Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32426947›Full record

ArticleJournal of applied clinical medical physics2020

Integration of automation into an existing clinical workflow to improve efficiency and reduce errors in the manual treatment planning process for total body irradiation (TBI).

David H Thomas, Brian Miller, Rachel Rabinovitch, Sarah Milgrom, Brian Kavanagh, Quentin Diot, Moyed Miften, Leah K Schubert

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Article in Journal of applied clinical medical physics, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed.

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

David H ThomasDepartment of Radiation Oncology, University of Colorado, Aurora, CO, USA.
Brian MillerDepartment of Radiation Oncology, University of Colorado, Aurora, CO, USA.
Rachel RabinovitchDepartment of Radiation Oncology, University of Colorado, Aurora, CO, USA.
Sarah MilgromDepartment of Radiation Oncology, University of Colorado, Aurora, CO, USA.
Brian KavanaghDepartment of Radiation Oncology, University of Colorado, Aurora, CO, USA.
Quentin DiotDepartment of Radiation Oncology, University of Colorado, Aurora, CO, USA.
Moyed MiftenDepartment of Radiation Oncology, University of Colorado, Aurora, CO, USA.
Leah K SchubertDepartment of Radiation Oncology, University of Colorado, Aurora, CO, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purposeTo identify causes of error, and present the concept of an automated technique that improves efficiency and helps to reduce transcription and manual data entry errors in the treatment planning of total body irradiation (TBI).

methodsAnalysis of incidents submitted to incident learning system (ILS) was performed to identify potential avenues for improvement by implementation of automation of the manual treatment planning process for total body irradiation (TBI). Following this analysis, it became obvious that while the individual components of the TBI treatment planning process were well implemented, the manual 'bridging' of the components (transcribing data, manual data entry etc.) were leading to high potential for error. A C#-based plug-in treatment planning script was developed to remove the manual parts of the treatment planning workflow that were contributing to increased risk.

resultsHere we present an example of the implementation of "Glue" programming, combining treatment planning C# scripts with existing spreadsheet calculation worksheets. Prior to the implementation of automation, 35 incident reports related to the TBI treatment process were submitted to the ILS over a 6-year period, with an average of 1.4 ± 1.7 reports submitted per quarter. While no incidents reached patients, reports ranged from minor documentation issues to potential for mistreatment if not caught before delivery. Since the implementation of automated treatment planning and documentation, treatment planning time per patient, including documentation, has been reduced; from an average of 45 min pre-automation to <20 min post-automation.

conclusionsManual treatment planning techniques may be well validated, but they are time-intensive and have potential for error. Often the barrier to automating these techniques becomes the time required to "re-code" existing solutions in unfamiliar computer languages. We present the workflow here as a proof of concept that automation may help to improve clinical efficiency and safety for special procedures.

Indexed as

Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-AssistedWhole-Body IrradiationAutomationHumansRisk ManagementWorkflowautomationincident learning systemsTBI

Identifiers

PMID32426947
PMCPMC7386186

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.