Transperineal ultrasound is a good alternative for intra-fraction motion monitoring for prostate stereotactic body radiotherapy.

Purposes: To report our experience in a prospective study of implementing a transperineal ultrasound system to monitor intra-fractional prostate motion for prostate stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT).

Material And Methods: This IRB-approved prospective study included 23 prostate SBRT patients treated between 04/2016 and 11/2019 at our institution. The prescription doses were 36.

Combining automatic plan integrity check (APIC) with standard plan document and checklist method to reduce errors in treatment planning.

Purpose/objectives: To report our experience of combining three approaches of an automatic plan integrity check (APIC), a standard plan documentation, and checklist methods to minimize errors in the treatment planning process.

Materials/methods: We developed APIC program and standardized plan documentation via scripting in the treatment planning system, with an enforce function of APIC usage. We used a checklist method to check for communication errors in patient charts (referred to as chart errors).

Three IMRT advanced planning tools: A multi-institutional side-by-side comparison.

Purpose: To assess three advanced radiation therapy treatment planning tools on the intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) quality and consistency when compared to the clinically approved plans, referred as manual plans, which were planned without using any of these advanced planning tools.

Materials And Methods: Three advanced radiation therapy treatment planning tools, including auto-planning, knowledge-based planning, and multiple criteria optimization, were assessed on 20 previously treated clinical cases. Three institutions participated in this study, each with expertise in one of these tools.

Evaluation of auto-planning in IMRT and VMAT for head and neck cancer.

Purpose: The purposes of this work are to (a) investigate whether the use of auto-planning and multiple iterations improves quality of head and neck (HN) radiotherapy plans; (b) determine whether delivery methods such as step-and-shoot (SS) and volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) impact plan quality; (c) report on the observations of plan quality predictions of a commercial feasibility tool.

Materials And Methods: Twenty HN cases were retrospectively selected from our clinical database for this study. The first ten plans were used to test setting up planning goals and other optimization parameters in the auto-planning module.

Departmental Workload and Physician Errors in Radiation Oncology.

Purpose: The purpose of this work was to evaluate measures of increased departmental workload in relation to the occurrence of physician-related errors and incidents reaching the patient in radiation oncology.

Materials And Methods: All data were collected for the year 2013. Errors were defined as forms received by our departmental process improvement team; of these forms, only those relating to physicians were included in the study.

Workflow enhancement (WE) improves safety in radiation oncology: putting the WE and team together.

Purpose: To review the impact of a workflow enhancement (WE) team in reducing treatment errors that reach patients within radiation oncology.

Methods And Materials: It was determined that flaws in our workflow and processes resulted in errors reaching the patient. The process improvement team (PIT) was developed in 2010 to reduce errors and was later modified in 2012 into the current WE team.