The design and implementation of the radiation therapy information management system (RTIMS) based on the workflow of radiation therapy / 中华放射肿瘤学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To meet the special needs of the department of radiation oncology, a radiation therapy information management system ( RTIMS) has been developed as a secondary database system to supplement the Varian Varis/Aria since 2007. Methods The RTIMS server was used to run a database and web service of Apache + PHP + MySQL. The RTIMS sever's web service could be visited with Internet Explorer (IE) to input, search, count, and print informations from about 30 workstations and 20 personal computers. As some workstations were installed with Windows and IE in English only, some functions had English version. Results In past five years, as the RTIMS was implemented in the department, some further needs were met and more practical functions were developed. And now the RTIMS almost covered the whole workflow of radiation therapy ( RT) . By September 2011 , recorded patients data in the RTIMS is as follows 3900 patients, 2600 0utpatient RT records, 6800 progress notes, 1900 RT summaries, 6700 charge records, 83000 workload records, 3900 plan application forms, 1600 ICRT records. etc. Conclusions The RTIMS hased on the workflow of RT has been successfully developed and clinically implemented. And it was demonstrated to be user-friendly and was proven to　significantly improve the efficiency of the department. Since it is an in-house developed system, more functions can be added or modified to further enhance its potentials in research and clinical practice.