Pollard-Larkin Julianne M, Briere Tina M, Kudchadker Rajat J, Sadagopan Ramaswamy, Nitsch Paige L, Wang Xin A, Salehpour Mohammad, Wang Jihong, Vedam Sastry, Nelson Christopher L, Sahoo Narayan, Zhu Xiaorong R, Court Laurence E, Balter Peter A, Robinson Ivy J, Yang Jinzhong, Howell Rebecca M, Followill David S, Kry Stephen, Beddar Sam A, Martel Mary K
Department of Radiation Physics, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas.
Department of Radiation Oncology, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas.
Adv Radiat Oncol. 2021 Jul-Aug;6(4):100683. doi: 10.1016/j.adro.2021.100683. Epub 2021 Apr 2.
To provide a series of suggestions for other Medical Physics practices to follow in order to provide effective radiation therapy treatments during the COVID-19 pandemic.
We reviewed our entire Radiation Oncology infrastructure to identify a series of workflows and policy changes that we implemented during the pandemic that yielded more effective practices during this time.
We identified a structured list of several suggestions that can help other Medical Physics practices overcome the challenges involved in delivering high quality radiotherapy services during this pandemic.
Our facility encompasses 4 smaller Houston Area Locations (HALs), a main campus with 8 distinct services based on treatment site (ie. Thoracic, Head and Neck, Breast, Gastrointestinal, Gynecology, Genitourinary, Hematologic Malignancies, Melanoma and Sarcoma and Central Nervous System/Pediatrics), a Proton Center facility, an MR-Linac, a Gamma Knife clinic and an array of brachytherapy services. Due to the scope of our services, we have gained experience in dealing with the rapidly changing pandemic effects on our clinical practice. Our paper provides a resource to other Medical Physics practices in search of workflows that have been resilient during these challenging times.
提供一系列建议，供其他医学物理实践遵循，以便在2019冠状病毒病大流行期间提供有效的放射治疗。
我们审查了整个放射肿瘤学基础设施，以确定一系列工作流程和政策变化，这些是我们在大流行期间实施的，在此期间产生了更有效的实践。
我们确定了一份结构化的建议清单，可帮助其他医学物理实践克服在此次大流行期间提供高质量放射治疗服务所涉及的挑战。
我们的机构包括休斯顿地区的4个较小地点、一个主校区，该校区根据治疗部位提供8种不同的服务（即胸部、头颈、乳腺、胃肠道、妇科、泌尿生殖、血液系统恶性肿瘤、黑色素瘤和肉瘤以及中枢神经系统/儿科）、一个质子中心设施、一台磁共振直线加速器、一个伽玛刀诊所和一系列近距离放射治疗服务。由于我们服务的范围，我们在应对大流行对临床实践迅速变化的影响方面积累了经验。我们的论文为其他寻求在这些具有挑战性时期具有弹性的工作流程的医学物理实践提供了资源。
