Quality assurance of equipment in Radiation Oncology is required by government regulations, accrediting organizations and standards of medical practice. Recording results by hand in a log book or in a spreadsheet limits ones ability to analyze results over time for a single treatment device and prevents analysis of multiple devices collectively. This prohibits true quality assurance which requires action on data to prevent malfunction or failure. Argus will develop documentation in Phase I according to ANSI/IEEE Standards in order to successfully code and test QA management software in Phase II. The result will be a viable commercial product in Phase TIT that is a user-customizable relational database that automates test documentation, analysis, data recording, and report writing for treatment and simulation equipment in Radiation Oncology. It will improve patient care quality by increasing the probability that patients receive their prescribed treatment and will improve the consistency and efficiency of monitoring of physics data for clinical trials. In addition, Argus will systematically apply its knowledge toward the design, development and production of improved prototypes that will provide the documentation templates and engineering platform for QA management software in other specialties, such as diagnostic radiology.
With this class of software, there are potential commercial applications throughout both Radiation Oncology and Radiology departments. This includes quality assurance software for linear accelerators, brachytherapy, as well as QA databases for automating clinical trials. The sale of over 30 copies of the prototype module demonstrates that there is demand.
