Cancer Centre Receives Innovation Award for Remote Treatment Planning

Our Cancer Centre’s Radiation Therapy Department received a provincial innovation award from Ontario Health – Cancer Care Ontario for their Remote Treatment Planning initiative. This award recognizes significant contributions to quality and innovation in the delivery of cancer care in Ontario.

Each cancer patient coming to Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre (TBRHSC) for radiation therapy undergoes detailed treatment planning prior to beginning their radiation treatment. This complex process entails creating a unique radiation plan for each patient with the goal of maximizing dose to the target volume or tumour while minimizing dose to nearby organs.

“It is important to have health care services, like treatment planning, available in our region to avoid having to send our patients to other sites for treatment,” explains Dr. Margaret Anthes, Medical Lead for Radiation Oncology at TBRHSC. “However, there is currently a shortage of health care providers who are specifically trained and qualified in radiation planning in North America. The Remote Treatment Planning model demonstrates the success of creative solutions to health human resource challenges.”

The Radiation Therapy Remote Treatment Planning initiative was implemented to improve treatment wait times while keeping care close to home in Northwestern Ontario. The local team developed a sustainable infrastructure plan that would enable secure remote treatment planning. The initiative had two main components. The first component was hiring qualified treatment planners to perform work remotely. This meant that treatment plans could be developed by experienced planners who were living outside of the region and then treatment would happen at TBRHSC’s Cancer Centre in Thunder Bay. The second component was the development of workflow, training and infrastructure to ensure seamless execution of these treatment plans.

“Since implementing this model over one year ago, our Cancer Centre has seen positive impacts to access to care and wait time improvements,” shares David McConnell, Director, Regional Cancer Care North West. “Other cancer centres from across Canada have now expressed interest in this model and have been exploring its use at their sites.”

While introducing the novel solution of remote treatment planning, the Cancer Centre has continued with other strategies to improve wait times including hiring additional radiation therapists, training existing staff to fill these roles, and recruiting support from physics staff.

The team recognized for this award includes Isaac Tavares, Patrick Rapley, Diane Brett, Melanie Zappitelli, Margaret Anthes, Mellissa Linke, David McConnell, Peter McGhee, Helen Norton, Joanna Vestby, Stacey Cervini, Cheryl Cummins-Holder.

For the full list of Quality & Innovation Award recipients, visit https://bit.ly/3GM6FbN.

To learn more about cancer care at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, visit bit.ly/TBRHSC-Cancer-Care.