The American Society for Radiation Oncology will host a connectathon at its headquarters in Fairfax, Va., this September as part of the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise - Radiation Oncology (IHE-RO) initiative to promote seamless connectivity and integration of radiotherapy equipment and patient health information systems.
The goal of this multi-year project is to reduce medical errors and improve efficiency by allowing physicians to purchase the best equipment for their practices, regardless of the manufacturer. This connectathon will be the final step in a process that has included vendor development, software testing and real-time interconnectivity testing.
"ASTRO is honored to be a leader of such a critical initiative as the IHE project," said Laura I. Thevenot, ASTRO's chief executive officer. "By ensuring that vendors meet the IHE-RO integration requirements, we are enabling radiation oncology teams to better implement the advanced technology available to them and better communicate vital information to the men and women undergoing treatment for cancer. I congratulate all the vendors participating in this initiative that I believe will help lead to more seamless patient care."
Allowing physicians to purchase the best equipment for their practices, regardless of manufacturer, will hopefully reduce medical errors as healthcare staff will no longer have to re-enter information because systems are unable to communicate. This will also allow equipment makers to focus on developing their niche systems rather than forcing them to produce an entire product line.
The upcoming event will be the third connectathon that ASTRO has spearheaded as part of IHE-RO. The most recent event was held last summer in Houston at the Proton Therapy Center at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Connectathon participants included BrainLAB, CMS-Elekta-IMPAC, Nucletron, Philips, Varian, Siemens, MIMVista and TomoTherapy. Participants were required to demonstrate their ability to accept information from at least three different vendors and have their information accepted by three different systems for various aspects of the treatment planning process. Two distinct workflows, known as profiles, were available for the vendors to test against as appropriate for their products and the roles, known as actors, their products play in the workflow.