Diverse Workflows, Flexible Tools: Thompson Proton Center

The team at Thompson Proton Center has taken large steps towards better efficiency and precision to support their patient care path. By thoughtfully incorporating automation tools, the department has reshaped its approach to both pre-treatment workflows and routine plan reviews, yielding tangible time savings and consistency to improve the way they treat patients.

Implementing AI For Efficiency
According to Dr. Samantha Hedrick, PhD, Director of Medical Physics, a recent key focus for their department has been optimizing the pre-treatment and Quality Assurance CT (QACT) evaluation processes. Because proton plans are very sensitive to changes in anatomy, the ongoing quality of patient plans is frequently evaluated using periodic mid-course QA CT scans. By overlaying the existing plan on these image sets, they can assess critical target and OAR dose statistics to inform their decision to adapt or continue with the current plan.  The process is involved, and includes contour delineation, plan overlay, and dose statistic calculation and review. 

The team's adoption of AutoContour has led to a significant reduction in the time required for these frequent evaluations. What used to take up to an hour now takes less than 20 minutes. With patients receiving at least two QACTs per treatment course (and often more), the department saves at least 80 minutes per patient. This time savings is in addition to the efficiency boost in the pre-treatment contouring process. For these regular assessments, automating the bowel contour has been a huge improvement for time savings. This efficiency boost not only enhances productivity but also allows clinicians to allocate more attention to critical aspects of patient care.

Despite the team having an existing software for automatic segmentation, it was clear that adding AutoContour to their toolkit was essential for the needs unique to proton therapy. Having access to a robust structure library that includes bone marrow, spleen, and other key structures has proven beneficial. Some of the physicians on the team have benefitted from available nodal structure models as well. 

To better serve their patients, the team at Thompson Proton Center have thoughtfully integrated AI and automation in their proton workflows.

Improved Support for Secondary Calculations
For years, patient plans at Thompson Proton Center  were evaluated using an in-house, point-based secondary calculation spreadsheet. Influenced by new operational policies after joining a larger network of treatment facilities, they recognized the need for a standardized, reliable solution for secondary calculations. In their search, RadMonteCarlo emerged as a best-fit solution for gold standard accuracy. 

With a full 3D calculation featuring robust structure analysis, DVH information, and dose visualization, the team admits that RadMonteCarlo offers dramatically more than a spreadsheet ever could, and the results have earned their trust. 

By implementing automation tools with intention, the team at Thompson Proton Center exemplifies how targeted innovation can lead to more effective, streamlined workflows in proton therapy. This approach sets a new benchmark for efficiency and quality for their QA CT process and beyond.

“Proton treatment planning can be complex and time consuming, so it’s important to use our time wisely. Our Radformation tools reduce the time and effort required for contouring and QA analysis, allowing us to focus our time and efforts on the challenges. By improving our QACT analysis efficiency, we can ensure every patient is analyzed quickly and effectively and move us towards a future of adaptive treatments.”

-Dr. Samantha Hedrick, Medical Physicist