A unique environment for cancer patient QA in proton therapy

According to proton therapy medical physicists, myQA iON will shorten patient QA time by a factor of three by integrating log file QA, Monte Carlo calculation, and workflow streamlining.

IBA (Ion Beam Applications S.A.) announces the launch of myQA iON at the 2019 PTCOG conference. myQA iON significantly reduces the time needed for patient QA: The use of PT machine log files, process automation, task-based workflows, and the latest web technologies significantly increase QA efficiency while ensuring patient treatment safety. Compared to conventional detector measurements (at isocenter), myQA iON enables a reduction of the QA measurement effort that results in a three times faster patient QA. This efficiency increase was confirmed by a global survey conducted amongst 37 practicing medical physicists at proton therapy centers.

“Combining irradiation logs and an independent dose recalculation with myQA iON, we intend to reduce the amount of measurements performed for patient QA by approximately 90%.”said Stefan Both, Professor & Head of Medical Physics at the Department of Radiation Oncology, University Medical Center Groningen, Netherlands.

News • Quality assurance

1,500 radiation therapy centers choose myQA

IBA (Ion Beam Applications S.A.), the world’s leading provider of proton therapy solutions and radiation therapy integrated quality assurance (QA) for the treatment of cancer, announced at the ESTRO 38 congress, that it has reached the milestone of 1,500 myQA customers worldwide. Since the first release of myQA in 2015, IBA has rapidly expanded its customer base across the global radiation…

The ability to automate our patient QA, and the flexibility to use irradiation log files, real dose measurements, and Monte Carlo secondary recalculations in one system will bring us to a new level in PT treatment plan QA efficiency and accuracy
Zuofeng Li

myQA iON combines the analysis of irradiation log files and sophisticated high-accuracy Monte Carlo dose recalculation to provide the user with an independent QA dose calculation as well as the ability to verify the quality and safety of each patient treatment fraction. “The ability to automate our patient QA, and the flexibility to use irradiation log files, real dose measurements, and Monte Carlo secondary recalculations in one system will bring us to a new level in PT treatment plan QA efficiency and accuracy,” said Zuofeng Li, PhysicsDirector at the University of Florida Health Proton Therapy Institute, Jacksonville, FL, USA.

The software environment offers all patient QA tasks and workflow steps in a single interface. The latest web technologies allow users to access their patient QA anytime and anywhere within the hospital network. myQA iON supports patient QA for proton therapy machines of all major vendors. “We are proud about our worldwide collaboration network with proton therapy centers. Customer feedback has always been our driver to develop integrated quality assurance solutions that help healthcare teams as well as the patients. As a result, the new myQA iON environment is an essential step to ensure proton therapy patient safety, and significant time savings needed for patient QA,” said Jean-Marc Bothy, President of IBA Dosimetry GmbH. “With myQA iON we offer a real game changer in proton therapy patient QA, allowing customers to increase patient throughput whilst increasing patient treatment quality.”

myQA iON is currently undergoing FDA 510(k) review.

06.06.2019