Decision support system for the proton therapy implementation

The authors propose the method that is intended for automating patient treatment technological process in a proton therapy center and based on a decision support system. The developed information system provides the implementation of the proton therapy protocols. The technological process of the proton therapy is strictly regulated. It includes not only the process of therapy itself (irradiation of the patient), but also the preliminary stages of treatment, as well as the stages following the irradiation process. Proton therapy centers use information systems, such as radiological and hospital information systems (oncology information systems), that provide information support for separate stages. At the moment, there is no system that controls the entire technological process in a proton therapy center. The proposed system ensures that the operator complies with the protocol of the treatment's stage and supports the entire technological process of the proton therapy. The system sets the schedule of stages, order and possibility of their parallel implementation, determines the conditions for allowing the start of the stage, provides the subsystems with the protocol of the stage and necessary data of protocol to manage the stage by the operator, and also records the results of the completed stage. The system is built on the “client-server” technology. The server has a software part (that implements the concept the server) and a database. For each operator workstation that manages the stage, the client software of the system is additionally installed. The paper describes an approach to creating a decision support system for the personnel of a proton therapy center. Such a system provides the correct implementation and sequence of the proton therapy stages. The system has been included in the project of the Research Proton Therapy Center for Ophthalmic Oncology at Saint Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute of National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute”. The necessary information is transmitted from the system to the proton therapy center equipment via radiological and hospital information systems using standard protocols. It allows the solution to serve as a part of any automated control system of a radiation therapy center (not only for proton therapy).