gms | German Medical Science

48th Meeting of the Particle Therapy Co-Operative Group

Particle Therapy Co-Operative Group (PTCOG)

28.09. - 03.10.2009, Heidelberg

Exploring Particle Therapy

Meeting Abstract

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  • S. O. Grözinger - Healthcare WS Particle Therapy, Siemens AG, Erlangen

PTCOG 48. Meeting of the Particle Therapy Co-Operative Group. Heidelberg, 28.09.-03.10.2009. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2009. Doc09ptcog073

doi: 10.3205/09ptcog073, urn:nbn:de:0183-09ptcog0730

Published: September 24, 2009

© 2009 Grözinger.
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Outline

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The innovative nature of particle therapy offers the possibility for efficient integration of clinical processes. Interdisciplinary cooperation demands for support of different workflows. Efficiency is enhanced by an optimized data management. Patient data as well as technical data are available whenever needed.

This presentation will provide a journey through the Siemens IONTRIS facility. Clinical work- and data flow is shown from treatment planning to delivery of particle beams including support processes like clinical QA, service and research. Particle therapy facilities consist of different layers of user interfaces. Examples of these user interfaces are presented and their integration into workflow is described.

The treatment planning software supports all relevant workflow steps like contouring, plan setup, optimization of physically delivered and biologically effective dose and plan review. Data are exchanged with the treatment delivery console via DICOM archive.

Plans selected for delivery can be verified in water phantoms. This plan verification is performed via treatment delivery console using a dedicated operation mode of the particle therapy system.

The treatment application guides the user through all workflow steps from patient preparation to beam delivery and offers tools to optimize this process. In patient setup motions of the robotic table can be preset to support the patient positioning task. Correct positioning is checked with an additional robotic system carrying an x-ray imaging system. The software provides 2D and 3D registration algorithms and tools to precisely match the acquired images to reference digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs) or the planning CT data set. Misalignments are automatically compensated using a feedback to the robotic positioning system. The delivery section of the treatment application displays all information to monitor the fully automated irradiation process in a compact way. Until irradiation is completed user interaction is restricted to the interruption of the automated process. After irradiation the relevant clinical information is summarized and archived for treatment documentation.

For each workflow step the treatment application displays all relevant information which is required to perform the respective task to the user. This information contains for example setup/prescription information and photos.

A separate user interface exists for quality assurance and service purposes. This interface is used in special operation modes and supports all relevant tasks for checking and maintaining high quality of particle beam therapy. This presentation provides a compact overview on the realization of clinical workflow integration and data management in a particle therapy system.