Technical Note: An open source solution for improving TG-263 compliance.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Compliance with TG-263 nomenclature standards can be challenging. We introduce an open source solution to this problem and evaluate its impact on compliance within our institution. MATERIALS/METHODS: The TG-236 nomenclature standards were implemented in our clinic in two phases. In phase 1, we deployed TG-263 compliant templates for each disease site. In phase 2, we developed and deployed a script for evaluating compliance which presented errors to the user. After each phase the compliance was recorded. RESULTS: Mean compliance errors prior to phase 1 was 31.8% ± 17.4%. Error rates dropped to 8.1% ± 12.2% across phase 1 and dropped further to 2.2% ± 6.9% during the automation system deployed in phase 2. CONCLUSION: Both structure templates and automation scripts are very useful for increasing compliance with structure naming standards. Our software solution is made available on GitHub for other institutions to implement.