Methods
The commissioning process was split into a staged approach, with view to prioritise clinical implementation and improved processes. Through collaboration, MIM Maestro was successfully implemented in February 2024 after one month of planning, testing, system set up and infrastructure design, documentation and workflow discussions. The commissioning itself included regular MDT meetings and discussions to ensure each step was approached with consideration, and the entire team are very proud to now be working with MIM Maestro clinically.
A new workflow for the department would include exporting the patient CT scans directly from the CT scanners into MIM Maestro, where diagnostic MRI or CT/PET images are fused to the planning CT in a fraction of the time it would previously take to further assist in tissue delineation. Simultaneously, automatically generated contours would be added to the patient CT scan, through MIM Maestro’s Contour Protege AI contouring solution. The act of automatically generating patient contours for the internal anatomy of a patient is a significant time save for the planning team, but also removes inter-user variability. In anticipation of MIM Maestro entering in the department, a team of IT specialists, radiotherapists, physicists and oncologists was established to ensure a streamlined, collaborative approach to MIM implementation. Timelines and tasks were divided appropriately and adjusted when required, through regular MDT meetings. Further to this, all specialties were invited to the vendor provided training and a master project management excel sheet was used to keep track of progress throughout the project. Commissioning tests included infrastructure set up, server creation and system install and configuration, data management and application deployment, data integrity testing, workflow commissioning, training and educational resource development and documentation across all levels, which ultimately resulted in a robust, expedient process.
A Treatment Planning System (TPS) often has contouring capabilities, but typically focuses towards the calculation of the radiotherapy plan itself. To this end, MIM Maestro was purchased to slot into the departmental workflow between the CT planning scan and the export to the TPS.
IT infrastructure: specification review (business case items / server + client infrastructure needed / ordering) initial set up (Virtual server creation, Operating System installation and configuration), MIM Application installation and configuration; incl. Licensing, User authentication methods, import/export DICOM locations, application settings, backup implementation, ongoing clinical data management), application deployment.
