Timothy Solberg, PhD, of the University of California San Francisco gives an update on Novalis Certified. He begins by highlighting a safety profile assessment survey conducted in the United States about patterns of practice for safety-critical processes in radiation oncology. He goes on to discuss medical errors and their consequences and focuses in specifically on preventable errors in stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT). He highlights how Novalis Certified promotes a “just” culture that translates to a safe culture. Solberg then outlines why the independent Novalis Certified program exists: To standardize SRS/SBRT at universally high levels and to prevent SRS/SBRT errors. He outlines what the program does as well as its structure and goals and explains in more detail the certification process.
Dear Doctors,
My region customers are looking for patient specific small field VMAT dosimetry tools compatible with cranial SRS 3.0& Multiple Brainmets 3.0.
Could you recommend small field VMAT dosimetry tools models to us.
This may be helpful to new customers.
Regards,
Balasubramanian
Be the first user to share a patient case with the community.
We look forward to receiving and sharing your anonymized patient cases to be discussed with an extended network of experts in the field of SRS & SBRT.
This is Ganesh, medical physicist at Univ of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and I attended Dr Agazaryan's talk on Brainlab at the AAPM annual convention. I have a follow up question on the topic. We have been using Brainlab MME ver 2.0 with Exactrac localization for little less than an year now. Our physicians define the tumor contours (GTV) for multiple mets on CT after fusing with MR. When it comes to defining the target (CTV or PTV) using a treatment margin, I would need an overall treatment error for a single-iso multi-mets plan and a single cranial tumor plan. We use single iso and multiple non-coplanar arcs in Truebeam sTx and planning is done on Brainlab MME ver 2.0. Our suggestion had been 0.5 mm margin for any target within 5 cm from txt Isocenter and 1 mm beyond that. I would like to double-check these margins with what is used at other institutions. It would be great if you can share your thoughts. We wont necessarily use it per se, but would like to have a good comparison point.
Hello,
I'm looking for Normal Whole Brain Volume Dose Tolerance for single fraction SRS Brain plans. We have historically used V(1200cGy) < 10cc but with people using single isocenters to treat multiple mets it's becoming easier to treat more mets than before. I would assume we are able to push the "limit" of the historic normal whole brain tolerance but there isn't much literature with regards to this. If you do use a larger tolerance than above, please share and include literature references if there are any. Thank you.
Rich
We have been using IR markers for Lung SBRT for several years and have been able to use them without too many problems. We recently upgraded to Exactrac V 6.2.2 from 6.2.1. We have noticed that we have not been able to use the IR markers to position the patient since then. When we set up a patient with IR markers, the Exactrac system is not able to move to the initial isocenter and finalize position. It keeps trying and then will say position not reached. We have not had this issue before consistently. We are not sure if this is an issue with our upgrade or potentially with the IR camera. What we have been able to narrow down is that the system works fine on a phantom setup where there is no movement. It is not able to move to position with patients now, even though the patient has minimal movement. Has anyone run into a similar issue? Any help is appreciated. Thank you.
We have been using IR markers for Lung SBRT for several years and have been able to use them without too many problems. We recently upgraded to Exactrac V 6.2.2 from 6.2.1. We have noticed that we have not been able to use the IR markers to position the patient since then. When we set up a patient with IR markers, the Exactrac system is not able to move to the initial isocenter and finalize position. It keeps trying and then will say position not reached. We have not had this issue before consistently. We are not sure if this is an issue with our upgrade or potentially with the IR camera. What we have been able to narrow down is that the system works fine on a phantom setup where there is no movement. It is not able to move to position with patients now, even though the patient has minimal movement. Has anyone run into a similar issue? Any help is appreciated. Thank you.
Anyone has the experience of using the FilmQA pro for Elements commission.
How to know the setting of the depth of coronal view when we export the dose fluence of Elements to FilmQA pro?
Because Elements only can export 3D dose fluence, and the FilmQA pro define the depth which is from the range of dose grid.
So making sure the depth of FilmQA pro that we need to choose is difficult.
We are wondering if any users of Cranial and Spine SRS Element (VMAT) have any experience they can share in adjustment of the Leaf Shift Dynamic or the Tongue and Groove Size values in the machine profile?
We have seen some deterioration in our VMAT QA film results when the modulation is high in these Elements. Our hypothesis is that this is a result of suboptimal MLC parameters.
Brainlab has suggested that for VMAT the Leaf Shift Dynamic radio button in the Accelerator Settings tab (listed under Radiological Leaf Shift for VMAT Treatments) should be selected instead of Leaf Shift Static and that doing so may improve QA results
It is very challenging to get information on this so any help would be GREATLY appreciated.