ABSTRACT
The need for connectivity in radiation oncology may seem obvious to the practitioner, but one could imagine an environment where almost no connectivity is needed. If all systems involved in the radiation oncology process were instead subsystems inside a conglomerated application service, and all data were stored in a single data store of some kind, then the “apparent” connectivity would take the form of computer terminals accessing a server. One could also hearken back to the days of the paper chart. However, those subsystems would need to agree on how data were to be kept in the data storage and somehow identify the state of various subprocesses. Even with an all-paper environment, one has to agree on storage locations and formats so that the consumer of a written document knows where to find the needed information and how to interpret it. Regardless of the nature of the data and equipment, there is a need for the subprocesses and subsystems to communicate.
