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Proton Machine Daily QA Data Management Using a Server-Based Commercial Software

W Myers*, L Zhao , St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN

Presentations

(Sunday, 7/14/2019)  

Room: ePoster Forums

Purpose: Many clinics use QA devices from different vendors, which poses a challenge for efficient performance review and trend analysis. We demonstrated the feasibility in integrating proton daily QA results with a commercial QA check device into a centralized third-party server-based database.

Methods: A comprehensive daily proton QA program was developed using the Sun Nuclear Daily QA3 device, an in-house phantom and custom spot scanning proton fields. After QA is performed, measurement data from the device database are exported to a file and imported into an Excel spreadsheet. The Excel spreadsheet analyzes the raw data and calculates output, flatness, symmetry, beam energy, spot position and spot size of the spot scanning beam. These beam parameters are then exported to the PTW Track-it database via a macro and a specific XML format provided by the vendor. Custom daily QA reports are created in the Track-it software, and trend analysis can be performed over any given time frame.

Results: The entire daily QA can be completed within 20 minutes by therapists. The web-based QA database allows for multiple user access with data integrity protection without the need for therapist login. The customizable template and user-friendly interface facilitates QA result review and trend analysis. Trend analysis over a nine month period shows proton output within +/-1%. Measured spot size shows an upward trend due to possible diode degradation. QA reports are generated and reviewed by a physicist on a daily basis.

Conclusion: Compiling all QA results into one centralized QA database has been demonstrated, which allows detection of small gradual shifts in a variety of system performance. This is especially useful for custom QA that does not have a dedicated vendor software solution.

Keywords

Quality Assurance, Software

Taxonomy

TH- External Beam- Particle therapy: Proton therapy - quality assurance

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