User Of The Month: Vince Duryee

"Radformation has increased the productivity of our existing physicists and dosimetrists. More importantly, it has improved the quality of our physics QA program, patient care, and safety."

One short year ago, The Queens Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawai’i, underwent a massive renovation and expansion of its Radiation Oncology department.  The department also transitioned from multiple TPS, machines, and software vendors, to a simpler infrastructure with 3 beam matched Truebeams with 6D couch, Varian TPS and OIS, and Radformation Automation software. Vince states, “consolidating all our systems has been a game changer, but the addition of the Radformation Suite has really taken our physics program up a notch.”

With the rapid expansion, the Radiation Oncology department has brought on several new doctors whose number one request from Physics was ClearCheck. They had previous experience and knew it would be easy to import all of their customary constraint templates. Vince explains that ClearCheck gives the physicians confidence that something hasn’t been overlooked and the plan quality is optimal. He also shares how ClearCheck also simplifies their weekly chart rounds review for new starts, “the first thing we look at on each patient is the ClearCheck results.”

The planning team has quickly adapted to using the Radformation solutions. The dosimetrists love the amazingly fast printing and comprehensive report generation in ClearCheck and estimate they save about 20 minutes per report compared to their previously painful and tedious process. The Collision Check module has caught several plans that would have collided, offering the ability to correct it on the spot and avoid any issues when the patient begins treatment. They also fell in love with how quickly EZFluence can create a high-quality FiF breast plan. Vince personally likes ClearCalc, stating that "it’s quite a step up from our previous 2nd check, where we would often find ourselves goal seeking a passing analysis point."

Reflecting on the implementation process, Vince was surprised at the simplicity.  He explains, "The Radformation techs had us up and running with ClearCheck, EZFluence, and ClearCalc quickly. ChartCheck requires a standalone server-based installation, but even that is not terribly difficult."

Outside of the office, you’ll likely find Vince fishing off the Hawaiian shores for Ahi, Ono, Mahi, and Marlin, just to name a few. If he’s not fishing, he’s working on his boat and undoubtedly thinking about his next fishing adventure!