DICOM Second Generation RT : An Analysis of New Radiation Concepts by way of First-Second Generation Conversion

Abstract: The current DICOM communication standard for radiotherapy is outdated and has serious design issues. A new version of the standard, known as DICOM 2nd generation for Radiotherapy, has been introduced and this thesis examines new concepts relating to radiation delivery. Firstly, some background into the practice of radiotherapy is given, as well as a description of the DICOM standard. Secondly, the thesis describes the design issues of the current standard and how the 2nd generation aims to solve these. Thirdly, the thesis explores the conversion of a first generation C-Arm Photon/Electron treatment plan to the second generation RT Radiation and RT Radiation Set IODs. A converter is implemented based on a model proposed in a previous work. With some simplifications, the conversion of Basic Static and Arc treatment plans is shown to be successful. Conversion of further dynamic plan types is judged to be fairly simple to implement following the same methodology. The conversion model’s efficacy and testability are discussed and while the model is flexible and facilitates extension to further modalities some areas of improvement are suggested. Lastly, a GUI for the converter is demonstrated and the possibilities of user interaction during conversion are discussed.