Management of interruptions in radiotherapy treatments: Adaptive implementation in high workload sites

Interruptions are unexpected breaks that introduce new tasks on top of ongoing activities. In work environments, interruptions occur when operators and decision-makers have to deal simultaneously with several stimuli and information sources and have to make decisions so as to maintain the flow of activities at a satisfactory level of performance or quality of service. The causes and effects of interruptions and their subsequent management strategies in workplace environments have been researched in the past, however, only a few review articles are available to report on current advances in this area, to analyze contributions, and to highlight open research directions. This paper offers an up-to-date review and a framework for interruptions and interruption management strategies. The current approaches to identify, report, and manage interruptions in a variety of workplace environments are reviewed and a description of environmental characteristics that favor the occurrence of interruptions and influence interruption management in workplace environments is provided. Various approaches to classify and model the different types of interruptions and their cause-consequence relationships are discussed and the strategies to manage interruptions and approaches to measure human performance when dealing with interruptions are analyzed. Based on these insights, several guidelines to manage interruptions in workplace environments are provided, and future research directions are highlighted.

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“…Typical workplace examples where interruptions occur are banks [11] and construction sites [12] or hearlthcare [13][14][15].…”

Section: Workplace Environmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human Interruption Management in Workplace Environments: An Overview

Alkahtani

Abidi

Ahmad

et al. 2020

Eng. Technol. Appl. Sci. Res.

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AAPM task group report 314: Fault recovery in external beam radiation therapy

Sutlief,

Buckey,

Ibbott

et al. 2024

Medical Physics

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Task Group (TG) 314 of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) was charged to develop guidance for recovering from fault states in radiation therapy, specifically regarding the delivery of photon or electron beams using a linear accelerator (linac) including ancillary systems. The fault conditions addressed may involve software, hardware, or a combination of causes. The report provides detailed recommendations for the proactive steps to be taken before a fault, the actions to be taken at the time of a fault, and the safety steps before returning a linac to clinical service, as well as the activities that device manufacturers and standard organizations can do to prevent and resolve the faults. A user‐maintained log of prior faults; establishment of remote access by the vendor; and user training in emergency gantry, couch, and door motions are all useful proactive steps. At the moment of downtime and after ensuring the safety of the patient, the report stresses the importance of capturing fault information, prompt contact with the service engineer after the initial assessment, and considerations for communicating the estimated duration before the linac is returned to service. The medical physicist has a critical responsibility to assess the impact of the fault on patient care. Before resuming clinical use, the medical physicist must both determine the level of testing required to ensure safe operation of the linac and ensure any partially or totally delivered treatments have been correctly saved for accurate completion of the treatment fraction. The report stresses the roles of the radiation therapist, medical physicist, and service engineer to efficiently and safely address linac downtime. The appendices contain a description of the efforts of several organizations regarding linac safety: Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise—Radiation Oncology, International Standards Organization/International Electrotechnical Commission, Radiation Oncology Safety Stakeholder Initiative, and the AAPM Vendor Relations and Product Usability Subcommittee.Disclaimer: The recommendations of this TG should not be used to establish regulations. These recommendations are guidelines for Qualified Medical Physicists and others to use and appropriately interpret for their institution and clinical setting. Each institution may have site‐specific or state‐mandated needs and requirements which may modify their usage of these recommendations.

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Adaptive time management for patients who have non-small cell lung cancer and underwent definitive radiotherapy: a dosimetric study of different gap duration scenarios

Inal

Duman

2020

International Journal of Radiation Biology

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Management of interruptions in radiotherapy treatments: Adaptive implementation in high workload sites

Cited by 4 publications

References 23 publications

Human Interruption Management in Workplace Environments: An Overview

Human Interruption Management in Workplace Environments: An Overview

AAPM task group report 314: Fault recovery in external beam radiation therapy

Adaptive time management for patients who have non-small cell lung cancer and underwent definitive radiotherapy: a dosimetric study of different gap duration scenarios

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