GenesisCare clinics all around Spain have started clinical use of the IQM System.
Standardized QA Across a Diverse Nationwide Radiation Therapy Network
GenesisCare sites in Spain are initially deploying IQM for pre-treatment QA of complex IMRT and VMAT techniques, providing a standardized QA approach throughout the entire GenesisCare Spain network. IQM provides unrivaled verification accuracy for all modern treatment techniques, so the same system can be used for all their plans at all their sites.
Their next step is to start using IQM as a real-time verification tool during the patient treatment. As GenesisCare Spain has moved to quickly bring their diverse sites up to a shared high standard and common treatment approach, IQM’s unique ability to verify the treatment delivery accuracy in real-time, during the treatment fraction, provides welcome certainty that newer treatment methods are being implemented safely.
One such new method is stereotactic radiation therapy. In addition to implementing IQM for pre-treatment and in-fraction QA at all their centers, GenesisCare Spain will start offering SRT and SBRT treatments at selected locations. IQM impacts this roll-out in two important ways: first, the IQM detector design makes IQM the optimal solution for small field verification. IQM provides unmatched sensitivity for even the smallest possible field sizes. Second, with IQM the same equipment, workflow and automation apply to SRS and SBRT QA as to all other treatment techniques. So staff at the sites rolling out SRS and SBRT won’t need to learn a new QA system or switch QA methods between patients. IQM makes it easier for GenesisCare Spain to implement new treatment approaches in a safe and standardized manner.
Centralized Data Management, and Automation that Works Locally and Nationally
GenesisCare is implementing IQM with centralized data management and storage, maximizing the standardization of QA across their nationwide network.
The IQM’s unique versatility and unrivaled accuracy is realized with a completely automated workflow. IQM is the first fully automated QA system available on the market. The entire verification process is integrated into the clinical workflow and requires no user interaction. The user simply exports a DicomRT plan dataset to IQM from the TPS.
At GenesisCare Spain the treatment plans are created locally at each clinic. Individual clinics export their DicomRT plan datasets to the IQM Application server located at the GenesisCare data center in Madrid.
Exporting the plan from the TPS at the local clinic initiates the fully automated IQM verification process.
As a first step, the IQM server at the central data center imports the plan, creates the patient in the relevant site’s IQM SQL database, and starts the reference signal calculation process. The reference signal is calculated with an independent calculation algorithm specifically developed for IQM, for every machine at the local site eligible to deliver the plan.
The IQM calculation algorithm calculates the expected IQM signal for every beam segment at every control point of every beam in the imported treatment plan and stores it with the patient data in the IQM database. Calculating a complete VMAT plan happens fully automatically in the background and takes about 2 minutes.
When a patient arrives for their treatment, the user at the local GenesisCare clinic loads the patient at their linac control console. The IQM Monitor software on the IQM workstation (located in the linac control room) automatically synchronizes patient loading with the linac control console.
The IQM Monitor application on the local workstation immediately loads the selected treatment plan from the IQM SQL database at the GenesisCare data center in Madrid and displays the expected calculated reference signal for the selected treatment beam.
As soon as the linear accelerator starts delivering the beam, the IQM Detector automatically starts measuring the spatially sensitive dose fluence for every beam segment and sends the measured signal to the IQM Monitor application on the IQM workstation in the linac control room. The IQM Monitor application verifies the accuracy of the treatment delivery in real-time at every control point and immediately displays the deviation from the expected signal.
As soon as the measured signal deviates from the expected signal outside a user defined tolerance corridor IQM will initiate an audio-visual alarm to interrupt the treatment delivery.
Immediately after each treatment fraction, the IQM System automatically generates a set of comprehensive reports at the site-specific Application Server. This allows for a straightforward and versatile documentation of the entire patient QA process.
IQM’s unique real-time verification detects treatment deviations when it really matters. During the patient treatment.
IQM provides GenesisCare Spain an independent QA solution with an immediate impact on patient safety. With seamless integration into their centralized data approach. Completely automated QA with unrivaled accuracy – for every treatment technique.