Scope of Adoption of Standardized Structure Nomenclature in Veterinary Radiation Oncology.

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate how well veterinary institutions have adopted to the structure naming conventions provided by the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) Task Group 263 (TG-263). The TG-263 standard nomenclature has been suggested as a means of reducing the uncertainty in structure definitions in radiation oncology. Our interest is in understanding whether these recommendations have been adopted in the veterinary radiation oncology setting. This study includes a convenience sample survey of five veterinary institutions across the United States, each with 38-102 total structure names defined across their templates. The data were examined in two steps: an automated check that flagged forbidden characters, spaces, and exceeding length, and a manual review for abbreviations (e.g., L/R), uniqueness, and mapping to the TG-263 structure spreadsheet and SNOMED (Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine) Veterinary Extension. Each structure was classified as compliant, having one error, multiple errors, or uniquely defined by the institution. The results were analyzed by determining the percentages of each category per institution. Our results suggest wide variability with a mean compliance of 55.2% and a standard deviation of 35.2%, which suggests no clear trend.