The Radiation Planning Assistant: addressing the global gap in radiotherapy services

The UK National Health Service has also noted that use of AI in contouring could increase capacity, reduce waiting lists, and allow more focus on patient-facing tasks amid ongoing workforce pressures and staff shortages.4 We initiated the Radiation Planning Assistant (RPA) project to use automated c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The lancet oncology 2024-03, Vol.25 (3), p.277-278
Main Author: Court, Laurence E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Automation
Disease prevention
Informatics
International standards
Oncology
Patients
Prostate cancer
Quality assurance
Quality standards
Radiation therapy
Standardization
Workforce planning
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Summary:The UK National Health Service has also noted that use of AI in contouring could increase capacity, reduce waiting lists, and allow more focus on patient-facing tasks amid ongoing workforce pressures and staff shortages.4 We initiated the Radiation Planning Assistant (RPA) project to use automated contouring and treatment planning to support treatment planners and oncologists in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) by allowing them to scale their efforts and treat more patients safely and efficiently. The RPA team has taken an open science approach to the research behind the initiative and has followed appropriate industry standards for software development (eg, International Organization for Standardization and US Food and Drug Administration [FDA]). Oncologists at Ocean Road Cancer Institute in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, recently showed that RPA tools could generate clinically acceptable treatment plans for nearly 100% of their own patients.6 Risk is minimised by following international standards, minimalist design to reduce user error, and automated quality assurance to identify outlier results.
ISSN:1470-2045
1474-5488
DOI:10.1016/S1470-2045(24)00084-6