Clinical practice workflow in Radiation Oncology should be highly standardized

Radiotherapy (RT) treatment is a complex process that requires the entire radiation oncology team working together to ensure a safe, expeditious, and effective treatment of patients in the clinic.Standardizing the RT workflow is considered essential to improve RT treatment quality and reduce miscommunication or human errors.Our leading professional societies in medical physics and radiation oncology, that is the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) and the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), have invested tremendous resources in publishing task group reports, guidelines, and recommendations for best practice on almost every aspect of RT to ensure consistency and standardization.However, when it comes to every day routine clinical operation, different people might have different understanding or a proper workflow; and furthermore, there may be unpredictable scenarios that can potentially hinder the well-established routine or standard RT workflow.The question raised in this debate is, should preset workflows be highly standardized and strictly followed?Herein, we have invited two experts in the field who both have distinguished themselves with years of experience in making these hard decisions in the clinic.Mr. Per Halvorsen argues for the proposition that "Clinical practice workflow in Radiation Oncology should be highly standardized", while Dr. Nilendu Gupta shared some of his different opinions and experience.Mr. Halvorsen is the Chief Physicist in Radiation Oncology at Lahey Health in suburban Boston.