initially, and it could be forcing the planning step to be done in a short amount of time. We also saw from our graphs that there appears to be no clear trend on the average amount of time per plan week-to-week.
Conclusion:A tracker of this type has the potential to provide insight into how time is utilized in our clinic. By equipping our dosimetrists, radiation oncologists, and physicists with individualized metric sets, the tracker can help provide visibility and drive workflow.
Funding Support, Disclosures, and Conflict of Interest: Funded in part by CPRIT (RP140105).
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