Telemedicine in radiotherapy treatment planning: requirements and applications

Background and purpose: Telemedicine facilitates decentralized radiotherapy services by allowing remote treatment planning and quality assurance of tr eatment delivery. A prerequisite is digital storage of relevant data and an efficient and reliable telecommunication system between satellite units an d the main radiotherapy clinic. The requirements of a telemedicine system i n radiotherapy is influenced by the level of support needed. In this paper we differentiate between three categories of telemedicine support in radiot herapy. Results and discussion: Level 1 features video conferencing and display of radiotherapy images and dose plans. Level 2 involves replication of selecte d data from the radiotherapy database - facilitating remote treatment plann ing and evaluation. Level 3 includes realtime, remote operations, e.g. targ et volume delineation and treatment planning performed by the team at the s atellite unit under supervision and guidance from mon experienced colleague s at the main clinic. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights res erved.