Connectathon Schedule

  • Mon - Fri, Oct. 30 - Nov. 3, 2023
    • 9:00am - 5:00pm CET : Judged testing at Brainlab HQ
  • Thu, Nov. 9, 2023
    • 10:30am - 12:30pm EST : Connectathon Wrap-up Meeting / Results Review (via Zoom)

Preparation for Testing

  • Get trained by your application trainers on using your software in the specific Profiles you will be testing, e.g.
    • Be prepared to contour image data
    • Perform treatment planning
    • Show plan details for judging

Testing

  • For actor specific instructions, see respective Profile page, and information in the Profile.
  • In general it's best if you can only test against a vendor who has previously passed, but that may not be possible at all Connectathons
  • In order to pass a specific Profile, test instructions will be provided to prepare data for the judging. The general rule is that an application implementing a consumer Actor must consume data from at least three different vendors. An application implementing a producer Actor must provide data that will be tested on at least three other systems. In this way, not only interconnectivity, but interoperability can be demonstrated.
  • A Test tool installers can be downloaded from the Test Tools page. (Only available to Connectathon participants)

Attendance and Cooperation

  • Plan to be available for scheduled test sessions.
  • Communicate with your vendor peers. See who is testing what, learn where materials are posted, and what are the next steps.
  • If you find some information is not easily accessible, volunteer to post it to the appropriate Connectathon slack channel.
  • The role of judges is to judge, they will not help with software issues, networking issues or other technical concerns. Everyone else at the Connectation is a vendor attendee, other than AAPM support personnel.
  • If you are unavailable for an extended time, please inform the judges who can adjust test times if needed.
  • Carefully read your registration materials and contract from AAPM. There are further binding agreements detailed there.

Supporting Attendance

Once you have shown adherence to a profile, please plan to attend as a test supporter in following years. Because of the small (and shrinking!) number of vendors in the RO arena, truly testing interoperability is only possible if every implementer of a given profile is in attendance, whether they are actively testing for adherence or not.

PACS / DICOM Archive Usage

  • The PACS will be used for dataset storage and retrieval in testing all content Profiles.
  • This is a common place where judges can place test data, and where vendors can store output of their tests for evaluation and use by other vendors
  • The PACS is supplied and run by a vendor volunteer. Please be respectful of their time and work, since they are likely trying to get through testing, as well as supporting the persistence function of the Connectathon.

Patient Data Naming Convention

<Profile><year><Case><SetNumber><Vendor><Product>
  • <Profile>: BRTO, MMRO, TPPC, DCOM, TDW (Profile Codes)
    • BRTO: Basic RT Objects-II (BRTO-II)
    • MMRO: Multi-Modality image registration in Radiation Oncology-III (MMRO-III)
    • TPPC: Treatment Planning - Plan Content (TPPC)
    • DCOM: Dose Compositing (DCOM)
    • TDW: Treatment Delivery Workflow-II (TDW-II)
  • <year>: 21, 22, 23 …
  • <Case>: A, B
    • A: First Connectathon
    • B: Second Connectathon (if applicable)
    • R: Re-testing
    • P: Pre-testing
  • <SetNumber>: 01, 02, 03, …
  • <Vendor>: AC, BR, EL, IB, ME, MI, PH, RA, SU, VA, VI, …
    • AC: Accuray
    • BR: Brainlab
    • EL: Elekta (Monaco)
    • EP: Elekta ProKnow
    • IB: IBA
    • ME: Mevion
    • MI: MIM software
    • PH: Philips
    • RA: RaySearch Labs
    • SU: Sun Nuclear
    • VA: Varian Aria
    • VP: Varian ePeerReview
    • VV: Varian Velocity
    • VI: ViewRay
    • If you are a new vendor, please contact the judges for an appropriate vendor code

Informal Testing

Connectathons are opportunities for informal testing of new profiles. It is a good opportunity to stress an implementation and even perform some vendor-specific peer-to-peer tests. This is not only possible, but also encouraged. Participating vendors are advised to prepare their own test schedule and discuss with others how their goals can be met. As judges are available, too, feel free to address them with any questions regarding testing during the official Connectathon.

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