in their routine clinical workflows
UMCG is one of the largest hospitals in the Netherlands and are one of Mirada’s key collaborators and research partners who have fully integrated our solutions into their clinical practice. UMCG use RTx for image registration and they find the multi-modality image fusion aspect of RTx key for helping with contouring. They have workflow box integrated clinically which helps to deliver autocontoured plans, both Atlas and DLCExpert.
The problem
With over 40 radiation oncologists, 10 linacs, brachytherapy and orthovoltage machines UMCG were concerned about poor contouring consistency in the treating of thousands of patients a year across two sites. This could potentially lead to high patient toxicity levels and the need to improve operational efficiencies in order to reduce and avoid patient backlogs.
The solution
Working with long time collaborative partner, Mirada Medical, UMCG implemented DLCExpert to automate their image autocontouring for the prostate, head and neck.
The outcome
UMCG were able to achieve two core benefits:
57% time savings for prostate autocontouring and significant improvements in contour quality and consistency across the practice. In addition, UMCG also reported on greatly improved confidence levels across their team, as Charlotte Brouwer, Medical Physicist at the Department of Radiation Oncology, University Medical Center Groningen reports:
“Thanks to DLCExpert, we now enjoy measurable and consistent time-savings which we expect to translate to other institutions. Perhaps the clearest indications of their clinical acceptance were the loud objections of our RT planning team when the models were briefly unavailable during routine maintenance!”
“The collaboration between UMC Groningen and Mirada Medical has produced autocontouring models that encode according to consensus guidelines established by an international panel of experts for organs at risk. These DLCExpert models are now deployed in our routine clinical workflows, forming a key part of our treatment planning for all patients with cancers in the head and neck or prostate regions, helping deliver improved outcomes.”
Charlotte Brouwer, Medical Physicist at the Department of Radiation Oncology, University Medical Center Groningen
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