Image Registration and Verification Workshop: A Pilot Study.

Area of Science:

• Medical Physics
• Radiation Oncology Education

Background:

• Image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) is critical for safe, complex treatment delivery.
• Radiation oncology residents often lack structured training in ordering and evaluating patient setup imaging.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the effectiveness of a joint interprofessional image verification workshop for radiation oncology and medical physics residents.
• To improve residents' ability to select appropriate imaging modalities and independently verify patient setup images.

Main Methods:

• A workshop combining didactic and hands-on sessions was developed.
• Residents completed pre- and post-workshop surveys rating their confidence in assessing imaging appropriateness and checking verification images.
• Data from 16 first-time participants and 9 repeat participants across two years were analyzed.

Main Results:

• First-time participants showed significant improvement in assessing imaging appropriateness (P=.029) and checking verification images (P=.003).
• Repeat participants demonstrated a small increase in confidence for imaging appropriateness (P=.038) but a decrease in comfort checking films (P=.022).
• Post-workshop results were statistically equivalent between the two workshop instances.

Conclusions:

• Formal interprofessional workshops offer valuable resident education in image verification.
• Regular, repeated training is necessary to sustain and enhance resident skills in patient setup imaging verification.