Department of Oncology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta; Tom Baker Cancer Centre, Calgary Alberta, Canada.
Department of Oncology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta; Tom Baker Cancer Centre, Calgary Alberta, Canada.
Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2022 Feb 1;112(2):457-462. doi: 10.1016/j.ijrobp.2021.09.020. Epub 2021 Sep 17.
To quantify the change resource utilization in radiation therapy in the context of advancing technologies and techniques over the last decade.
Prospectively, the time to complete radiation therapy workflow tasks was captured between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2020. The institutional task workflows are specific to each technique and broadly organized into 4 categories: 3-dimenstional conformal radiation therapy, intensity modulated radiation therapy, volumetric modulated arc therapy simple, and volumetric modulated arc therapy complex. These discipline-specific task times were used to quantify a resource utilization factor, which is the median time taken to complete all tasks for each category divided by the median time for 3-dimensional conformal radiation therapy treatments. Retrospectively, all plans treated between January 1, 2012, and December 31, 2019, were quantified and categorized. The resource factor was applied to determine resource utilization. For context, institutional staffing levels were captured across the same decade for medical dosimetrists, medical physicists, and radiation oncologists.
This analysis includes 30,229 patient plans in the retrospective data set and 4747 patient plans in the prospective data set. This analysis demonstrates that over this period, patient numbers increased by approximately 45%, whereas time-based human resources increased by almost 150%. The resource allocation factors for 3-dimenstional conformal radiation therapy, intensity modulated radiation therapy, volumetric modulated arc therapy simple, and volumetric arc therapy complex were 1.0, 2.4, 2.9, and 4.3, respectively. Across the 3 disciplines, staffing levels increased from 15 to 17 (13%) for medical dosimetrists, from 10 to 13 (30%) for medical physicists, and from 16 to 23 (44%) for radiation oncologists.
This work demonstrates the increase in resource utilization due to the introduction of advanced technologies and changes in radiation therapy techniques over the past decade. Human resource utilization is the predominant factor and should be considered with increasing patient volume for operational planning.
在过去十年中，随着技术的不断进步，量化放射治疗中资源利用的变化。
前瞻性地，从 2020 年 1 月 1 日至 12 月 31 日，记录完成放射治疗工作流程任务所需的时间。机构工作流程特定于每种技术，并广泛分为 4 类：三维适形放射治疗、强度调制放射治疗、简单容积调制弧形治疗和复杂容积调制弧形治疗。这些特定于学科的任务时间用于量化资源利用因素，即完成每个类别的所有任务所需的中位数时间除以三维适形放射治疗的中位数时间。回顾性地，对 2012 年 1 月 1 日至 2019 年 12 月 31 日期间治疗的所有计划进行了量化和分类。应用资源因素确定资源利用情况。作为背景，在同一十年中，记录了医疗剂量师、医学物理学家和放射肿瘤学家的机构人员配备水平。
该分析包括回顾性数据集的 30,229 例患者计划和前瞻性数据集的 4,747 例患者计划。该分析表明，在此期间，患者数量增加了约 45%，而基于时间的人力资源增加了近 150%。三维适形放射治疗、强度调制放射治疗、简单容积调制弧形治疗和复杂容积调制弧形治疗的资源分配因子分别为 1.0、2.4、2.9 和 4.3。在这三个学科中，医疗剂量师的人员配备水平从 15 人增加到 17 人（增加了 13%），医学物理学家从 10 人增加到 13 人（增加了 30%），放射肿瘤学家从 16 人增加到 23 人（增加了 44%）。
这项工作证明了在过去十年中，由于先进技术的引入和放射治疗技术的变化，资源利用的增加。人力资源利用是主要因素，在为运营规划增加患者数量时应予以考虑。
