TU-FG-BRA-03: Systems Engineering and Treatment Planning Process Control in Radiation Medicine.

Optimizing Radiation Therapy Process The radiotherapy (RT) process has evolved over the years with innovations in CT and MR simulations, treatment planning, and treatment delivery. Image-Guided Radiotherapy (IGRT) has been widely adopted for patient setup, leading to margin reduction and isocenter repositioning after simulation. Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy (SBRT) and Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS) have gradually become the standard of care for many treatment sites, which demand a higher throughput for the simulation/plan/treatment even if the number of treatments per day remains the same. Finally, simulation, planning and treatment are traditionally sequential events. However, with emerging adaptive radiotherapy, they are becoming more tightly intertwined, leading to iterative processes. Enhanced efficiency of the radiotherapy process is therefore critical and poses serious challenges to the whole work flow. Lean six sigma approaches are being utilized increasingly to balance the competing needs for speed and quality. In this symposium we will discuss the radiotherapy therapy process and illustrate effective techniques for managing workflow. Topics will include: A. Optimization of each (simulation, planning, treatment and monitoring) RT steps. B. Influence of upstream and downstream operations for sequential and iterative RT processes. C. Reduction of repeat/delay between steps with the lean system approach. D. Optimizing the whole RT processes Learning Objectives: 1. Gain familiarity with the workflow of modern radiotherapy. 2. Understand the scope and challenges of managing modern radiotherapy therapy process. 3. Learn the Lean Six Sigma approaches and their implementation in the radiotherapy workflow.