Implementing user‐defined atlas‐based auto‐segmentation for a large multi‐centre organisation: the Australian Experience

INTRODUCTION: Contouring has become an increasingly important aspect of radiation therapy due to inverse planning, and yet is extremely time‐consuming. To improve contouring efficiency and reduce potential inter‐observer variation, the atlas‐based auto‐segmentation (ABAS) function in Velocity was introduced to ICON cancer centres (ICC) throughout Australia as a solution for automatic contouring. METHODS: This paper described the implementation process of the ABAS function and the construction of user‐defined atlas sets and compared the contouring efficiency before and after the introduction of ABAS. RESULTS: The results indicate that the main limitation to the ABAS performance was Velocity's sub‐optimal atlas selection method. Three user‐defined atlas sets were constructed. Results suggested that the introduction of the ABAS saved at least 5 minutes of manual contouring time (P < 0.05), although further verification was required due to limitations in the data collection method. The pilot rollout adopting a ‘champion’ approach was successful and provided an opportunity to improve the user‐defined atlases prior to the national implementation. CONCLUSION: The implementation of user‐defined ABAS for head and neck (H&N) and female thorax patients at ICCs was successful, which achieved at least 5 minutes of efficiency gain.