Long Term Objectives: Establish a Resource Center for Emerging Technologies (RCET) to enhance the quality of clinical trials with advanced technologies by providing resources that will facilitate better protocol design, study monitoring, education, and long-term outcome analysis.
Specific Aims : A multi-disciplinary team of clinical physicists, radiation oncologists, computer scientists, and statisticians will develop a framework for unambiguous and consistent description of dosimetric parameters (target volume definitions and specification, reporting, and evaluation of dose), a comprehensive image database, and software that will enhance the capabilities of investigators in accurate interpretation and quantification of volumetric patient image data. Research Design and Methods: The RCET will achieve these aims as follows: (1) Establish generic quality assurance (QA) criteria for various clinical sites based on extensive data files of over 28,000 cases treated in a consistent manner at the University of Florida (UF) over the past 15 years. (2) Collect, archive, monitor, and review data from the institutions participating in advanced technology clinical trials by means of an interactive, World Wide Web-based, self-coding data management system. (3) Maintain a state-of-the-art Picture Archive and Communication System (PACS) for rapid archiving and retrieval of diagnostic images. (4) Use advanced image-processing software developed at UF to evaluate the accuracy of target volume definitions and quantify tumor response to radiation and other adjuvant treatment modalities. (5) Perform comprehensive, prospective or retrospective review of three- dimensional (3-D) dose distributions reconstructed using a state-of-the- art 3-D treatment-planning system to assure protocol compliance and consistency of dose data for statistical analysis of clinical outcome with radiation therapy. (6) Disseminate information rapidly to participating institutions and clinical protocol groups through an advanced informatics system similar to the in place at the Pediatric Oncology Group (POG) Statistical Office in Gainesville, Florida. (7) Create World Wide Web-based teaching files on advanced technology radiotherapy for the benefit of the radiation oncology community.
| Palta, Jatinder R; Frouhar, Vincent A; Dempsey, James F (2003) Web-based submission, archive, and review of radiotherapy data for clinical quality assurance: a new paradigm. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 57:1427-36 |
