TITLE:
Implementation of Level-3 Autonomous Patient-Specific Quality Assurance with Automated Human Interactive Devices
AUTHORS:
Jingqiao Zhang, Yizhou Zhao, Jameson T. Baker, Yijian Cao, Jenghwa Chang
KEYWORDS:
Level-3 Automation, Patient-Specific Quality Assurance, Human Interactive Devices, Scripting
JOURNAL NAME:
International Journal of Medical Physics, Clinical Engineering and Radiation Oncology,
Vol.12 No.4,
January
4,
2024
ABSTRACT: Purpose: Patient-specific quality assurance (PSQA) requires manual operation of different workstations, which is
time-consuming and error-prone. Therefore, developing automated solutions to
improve efficiency and accuracy is a priority. The purpose of this study was to
develop a general software interface with
scripting on a human interactive device (HID) for improving the efficiency and accuracy of manual
quality assurance (QA) procedures. Methods: As an initial application, we aimed to automate
our PSQA workflow that involves Varian Eclipse treatment planning
system, Elekta MOSAIQ oncology information
system and PTW Verisoft application. A general platform, the AutoFrame
interface with two imbedded subsystems—the
AutoFlow and the PyFlow, was
developed with a scripting language for automating human operations of aforementioned
systems. The interface included three functional
modules: GUI module, UDF script interpreter and TCP/IP communication module. All workstations in the PSQA process were
connected, and most manual operations
were automated by AutoFrame sequentially or in parallel. Results: More than 20 PSQA tasks were performed both manually and using the developed
AutoFrame interface. On average, 175 (±12) manual operations of the PSQA procedure were eliminated and performed
by the automated process. The time to
complete a PSQA task was 8.23 (±0.78) minutes for the automated
workflow, in comparison to 13.91 (±3.01) minutes needed for manual operations. Conclusion: We have developed the AutoFrame
interface framework that successfully automated our PSQA procedure, and
significantly reduced the time, human
(control/clicking/typing) errors, and operators’ stress. Future work will focus on improving the system’s flexibility
and stability and extending its operations to other QA procedures.