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DOE OSTI2023

Large Language Models (LLMs) for Energy Systems Research

The integration of Large Language Models (LLMs) in energy systems research promises transformative results, as demonstrated in this work, particularly in the realms of information retrieval and legal document analysis. We have developed a chat-based interface, specifically designed to query an extensive corpus of technical reports from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). This interface capitalizes on the natural language processing capabilities of LLMs, providing future consumers of NREL research with a user-friendly platform to access and extract valuable information from technical documents, thus enhancing the dissemination of research to the public. In addition to information retrieval, we have employed LLMs to extract renewable energy siting ordinances from a variety of legal documents, a task traditionally driven by significant human labor. This automated extraction not only supports the ongoing development of the high-impact NREL siting ordinance database but also ensures the database's accuracy and comprehensiveness. Crucially, we have augmented the performance of LLMs through the integration of a decision tree framework, resulting in a substantial improvement in extraction accuracy. Comparative analysis with manual efforts has shown that this approach not only rivals but also significantly surpasses human accuracy, heralding increased reliability in legal document analysis for energy systems research. To democratize access to these advancements and foster collaborative research, we introduce the "Energy Language Model" (ELM), an open-source software package. ELM encapsulates the methodologies and tools developed in this work, providing researchers and practitioners with a robust toolkit to conduct similar analyses within their respective domains. Through these contributions, this work underscores the immense potential of LLMs in revolutionizing energy systems research, improving accuracy, efficiency, and accessibility in the field.

automation↗

DOE OSTI2015

Long-term stewardship - surveillance and maintenance at Hanford - 15155

In FY 2015, Hanford's Long-Term Stewardship (LTS) Program is tasked to complete the required entries into five cocooned plutonium production reactors (105-C, 105-D, 105-F, 105-H and 105-N), which sit adjacent to the Columbia River. The first reactor entered in October 2014, the cocooned plutonium production reactor, 105-F, signaled the LTS Program's entry into the Surveillance and Maintenance (S and M) era. Reactor entries at Hanford are conducted at 5-year intervals to assess the condition of the structures and evaluate potential deterioration of the reactor core, shield walls and roof. The cocooned structures are designed to protect the reactor core for up to 75 years while radioactive decay continues, ultimately making the structures safe for demolition and removal. The 105-F entry demonstrates that the LTS program at Hanford is shifting from a program focused on transitioning cleaned up land and waste sites to a program focused primarily on S and M activities. The entry process is carefully planned, choreographed and monitored to ensure safety of the workers and minimize the time the reactor structure is opened. The process includes controlled opening of the reactor, air quality monitoring, structural safety inspections, and radiological clearance. Once the structure is cleared for entry, assessments of the structural integrity and radiologic conditions are completed. Evaluation of the interior temperature and flood monitoring equipment is conducted. Facility visits by regulators and DOE personnel close out the process prior to welding the door closed until the next assessment, five years later. This paper will document execution of the entry work package, identify challenges overcome, and provide video documentation as reference material for future workers and the public. The current LTS program has responsibility for approximately 100,000 acres, over 200 waste sites and six cocooned reactors. Just over 5,600 documents have been identified, indexed and tagged for storage in the LTS document library. The program has successfully completed seven consecutive transitions since July 2011, with six more transitions planned in the next 18 months to support the U.S. Department of Energy Richland Operations Office's (DOE-RL) near-term cleanup objectives to significantly reduce the footprint of active cleanup operations for the River Corridor. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

DOE OSTI2018

Augmented Reality Tools for Nuclear Facilities - 18318

In this work we explore the possibility of improving nuclear facility operations through the use of emerging augmented reality technology. Specifically we focus on the use of augmented reality headsets. Augmented reality opens up the possibility for easy, on-the-fly access to documentation related to canisters, rooms, and carts. It also can be used to help plan complicated material moves in ways that do not violate nuclear criticality safety regulations. Modern augmented reality technology can also be interacted with using gaze, gesture and voice commands, thus making it particularly attractive for facilitating the documentation of nuclear material operations and work verification. An augmented reality-based nuclear facility criticality safety system would have a number of benefits for operations in nuclear facilities. This work could be used across the DOE complex to ensure technicians in gloveboxes work safely and securely. It could greatly reduce downtime associated with administrative criticality incidents. It would be a step forward in the process of improving the quality of documentation of the work that occurs in nuclear facilities while simultaneously increasing the ease with which this documentation can be collected. The augmented reality effectively endows the glovebox technicians with a sense for administrative nuclear criticality safety and the reactivity changes caused directly by their actions. Augmented reality also has great potential for facilitating inspections of nuclear infrastructure. Examples of Augmented Reality applications that facilitate infrastructure inspection and work verification will also be presented. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

DOE OSTI2019

EM Program Expectations on Implementation of DOE O 458: Radiation Protection of Public/Environment - 19553

DOE Order 458.1, Radiation Protection of the Public and Environment, was issued in 2011. DOE sites were given 18 months to implement. The revised Order promulgates requirements for property clearance actions and independent verification. DOE Order 458.1 allows for preapproved authorized limits for the clearance of property. However, when property with the potential to contain residual radioactive material does not meet preapproved authorized limits, an authorized limits package must be developed. The Order contains a range of requirements for demonstrating with reasonable assurance that dose constraints are met for any actual or likely future use of the property to be released. EM has developed a draft guidance document that provides the elements of an authorized limits package. These elements are used to review all authorized limits packages that are submitted to EM. Expected elements include property description and process knowledge documentation, current and likely future use, the conceptual site model, dose modeling methodologies, specific authorized limits, dose- or concentration-based constraints, collective dose estimate to the potentially exposed population, stakeholder communications, description of the As Low As Reasonably Achievable (ALARA) analysis, implementation plan, evaluation of difficult to assess surfaces, and independent verification plan. The draft guidance document also provides further explanation of the desired elements of an independent verification (IV) plan. An IV plan should describe the planning phase, implementation phase, assessment phase, and decision phase of an activity. The planning phase includes scope and cost, concurrent with cleanup contractor procurement, and review and approval of site radiological survey clearance program and IV program plans. The implementation phase assures sufficient collection of data and adjustment can be made as necessary. During the assessment phase, data and reports are reviewed, and coordination between the clean-up contractor and IV personnel occurs. A decision of whether or not the clearance actions need to be altered occurs during the decision phase. IV certification that the clearance action is complete also occurs during the decision phase. Issuance of the final guidance document is meant to improve the consultation process and minimize iterative interactions with EM. Standardizing and formalizing property clearance and IV actions also helps assure that cleanup actions are transparent and sustainable for future scrutiny. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

DOE OSTI2020

Approach to Quality Assurance for Complex Environmental Modeling - 20407

A strong Quality Assurance (QA) program for complex environmental modeling is essential for regulatory and public acceptance and trust, but it does not have to be onerous. Neptune and Company, Inc. (Neptune) has developed a strong QA program that improves transparency, traceability, reproducibility, and therefore, defensibility and trust. Neptune's QA program has evolved over the past 27 years, transitioning from an ad hoc QA program, to a program that is currently Nuclear Quality Assurance-1 (NQA-1) compliant, and will soon be NQA-1/DOE approved for DOE EM modeling work. In addition, Neptune is a qualified laboratory assessor and qualified auditor for reference materials, a proficiency testing provider, and fully complies with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) QA program. Neptune's President and CEO, Kelly Black, was recently named the Chairperson of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Technical Committee 69, Application of Statistical Methods. A strong QA program has been developed for Neptune's radiological performance assessment (PA) program. Although pieces of their QA program are currently in development, their current program includes document control using Subversion, issue tracking and work flow tracking using JIRA, and transparency and traceability via a system of 'calc sheets' for documentation of all data analysis and modeling combined with 'check print' documentation of QA checking, and rigorous model testing and configuration control. All work is reviewed by an independent subject matter expert who is not associated with the collection and assembly of information, for an internal peer review. The program is enforced with a handful of Standard Operation Procedures (SOPs), Work Instructions, QA Project Plans (QAPPs), and Quality Management Plans (QMPs) that are updated frequently, with required annual training and acknowledgment. In addition, effective communication of modeling approaches and results to clients and stakeholders are integral to their QA program. Many of their models are built using the GoldSim modeling platform, for which their models are well-known for their level of transparency, documentation, and QA traceability. This level of QA is also applied to their process-level models. Neptune has taken some lessons learned from the extremely rigorous QA program required for the Yucca Mountain Project (YMP), and imposed the YMP requirements of complete traceability, transparency, and reproducibility, but avoided the inflexibility of a QA program that likely contributed to the suspect e-mails in 2005 that resulted in loss of trust in the YMP, and in nuclear waste disposal (and nuclear power) in general. There are far too many examples of loss of public trust due to poor QA that could have been easily avoided with a simple and straight-forward QA program combined with stakeholder engagement. The purpose of this paper is to share features of Neptune's Radiological Performance Assessment program QA program, and some of their QA related lessons learned over the past 27 years of QA for complex environmental modeling. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

DOE OSTI2017

Demonstrating and argumenting safety of I and C systems - Challenges and recent experiences - 180

Nuclear licensees are required to submit a documented justification of the safety of the plant and its systems to the local regulatory body. Developing this documentation is a hard task and requires a lot of effort from several stakeholders. It should be understandable, transparent, convincing and complete. Observations from the current practice indicate that the nuclear power industry would benefit from more structured, systematic and harmonized practices in engineering instrumentation and control (I and C) systems and justifying their safety. This paper describes recently recognized challenges in demonstrating the safety of digital I and C systems and suggests possible ways to solve them. Some of the proposed solutions are light improvements in the everyday documentation practices, working methods and utilization of computerized support tools, while others would involve fundamental changes in the design and documentation philosophy that are more demanding to implement. (authors)

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

DOE OSTI2016

Compendium of photovoltaic degradation rates

Abstract Published data on photovoltaic (PV) degradation measurements were aggregated and re‐examined. The subject has seen an increased interest in recent years resulting in more than 11 000 degradation rates in almost 200 studies from 40 different countries. As studies have grown in number and size, we found an impact from sampling bias attributable to size and accuracy. Because of the correlational nature of this study we examined the data in several ways to minimize this bias. We found median degradation for x‐Si technologies in the 0.5–0.6%/year range with the mean in the 0.8–0.9%/year range. Hetero‐interface technology (HIT) and microcrystalline silicon (µc‐Si) technologies, although not as plentiful, exhibit degradation around 1%/year and resemble thin‐film products more closely than x‐Si. Several studies showing low degradation for copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) have emerged. Higher degradation for cadmium telluride (CdTe) has been reported, but these findings could reflect a convolution of less accurate studies and longer stabilization periods for some products. Significant deviations for beginning‐of‐life measurements with respect to nameplate rating have been documented over the last 35 years. Therefore, degradation rates that use nameplate rating as reference may be significantly impacted. Studies that used nameplate rating as reference but used solar simulators showed less variation than similar studies using outdoor measurements, even when accounting for different climates. This could be associated with confounding effects of measurement uncertainty and soiling that take place outdoors. Hotter climates and mounting configurations that lead to sustained higher temperatures may lead to higher degradation in some, but not all, products. Wear‐out non‐linearities for the worst performing modules have been documented in a few select studies that took multiple measurements of an ensemble of modules during the lifetime of the system. However, the majority of these modules exhibit a fairly linear decline. Modeling these non‐linearities, whether they occur at the beginning‐of‐life or end‐of‐life in the PV life cycle, has an important impact on the levelized cost of energy. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Jordan, Dirk C.↗

DOE OSTI2016

MDSplus quality improvement project

MDSplus is a data acquisition and analysis system used worldwide predominantly in the fusion research community. Development began 29 years ago on the OpenVMS operating system. Since that time there have been many new features added and the code has been ported to many different operating systems. There have been contributions to the MDSplus development from the fusion community in the way of feature suggestions, feature implementations, documentation and porting to different operating systems. The bulk of the development and support of MDSplus, however, has been provided by a relatively small core developer group of three or four members. Given the size of the development team and the large number of users much more effort was focused on providing new features for the community than on keeping the underlying code and documentation up to date with the evolving software development standards. To ensure that MDSplus will continue to provide the needs of the community in the future, the MDSplus development team along with other members of the MDSplus user community has commenced on a major quality improvement project. The planned improvements include changes to software build scripts to better use GNU Autoconf and Automake tools, refactoring many of the source code modules using new language features available in modern compilers, using GNU MinGW-w64 to create MS Windows distributions, migrating to a more modern source code management system, improvement of source documentation as well as improvements to the www.mdsplus.org web site documentation and layout, and the addition of more comprehensive test suites to apply to MDSplus code builds prior to releasing installation kits to the community. This paper should lead to a much more robust product and establish a framework to maintain stability as more enhancements and features are added. Finally, this paper will describe these efforts that are either in progress or planned for the near future.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2022

Current and future federal and state sampling guidance for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in environmental matrices

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of emerging contaminants composed of an estimated 5000 to 10,000 human-made, fluorinated, organic chemicals. Due to the complexity of PFAS, the need for multiple environmental matrix considerations and the absence of a promulgated federal standard for environmental sampling and analysis, U.S. states have begun developing health-based regulatory and/or guidance values for a limited number of PFAS in environmental matrices. As there is a growing body of science to inform PFAS sampling guidance standard development, it is important to understand which U.S. states are implementing sampling guidelines and how they plan to handle emerging PFAS. This critical review discusses the current and impending federal and state sampling guidelines for PFAS in environmental matrices, the data gaps surrounding PFAS sampling guidance in U.S. states, and the future impacts of impending guidance documents and regulations. Ten federal guidance documents are available for PFAS sampling guidance and analysis. The maximum number of PFAS covered in these guidance documents is 25 analytes spanning across 8 unique media. While the EPA has developed several different sampling and analytical guidelines for PFAS, there is no formal regulation of PFAS or requirements of states to enforce these guidelines. Consequently, only 31 states have informally adopted sampling guidelines, while the other 19 states have no guidance documentation in place for PFAS. The introduction of new PFAS sampling guidelines by the EPA, as well as updated analytical guidelines that target more PFAS or total organofluoride, is expected to continuously shift the landscape of federal and state guidance for PFAS sampling moving forward.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2015

Development of a broadband reflectivity diagnostic for laser driven shock compression experiments

Here, a normal-incidence visible and near-infrared shock wave optical reflectivity diagnostic was constructed to investigate changes in the optical properties of materials under dynamic laser compression. Documenting wavelength- and time-dependent changes in the optical properties of laser-shock compressed samples has been difficult, primarily due to the small sample sizes and short time scales involved, but we succeeded in doing so by broadening a series of time delayed 800-nm pulses from an ultrafast Ti:sapphire laser to generate high-intensity broadband light at nanosecond time scales. This diagnostic was demonstrated over the wavelength range 450–1150 nm with up to 16 time displaced spectra during a single shock experiment. Simultaneous off-normal incidence velocity interferometry (velocity interferometer system for any reflector) characterized the sample under laser-compression and also provided an independent reflectivity measurement at 532 nm wavelength. The shock-driven semiconductor-to-metallic transition in germanium was documented by the way of reflectivity measurements with 0.5 ns time resolution and a wavelength resolution of 10 nm.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

DOE OSTI2018

Machine Learning in High Energy Physics Community White Paper

Machine learning is an important applied research area in particle physics, beginning with applications to high-level physics analysis in the 1990s and 2000s, followed by an explosion of applications in particle and event identification and reconstruction in the 2010s. In this document we discuss promising future research and development areas in machine learning in particle physics with a roadmap for their implementation, software and hardware resource requirements, collaborative initiatives with the data science community, academia and industry, and training the particle physics community in data science. The main objective of the document is to connect and motivate these areas of research and development with the physics drivers of the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider and future neutrino experiments and identify the resource needs for their implementation. Additionally we identify areas where collaboration with external communities will be of great benefit.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2025

Visualizing Temporal Topic Embeddings with a Compass

—Dynamic topic modeling is useful at discovering the development and change in latent topics over time. However, present methodology relies on algorithms that separate document and word representations. This prevents the creation of a meaningful embedding space where changes in word usage and documents can be directly analyzed in a temporal context. This paper proposes an expansion of the compass-aligned temporal Word2Vec methodology into dynamic topic modeling. Such a method allows for the direct comparison of word and document embeddings across time in dynamic topics. This enables the creation of visualizations that incorporate temporal word embeddings within the context of documents into topic visualizations. In experiments against the current state-of-the-art, our proposed method demonstrates overall competitive performance in topic relevancy and diversity across temporal datasets of varying size. Simultaneously, it provides insightful visualizations focused on temporal word embeddings while maintaining the insights provided by global topic evolution, advancing our understanding of how topics evolve over time.

Cluster analysis↗

DOE OSTI2014

Not just about sunburn – the ozone hole's profound effect on climate has significant implications for Southern Hemisphere ecosystems

Abstract Climate scientists have concluded that stratospheric ozone depletion has been a major driver of Southern Hemisphere climate processes since about 1980. The implications of these observed and modelled changes in climate are likely to be far more pervasive for both terrestrial and marine ecosystems than the increase in ultraviolet‐B radiation due to ozone depletion; however, they have been largely overlooked in the biological literature. Here, we synthesize the current understanding of how ozone depletion has impacted Southern Hemisphere climate and highlight the relatively few documented impacts on terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Reviewing the climate literature, we present examples of how ozone depletion changes atmospheric and oceanic circulation, with an emphasis on how these alterations in the physical climate system affect Southern Hemisphere weather, especially over the summer season (December–February). These potentially include increased incidence of extreme events, resulting in costly floods, drought, wildfires and serious environmental damage. The ecosystem impacts documented so far include changes to growth rates of South American and New Zealand trees, decreased growth of Antarctic mosses and changing biodiversity in Antarctic lakes. The objective of this synthesis was to stimulate the ecological community to look beyond ultraviolet‐B radiation when considering the impacts of ozone depletion. Such widespread changes in Southern Hemisphere climate are likely to have had as much or more impact on natural ecosystems and food production over the past few decades, than the increased ultraviolet radiation due to ozone depletion.

Robinson, Sharon A.↗

DOE OSTI2014

SU-D-BRD-04: A Logical Organizational Approach to Clinical Information Management

Purpose: To develop a clinical information management system (CIMS) that collects, organizes physician inputs logically and supports analysis functionality. Methods: In a conventional electronic medical record system (EMR), the document manager component stores data in a pool of standalone .docx or .pdf files. The lack of a content-based logical organization makes cross-checking, reference or automatic inheritance of information challenging. We have developed an information-oriented clinical record system that addresses this shortcoming. In CIMS, a parent library predefines a set of available questions along with the data types of their expected answers. The creation of a questionnaire template is achieved by selecting questions from this parent library to form a virtual group. Instances of the same data field in different documents are linked by their question identifier. This design allows for flexible data sharing and inheritance among various forms using a longitudinal lineage of data indexed according to the modification time stamps of the documents. CIMS is designed with a web portal to facilitate querying, data entry and modification, aggregate report generation, and data adjudication. The current implementation addresses diagnostic data, medical history, vital signs, and various quantities in consult note and treatment summaries. Results: CIMS is currently storing treatment summary information of over 1,000 patients who have received treatment at UCLA Radiation Oncology between March 1, 2013 and January 31, 2014. We are in the process of incorporating a DICOM-RT dosimetry parser and patient reporting applications into CIMS, as well as continuing to define document templates to support additional forms. Conclusion: We are able to devise an alternative storage paradigm which results in an improvement in the accuracy and organizational structure of clinical information.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2014

TU-B-19A-01: Image Registration II: TG132-Quality Assurance for Image Registration

AAPM Task Group 132 was charged with a review of the current approaches and solutions for image registration in radiotherapy and to provide recommendations for quality assurance and quality control of these clinical processes. As the results of image registration are always used as the input of another process for planning or delivery, it is important for the user to understand and document the uncertainty associate with the algorithm in general and the Result of a specific registration. The recommendations of this task group, which at the time of abstract submission are currently being reviewed by the AAPM, include the following components. The user should understand the basic image registration techniques and methods of visualizing image fusion. The disclosure of basic components of the image registration by commercial vendors is critical in this respect. The physicists should perform end-to-end tests of imaging, registration, and planning/treatment systems if image registration is performed on a stand-alone system. A comprehensive commissioning process should be performed and documented by the physicist prior to clinical use of the system. As documentation is important to the safe implementation of this process, a request and report system should be integrated into the clinical workflow. Finally, a patient specific QA practice should be established for efficient evaluation of image registration results. The implementation of these recommendations will be described and illustrated during this educational session. Learning Objectives: Highlight the importance of understanding the image registration techniques used in their clinic. Describe the end-to-end tests needed for stand-alone registration systems. Illustrate a comprehensive commissioning program using both phantom data and clinical images. Describe a request and report system to ensure communication and documentation. Demonstrate an clinically-efficient patient QA practice for efficient evaluation of image registration.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2015

TU-AB-201-02: An Automated Treatment Plan Quality Assurance Program for Tandem and Ovoid High Dose-Rate Brachytherapy

Purpose: For tandem and ovoid (T&O) HDR brachytherapy in our clinic, it is required that the planning physicist manually capture ∼10 images during planning, perform a secondary dose calculation and generate a report, combine them into a single PDF document, and upload it to a record- and-verify system to prove to an independent plan checker that the case was planned correctly. Not only does this slow down the already time-consuming clinical workflow, the PDF document also limits the number of parameters that can be checked. To solve these problems, we have developed a web-based automatic quality assurance (QA) program. Methods: We set up a QA server accessible through a web- interface. A T&O plan and CT images are exported as DICOMRT files and uploaded to the server. The software checks 13 geometric features, e.g. if the dwell positions are reasonable, and 10 dosimetric features, e.g. secondary dose calculations via TG43 formalism and D2cc to critical structures. A PDF report is automatically generated with errors and potential issues highlighted. It also contains images showing important geometric and dosimetric aspects to prove the plan was created following standard guidelines. Results: The program has been clinically implemented in our clinic. In each of the 58 T&O plans we tested, a 14- page QA report was automatically generated. It took ∼45 sec to export the plan and CT images and ∼30 sec to perform the QA tests and generate the report. In contrast, our manual QA document preparation tooks on average ∼7 minutes under optimal conditions and up to 20 minutes when mistakes were made during the document assembly. Conclusion: We have tested the efficiency and effectiveness of an automated process for treatment plan QA of HDR T&O cases. This software was shown to improve the workflow compared to our conventional manual approach.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2016

SU-F-P-05: Initial Experience with an Independent Certification Program for Stereotactic Radiosurgery and Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy

Purpose: The ASTRO document “Safety is no accident: A FRAMEWORK FOR QUALITY RADIATION ONCOLOGY AND CARE” recommends external reviews of specialized modalities. The purpose of this presentation is to describe the implementation of such a program for Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS) and Stereotactic Body radiation Therapy (SBRT). Methods: The margin of error for SRS and SBRT delivery is significantly smaller than that of conventional radiotherapy and therefore requires special attention and diligence. The Novalis Certified program was created to fill an unmet need for specialized SRS / SBRT credentialing. A standards document was drafted by a panel of experts from several disciplines, including medical physics, radiation oncology and neurosurgery. The document, based on national and international standards, covers requirements in program structure, personnel, training, clinical application, technology, quality management, and patient and equipment QA. The credentialing process was modeled after existing certification programs and includes an institution-generated self-study, extensive document review and an onsite audit. Reviewers generate a descriptive report, which is reviewed by a multidisciplinary expert panel. Outcomes of the review may include mandatory requirements and optional recommendations. Results: 15 institutions have received Novalis Certification, including 3 in the US, 7 in Europe, 4 in Australia and 1 in Asia. 87 other centers are at various stages of the process. Nine reviews have resulted in mandatory requirements, however all of these were addressed within three months of the audit report. All reviews have produced specific recommendations ranging from programmatic to technical in nature. Institutions felt that the credentialing process addressed a critical need and was highly valuable to the institution. Conclusion: Novalis Certification is a unique peer review program assessing safety and quality in SRS and SBRT, while recognizing international practice standards. The approach is capable of highlighting outstanding requirements and providing recommendations to enhance both new and established programs. Timothy Solberg is co-owner of Global Radiosurgery services, LLC.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2016

SU-F-T-249: Application of Human Factors Methods: Usability Testing in the Radiation Oncology Environment

Purpose: As a quality improvement measure, we undertook this work to incorporate usability testing into the implementation procedures for new electronic documents and forms used by four affiliated radiation therapy centers. Methods: A human factors specialist provided training in usability testing for a team of medical physicists, radiation therapists, and radiation oncologists from four radiotherapy centers. A usability testing plan was then developed that included controlled scenarios and standardized forms for qualitative and quantitative feedback from participants, including patients. Usability tests were performed by end users using the same hardware and viewing conditions that are found in the clinical environment. A pilot test of a form used during radiotherapy CT simulation was performed in a single department; feedback informed adaptive improvements to the electronic form, hardware requirements, resource accessibility and the usability testing plan. Following refinements to the testing plan, usability testing was performed at three affiliated cancer centers with different vault layouts and hardware. Results: Feedback from the testing resulted in the detection of 6 critical errors (omissions and inability to complete task without assistance), 6 non-critical errors (recoverable), and multiple suggestions for improvement. Usability problems with room layout were detected at one center and problems with hardware were detected at one center. Upon amalgamation and summary of the results, three key recommendations were presented to the document’s authors for incorporation into the electronic form. Documented inefficiencies and patient safety concerns related to the room layout and hardware were presented to administration along with a request for funding to purchase upgraded hardware and accessories to allow a more efficient workflow within the simulator vault. Conclusion: By including usability testing as part of the process when introducing any new document or procedure into clinical use, associated risks can be identified and mitigated before patient care and clinical workflow are impacted.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗