Australian Society of Medical Imaging and Radiation Therapy Image Registration in Radiation Therapy Position Paper

The report from the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) Task Group 132, published in 2017, established a framework and recommendations for the safe implementation of rigid image registration (RIR) and deformable image registration (DIR) into radiation oncology clinical practice. The Medical Image Registration Special Interest Group (MRSIG) of the Australasian College of Physical Scientists and Engineers in Medicine further built on these recommendations through the publishing of best practice guidelines for DIR warping based on increased accessibility to such tools in the clinical environment. There remains an increasing responsibility on radiation therapists, a critical member of the radiation oncology multidisciplinary team, to safely embed RIR and DIR process into their routine clinical practice, along all steps of the patient's radiation therapy treatment journey. This position paper, authored by the Australian Society of Medical Imaging and Radiation Therapy (ASMIRT) Image Registration Working Party and endorsed by the ASMIRT Executive, (i) details the role of radiation therapists in the application of RIR and DIR in day-to-day clinical practice and (ii) delivers a series of recommendations to support the safe implementation of RIR and DIR into radiation therapist workflows.