Risk analysis of the Unity 1.5 T MR-Linac adapt-to-position workflow

Abstract

Background and Purpose: Newer technologies allow for daily treatment adaptation, providing the ability to account for setup variations and organ motion but comes at the cost of increasing the treatment workflow complexity. One such technology is the adapt-to-position (ATP) workflow on the Unity MR-Linac. Prospective risk assessment of a new workflow allows clinics to catch errors before they occur, especially for processes that include novel and unfamiliar steps. Methods: As part of a quality management program, failure modes and effects analysis was performed on the ATP treatment workflow following the recommendations of AAPM’s Task Group 100. A multidisciplinary team was formed to identify and evaluate failure modes for all the steps taken during a daily treatment workflow. Failure modes of high severity and overall score were isolated and addressed. Results: Mitigations were determined for high-ranking failure modes and implemented into the clinic. High-ranking failure modes existed in all steps of the workflow. Failure modes were then rescored to evaluate the effectiveness of the mitigations. Conclusion: Failure modes and effects analysis on the Unity MR-Linac highlighted areas in the ATP workflow that could be prone to failures and allowed our clinic to change the process to be more robust.