ESTRO 2024 - Abstract Book

S2948

Interdiscplinary - Other

ESTRO 2024

of inaction to a global transformation for public health. Lancet (London, England), 391(10120), 581–630. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(17)32464-9

WHO. (2021, October 30). Climate change and health. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/climate change-and-health

2349

Digital Poster

External Remote Planning When Upgrading a Radiotherapy Centre: A Successful Story

Ana Raquel Coutinho 1 , Mara Barreiros 1 , Marques Selma 1 , Moreno Lilia 2 , André Pereira 2 , Joana Santos 2 , Ricardo Bento 2 , Pedro Amaral 2 , Mariana Marçal 2

1 Mercurius Health, Radiotherapy, Lisbon, Portugal. 2 Centro Clinico SAMS Lisboa, Radiotherapy, Lisbon, Portugal

Purpose/Objective:

Demonstrate how to boost the productivity of a radiotherapy’s department planning team while going through the process of installing a new Linac (Halcyon®) and learning to plan a new treatment technique, without interrupting patient care.

Material/Methods:

The installation of a new treatment machine in a radiotherapy department brings a large array of difficulties. Among them is to maintain the patient care while learning and implement all the new possibilities. To assist with the planning demand, an external remote planning team was integrated in the clinical routine.

A 2-phase plan was laid out: Maintaining activity on the “old” linac until complete shutdown, ramp out & support activity on the “new” linac.

To avoid any interruption in clinical activity, a first 2-month period was set. During this time, the external remote planning team worked alongside with the local team to get them up to date with local protocols before planning begins. After this initial integration period the remote planning team allowed that the number of treatments were maintained while the local team focused on updating treatment protocols and acquiring training and experience in new equipment and techniques to be installed. The second phase went through a 6-month period, starting from the new Linac go-live. This second period corresponds to the use of the remote planning resources to increase the number of planned patients, ramping out clinical activity while avoiding waiting list growth. For both phases, the two remote dosimetrists, had access to one TPS workstation through Mercurius Connect® platform. This station was remotely used, during weekdays, between 8am and 10pm (GMT). Mercurius Connect® platform has been applied and installed at the RT department and allows remote dosimetrists to access to the Treatment Planning System (TPS) and work directly on the department’s TPS to carry out remote planning in full compliance with data protection requirements.