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AutoContour Feature Focus: Planning Structure Generation
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Not sure where the product manual lives? Need to anonymize your patient data? This FAQ addresses common questions we see on Radformation-related topics.
We're suckers for good tips and tricks. We're into anything that makes us a little bit better, or at least confirms what we already know! While we receive volumes of product-specific questions (which you might see addressed in future blog posts), we also see a lot of questions on some Radformation basics. So let's start there. From basics like creating an account to details about Regular Expressions, we answer our most frequently asked questions about everything RAD-related.
Q: How do I create an account on the Radformation website?
A: To create an account:
- Go to the radformation.com website and click Contact in the top right corner of the window.
- Fill out the form and indicate that you’d like to create an account in the message section.
- Once we verify your email address and institution, we’ll send you an institution key. Click Create an account from our sign-in page and fill out the form with your work email. Use the provided institution key and check your inbox to confirm your account.
Q: Am I taking/using a license if I log into the System Administration application?
A: No, logging in to the System Administration application will not take up a license.
Q: How do I send anonymized data to Radformation?
A: The best method of anonymizing your data varies depending on the product.
For ClearCalc and non-Eclipse TPS systems, the Anonymizer Standalone provides a great way to send data to Radformation for troubleshooting.
- Anonymizer Standalone Tool
- Export the plan—with structure set, CT data, and beam-specific dose—directly to an empty folder.
- Locate the AnonStandalone.exe file. There are two ways to do this:
- For Eclipse Users: Open the PublishedScripts Folder (or equivalent install location) and locate the AnonStandalone.exe file.
- For Non-Eclipse Users: Download the AnonStandalone.exe file here: AnonStandalone.exe
IMPORTANT: If you downloaded the file, move the AnonStandalone.exe file into the same folder as your scripts folder (this should be in the same folder as ClearCalc.exe and ClearCheck.esapi.dll; usually you can find the folder path by navigating to External Beam Planning ⇒ Tools ⇒ Scripts, then "Open Directory" (if the PublishedScripts folder is used). - Run the AnonStandalone.exe application
- Click Export To Radformation
- A prompt will appear.
- Click Browse, and browse to the folder where the DICOM files are.
- Click Begin Anonymization.
- In the next window, helpful information includes:
- Adding your email and reason for uploading to keep all that together with the data.
- Screenshots or anything else that would be helpful for our team to troubleshoot the issue.
Note: Please do not include PHI - Click Export.
- In AutoContour: Click the info icon in the top right corner of the AutoContour
window, and then follow steps 4-7 above.
- For Eclipse users with ClearCheck or EZFluence, Radformation includes an AnonPlugin script with every install that will automate many of the steps above. Pull the plan you’d like to upload into the active window of Eclipse. If there are multiple plans (i.e., a plan sum), you will need to repeat for each plan.
Simply go to Tools ⇒ Scripts and highlight the AnonPlugin script.
- For ChartCheck:
- Highlight patients and make them active on the main screen
- Click on the info icon in the upper right-hand corner
- Choose Anonymize and Export to Radformation
Q: I’d like to share some of my favorite templates with a coworker. How do I do this?
A: ClearCheck, AutoContour, and QuickCode all operate based on user-customizable templates. These templates are exportable and can be shared across multiple installations of those products. Simply export your favorite templates and email them to a colleague or friend.
- With the Template Manager open and your favorite template selected, click the export icon.
- Export the template to a known location.
- To import the template, simply click on the import icon, navigate to the template file, and click on that file.
- This feature is available for each of these products:
- ClearCheck: Constraints, Structure Checks, Plan Checks, and Treat Prep Checks
- AutoContour: Structure, and User Structure templates
- QuickCode: Billing Templates, Code Conflict Templates, and Medically Unlikely Edits (MUE) Templates
Q: How can I access the user manual for the products?
A: Links to the product user manuals are typically included within the software itself.
Click on the info icon located in the top right corner of the window, and then click on the User Manual link.
Q: What is RegEx, and when can I utilize it?
A: RegEx stands for ‘Regular Expression.’ RegEx allows for extremely powerful text-matching capabilities. There are several applications of this in both ClearCheck and AutoContour.
- For ClearCheck, RegEx can be used in the Dose Constraint Templates to help with contour name matching. It increases the flexibility of naming and helps automate the contour linking process. Using RegEx in Plan Checks, Treat Prep Checks, and Report templates is also possible.
- For AutoContour, RegEx can once again be used to automate the matching process between contour names and the structure models in AutoContour.
Here are some examples:
Simple examples:
|
^$ |
Will match “nothing” qualifier. Use this if you want to ensure nothing is entered for a specific field (i.e., “Field Name”). |
|
\s? |
Will match one space or no space. For example, 01\s?CCW will match both 01CCW and 01 CCW. |
|
^G$GantryAngle |
Will match strings that start with a capital G and are followed by the gantry angle of the field. For static fields with gantry angles 0, 180, and 90, this will match G0, G180, G90, etc., but not GG0, G181, 90, or 90G. |
|
PTV* |
String must start with PTV. PTV, PTV50, and PTV5000 will match. GTV5000 and CTV5000 will not. |
|
^PTV\d{2}$ |
The “\d{2}” means that exactly two digits should follow directly after “PTV” in the string you are evaluating. Will match PTV54, PTV70, but not PTV5400, PTV, PTV_54, ptv54, or opt_PTV54. |
More Complex examples:
|
(?i)(L|LT|Left)[^a-zA-Z]*Coch(lea)? |
Will match as above, including cases that use Coch instead of Cochlea. Will match L_Cochlea, L-Coch, LeftCoch, and LCOCHLEA. |
|
(?i)^(L|LT|Left)[^a-zA-Z]*Coch(lea)?$ |
Will match as above but will not match if there are any characters before or after the tested string. Will match L_Cochlea, LtCochlea, LeftCoch but NOT zzL_Cochlea, opt_LtCochlea, LeftCoch_PRV, etc. |
|
(?i)^PTV[_\s]?(\d{2}|\d{4})$ |
(?i) makes the RegEx case insensitive; [_\s]? matches either an underscore, a whitespace, or nothing; (\d{2}|\d{4}) matches exactly 2 digits OR 4 digits. Strings that will match are PTV54, PTV70, PTV5400, ptv54, PTV_54, and PTV 54. Strings that will NOT match are PTV, opt_PTV54, and PTV70.20. |
|
(^G$GantryAngle$|^$ArcDirection) |
Will match strings as above OR match strings that start with the direction of the arc if the field is not static (i.e., CCW or CW). |
Here is a link to a guide to setting up common strings in ClearCheck or AutoContour:
RegEx common strings
Here is an online tool to test your regular expressions before implementing them clinically:
Q: How do I set up Windows Authentication to use my Windows login and password to log into the ClearCalc or AutoContour standalone applications?
A: To simplify the login process for Radformation’s suite of tools and comply with many IS&T security requirements, the following products allow for the setup and use of Windows Authentication.
- ClearCheck v2.2+
- AutoContour
- ClearCalc
- QuickCode
- When prompted to log in for any of the above products, check the box next to Windows Authentication.
- Copy (Select, then CTRL+C) the information in the Username cell
- Close the Login window.
- Log into System Administration, then click on the Users tab.
- Click on the plus sign to add a new user.
- Paste the information from step 2 (above) into the Username space in the Create User window that pops up.
- The password will be the same as the user’s Windows account password.
- Click Save, then close out of System Administration.
- When that user logs into the standalone application, they will click the checkbox for Windows Authentication and enter their Windows password.
Q: What does API stand for, and how does it work?
A: API stands for Application Programming Interface. Specifically for Eclipse, it is called ESAPI, or Eclipse Scripting Application Programming Interface. APIs give users access ‘under the hood’ in order to customize the program (ex., ARIA/Eclipse) to their needs. Users can pull information and analyze it (and with Eclipse v15.5+, write changes back), allowing users to streamline planning and plan reporting even more.
ClearCheck also has its own API. The ClearCheck API class allows other C# applications to call ClearCheck functionality in their standalone programs instead of using ClearCheck as an Eclipse plugin. Below is a link with more information about utilizing the ClearCheck API.
Q: What are Document Services and how can I use them?
A: Many of our Radformation Products leverage the ARIA® Oncology Services package to view or automatically upload PDF documents into ARIA on behalf of the user. Reach out to our support team if you need assistance in getting this set up.
Products that allow document viewing:
- ClearCheck v2.2
- Chart Rounds v2.2
- ChartCheck
- QuickCode
Products that allow for uploading to ARIA®:
- ClearCheck
- ChartCheck
We selected the topics addressed above because they see the most action on the support line. Hopefully, that clears a few things up!
If you have another burning question for us, don't hesitate to reach out by dropping a comment below.
Our Contributors
Kalin Shipman is a certified medical dosimetrist with over ten years of clinical experience in dosimetry and radiation therapy. Currently, she serves as the Senior Clinical Success Manager for the Mid-Atlantic Region. She is passionate about supporting and educating her fellow dosimetrists and moving the dosimetry profession forward while keeping clinical excellence and safety as her top priorities. In her spare time, she enjoys working on her abysmal golf game and "The Office" reruns.
Gayle Harnisch is a Knowledge Support Physicist at Radformation. When she's not creating educational videos or knowledge articles, she enjoys live blues and jazz music, a glass of wine at a local winery, and golfing with her husband. In fact, Gayle and her husband have golfed over 240 different courses together, and they're still happily married!
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