Prospective review of radiotherapy trials through implementation of standardized multicentre workflow and IT infrastructure.

OBJECTIVE

: We sought to develop a process that would allow us to perform a prospective review of outlining in trials using expert reviewers based in multiple centres.

METHODS

: We implemented a specific information technology infrastructure and workflow that could serve all organizations involved in the radiotherapy quality assurance (RTQA) process.

RESULTS

: Data were processed and packaged in the computational environment for radiotherapy research (CERR) binary format and securely transmitted to the expert reviewer at the designated remote organization. It was opened and reviewed using the distributed CERR-compiled application, and a standardized report was sent to the respective centre. Centres were expected to correct any unacceptable deviations and resubmit outlining for approval prior to commencing treatment. 75% of reviews were completed and fed back to centres within 3 working days. There were no delays in treatment start date.

CONCLUSION

: Our distributed RTQA review approach provides a method of prospective outlining review at multiple centres, without compromising the quality, delaying the start of treatment or the need for significant additional infrastructure resources. Future progress in the area of prospective individual case review will need to be supported by additional resources for clinician time to undertake the reviews.

ADVANCES IN KNOWLEDGE

: Trial groups around the world have formulated different approaches to address the need for the prospective review of radiotherapy (RT) data with clinical trials, in line with available resources. We report a UK solution that has allowed the workload for outlining review to be distributed across a wider group of volunteer reviewers without the need for any additional infrastructure costs and has already been adopted within the UK RT trials community.