For this month’s featured story, we sat down with Dan Alexander, Assistant Professor and Medical Physicist at Dartmouth Cancer Center, to explore how RadMachine has transformed their QA workflows.
Dartmouth Cancer Center is an NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center dedicated to advancing research, improving cancer prevention and treatment, enhancing survivorship, and promoting health equity while delivering compassionate, patient-centered care. As the leading cancer center in northern New England, it combines groundbreaking scientific discovery, innovative clinical research, and community-focused outreach to improve cancer outcomes both locally and globally.
The Department of Radiation Oncology and Applied Sciences at Dartmouth Cancer Center treats approximately 1000 patients yearly and utilizes the entire suite of Radformation’s automation software: AutoContour, EZFluence, ClearCheck, ClearCalc, RadMonteCarlo, ChartCheck, ChartCheck Adaptive, QuickCode, and RadMachine. When the clinic first began exploring automation tools, they were looking to achieve efficiency, consistency, and standardization for their medium-sized clinic that has 19 radiation oncologists, 9 physicists, 11 dosimetrists, and 27 radiation therapists. “Each of Radformation’s tools that we use, which is all of them, plays a daily role in the functioning of our clinic.”
When it comes to the physics team's quality assurance (QA) program, specifically, RadMachine has had a significantly positive impact.
Before implementing RadMachine, the team relied heavily on manual spreadsheets and custom-built tools to manage QA documentation and analysis. “Once we built all of our templates, RadMachine eliminated many of the pitfalls of manual logging and analysis, “ Dan explains. “Generating QA reports for audits has gone from a burdensome task to just a few clicks.”
The platform's flexibility has enabled Dartmouth Cancer Center to build highly customized workflows for daily, monthly, annual, and post-service QA, as well as for research equipment maintenance and fault logging. Automated scheduling, calibration tracking, and result trending have helped reduce administrative burden while allowing the team to focus more on meaningful analysis and interpretation.
One of the most compelling efficiency gains has been in daily QA performed by RTTs. Automated notifications immediately alert the physicist on duty when measurements approach tolerance limits or fail, ensuring rapid response and reducing the risk of overlooked issues.
When asked to name his favorite RadMachine features overall, Dan highlights:
In particular, Dan considers RadMachine’s built-in Python scripting a spotlight feature and one he values most. Recently, he developed a custom Python module to process Bravos HDR spot-check reports generated in PDF format. Instead of manually extracting data, staff can now upload a single PDF directly into RadMachine, where the script automatically parses numerical and pass/fail results, applies the correct tolerances, and stores everything for documentation and trending. "This is an example of something that would've been a standalone script in the past," says Dan. "The integration within RadMachine meant I didn't have to think about hosting, workflows, or anything else."
Moving to a centralized cloud-based platform has also made long-term trend analysis practical and accessible. "Coming from a system of custom Excel sheets, the immediacy of trend generation is a massive step forward."
Dan credits Radformation's team as an important part of the clinic's success with implementation and customization. "The Radformation team has been great, they are always available, helpful, and friendly. They stand out among many of the vendors we use."
Q: What advice do you have for fellow physicists considering RadMachine?
A: "RadMachine provides many QA templates that work out of the box, but don't be hesitant to dig in and customize things to your clinic; that's the real power of RadMachine and what puts it above other solutions in this category."
When not in the clinic, Dan enjoys cooking and being outside. Living in northern New England provides plenty of opportunities for both. "I live in a beautiful part of the country abundant with nature and with lots of fresh local food, so there's never a shortage of either," he says. If he didn’t choose to study physics, he might have been a civil engineer, as he states: “I have a nerdy interest in infrastructure like roads and bridges.” As for vacations, you'll find him far from crowded beaches. "My favorite vacation destinations are anywhere secluded; I definitely prefer the mountains."