Radiotheraphy server aids treatment planning

Network links radiologists, oncologists

Researchers in the U.S. and Hong Kong have devised a way of integrating radiotherapy services into digital imaging workflow. The scheme, which links a PACS with an image-based radiotherapy server, will draw together all data required for treatment planning onto a single workstation.

"Twenty years ago, when we started with PACS, there were data everywhere, spread all over the hospital, and it's the same case in radiotherapy nowadays," said Prof. H. K. (Bernie) Huang, director of informatics at the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, University of Southern California.

Designing dedicated image-based RT servers is complicated by the information-intensive nature of radiotherapy, according to Huang. A large number of images and several different types of hard data, including computerized simulations, are involved in treatment planning and need to be stored.

He outlined a digital workflow solution that a Hong Kong hospital has developed to assist oncology services. Images from several different sources are transferred directly to an RT server. Virtual simulations and information from a treatment planning system, both recipients of data from diagnostic modalities and a CT simulator, are also fed into the server.

Oncologists may then review these data on a dedicated RT workstation, he said. Confirmation of the proposed therapy is sent back directly to the RT server, while instructions to modify the suggested therapy regime are routed via the treatment planning system.