WE-B-BRD-01: Innovation in Radiation Therapy Planning II: Cloud Computing in RT

Abstract

As defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, cloud computing is “a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.” Despite the omnipresent role of computers in radiotherapy, cloud computing has yet to achieve widespread adoption in clinical or research applications, though the transition to such “on-demand” access is underway. As this transition proceeds, new opportunities for aggregate studies and efficient use of computational resources are set against new challenges in patient privacy protection, data integrity, and management of clinical informatics systems. In this Session, current and future applications of cloud computing and distributed computational resources will be discussed in the context of medical imaging, radiotherapy research, and clinical radiation oncology applications. Learning Objectives: 1. Understand basic concepts of cloud computing. 2. Understand how cloud computing could be used for medical imaging applications. 3. Understand how cloud computing could be employed for radiotherapy research.4. Understand how clinical radiotherapy software applications would function in the cloud.