Implementation of a Novel Remote Physician SBRT Coverage Process during the Coronavirus Pandemic

Alex T Price; Lauren E Henke; Borna Maraghechi; Taeho Kim; Matthew B Spraker; Geoffrey D Hugo; Clifford G Robinson; Nels C Knutson

Time delays are critical to avoid for successful deployment of the tool, as this would prolong patient time on-table, which can result in loss of setup accuracy 16 . We found that the time of CBCT to the time of treatment was not statistically different for remote coverage compared to in-person coverage. It is important to note that during this short time period of investigation most of the cases analyzed were not our institution's typical SBRT disease sites (majority lung and brain), lending to the possibility that pretreatment coverage could be faster for standard SBRT disease sites compared to our current process of requiring the physician to be physically present. Importantly, remote coverage physically removed physicians from the machine, which would otherwise be an average of 4.5min for in-person coverage at each case. This may reduce the relative risk of infectious exposure across personnel and patients.