Application of a statistical software package for analysis of large patient dose data sets obtained from RIS

For the purpose of patient dose audit, clinical audit and radiology workload analysis, data from Radiology Information Systems (RIS) at many hospitals are collected using a database and the analysis was automated using a statistical package and Visual Basic coding. The database is a Structured Query Language database, which can be queried using an off-the-shelf statistical package, Statistica. Macros were created to automatically format the data to a consistent format between different hospitals ready for analysis. These macros can also be used to automate further analysis such as detailing mean kV, mAs and entrance surface dose per room and per gender. Standard deviation and standard error of the mean are also generated. Graphs can also be generated to illustrate the trends in doses between different variables such as room and gender. Collectively, this information can be used to generate a report. A process that once could take up to 1 d to complete now takes around 1 h. A major benefit in providing the service to hospital trusts is that less resource is now required to report on RIS data, making the possibility of continuous dose audit more likely. Time that was spent on sorting through data can now be spent on improving the analysis to provide benefit to the customer. Using data sets from RIS is a good way to perform dose audits as the huge numbers of data available provide the bases for very accurate analysis. Using macros written in Statistica Visual Basic has helped sort and consistently analyse these data. Being able to analyse by exposure factors has provided a more detailed report to the customer.