Telemedicine in radiotherapy treatment planning: requirements and applications.
OBJECTIVE
Telemedicine facilitates decentralized radiotherapy services by allowing remote treatment planning and quality assurance of treatment delivery. A prerequisite is digital storage of relevant data and an efficient and reliable telecommunication system between satellite units and the main radiotherapy clinic. The requirements of a telemedicine system in radiotherapy is influenced by the level of support needed. In this paper we differentiate between three categories of telemedicine support in radiotherapy.


CONCLUSIONS
Level 1 features video conferencing and display of radiotherapy images and dose plans. Level 2 involves replication of selected data from the radiotherapy database - facilitating remote treatment planning and evaluation. Level 3 includes real-time, remote operations, e.g. target volume delineation and treatment planning performed by the team at the satellite unit under supervision and guidance from more experienced colleagues at the main clinic.
Olsen
D R
DR
Department of Medical Physics, The Norwegian Radium Hospital, P.O. Box 20, Montebello, N-03 10, Oslo, Norway.
Bruland
S
S
Davis
B J
BJ
D006801:Humans; D011880:Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted; D019114:Remote Consultation; D017216:Telemedicine