Patent ID: 8175892

Claim:
A method for operating radio-therapy equipment comprising a radio-therapy control system, having a central processing system and memory, to control radiotherapy treatment room equipment, including at least one piece of radio-therapy equipment selected from patient positioning equipment, proton beam delivery equipment, and imaging equipment, providing an external beam radiotherapy treatment at a treatment center, comprising: receiving a workflow metamodel into the radio-therapy control system, the workflow metamodel specifying steps carried out at the treatment center when delivering treatment wherein the metamodel comprises a set of actions including an action performed by the at least one piece of radio-therapy equipment, execution time required for each action, actors required for each action, and restrictions on ordering of actions; receiving into the radio-therapy control system a treatment plan describing steps executed by at least one piece of radio-therapy equipment; operating the radio-therapy control system to determine a treatment schedule defining a sequence and timing of activities corresponding to the workflow metamodel and the treatment plan that avoids violating a safety threshold of a safety index associated with executing the treatment schedule, the determining of a treatment schedule comprising determining alternative treatment schedules that are possible according to the workflow metamodel; computing a safety index for each such alternative treatment schedule using a function having a parameter selected from constraints on couch angles, couch speeds, patient proximity to individual pieces of equipment, couch proximity to individual pieces of equipment, speed of the couch positioner mechanism, and the range of motion of the couch positioner mechanism; and selecting one alternative treatment schedule having a safety index satisfying the safety threshold and that provides a schedule optimized to minimize treatment time, or to maximize patient or equipment safety; and operating the at least one piece of radio-therapy equipment according to the alternative treatment schedule.