ESTRO 2024 - Abstract Book

S5463

RTT - Patient care, preparation, immobilisation and IGRT verification protocols

ESTRO 2024

266

Poster Discussion

Manual workload and user satisfaction of a surface guidance positioning system for radiotherapy

Nikolaj Steinbach, Nicoline N Andersen, Nikolaj K G Jensen, Mikkel Skaarup

Rigshospitalet, Centre for cancer and organ diseases, Copenhagen, Denmark

Purpose/Objective:

The purpose of this study is to investigate manual workload and user satisfaction during implementation of a surface guidance (SG) system for patient pre-positioning during radiotherapy.

Material/Methods:

Our clinic consists of 12 accelerators where 6 of them are Truebeams (Varian Medical systems, Palo Alto, USA) with an ExacTrac Dynamic system installed (Brainlab, Munich, Germany). ExacTrac Dynamic uses two structured light optical cameras to detect the patient surface for pre-positioning and can aligning the patient without the use of tattoos and lasers. To investigate SG setup as broadly as possible, we have included patients from most diagnosis groups treated at our institution, i.e., head and neck, breast, urogenital, lung, gynaecological, gastrointestinal, prostate, bone, lymphoma, extremities, and other soft tissue tumours. We have not included patients treated in deep inspiration breath-hold (DIBH) since we currently do not use SG for gating. Prior to SG implementation, we asked the treatment staff to answer a questionnaire about pre-positioning with laser/tattoos. We asked if a manual adjustment of the patient had been necessary or not, as part of the pre-positioning procedure. This was asked for every non-gated fraction treated every day for a 3.5-week period and it was also noted which treatment type (lung, breast, gynaecological, etc.) each patient received. Our main questionnaire, for the evaluation of user satisfaction and manual workload of the SG system, consisted of three points. The first point was, has SG setup worked better, equivalently, or worse for this patient compared to a laser/tattoo setup. This question was based on the treatment staffs’ experience with similar patients in the past using laser/tattoo as the setup strategy. The second point was, was it necessary to manually adjust the patient before leaving the treatment room. Both questions were filled in for every fraction and was answered by the staff members who positioned the patient. The third point was for general notes and comments for the SG system and how it worked for that patient specifically or adverse events. Additionally, the treatment type was noted for each patient. We collected data over a 6-month period and responses were gathered and collected once per month. This way, it was possible to follow the user satisfaction over time. Uncertainties were calculated using multi-nomial distribution statistics and was analysed using Excel (Microsoft) and Python by a medical physicist.

Results: