research profile
Dr. Dustin Jacqmin’s Research
- Patient Safety and Quality Improvement in Radiation Oncology: Using incident learning data and process improvement methods to study and strengthen the safety of radiation therapy operations.
- Treatment Plan Quality and Physics Plan Review: Developing standards, tools, and training to improve how medical physicists evaluate and ensure the quality of radiation treatment plans.
- Surface-Guided Radiotherapy: Investigating clinical applications of optical surface imaging for patient positioning, motion management, and treatment margin reduction.
- Radiotherapy Process Innovation: Designing and implementing new clinical workflows, including simulation-free palliative radiotherapy and novel treatment programs such as cardiac SBRT.
Last updated:
Shoulder Positioning Reproducibility in Head and Neck Radiotherapy
Shoulder position variability is a known challenge in head and neck radiotherapy, particularly for patients treated with extended-field techniques. We are developing an automated analysis pipeline that integrates RayStation scripting, DICOM data retrieval, and point cloud registration to quantify inter-fraction shoulder displacement from cone-beam CT imaging. This work compares shoulder reproducibility between patients treated with and without surface-guided radiotherapy (SGRT) to evaluate whether SGRT improves positional consistency in this patient population.
Physics Plan Review Skill Development
Through work with the AAPM Workgroup on Treatment Planning, we have developed resources to help medical physicists perform more effective and consistent treatment plan quality review. This includes published checklists, educational frameworks, and a specialty meeting (co-chaired for AAPM, October 2026) that provides hands-on, vendor-agnostic training in plan evaluation, simulated error identification, and interpersonal communication skills for the plan review process.
Simulation-Free Palliative Radiotherapy
For patients with acute pain and limited life expectancy, the time required for a traditional CT simulation can be a significant burden. We have developed and implemented a simulation-free radiotherapy program that uses existing diagnostic imaging to plan palliative treatments, eliminating the need for a dedicated simulation appointment. This work involved creating patient eligibility criteria, planning guidelines, and quality assurance procedures to ensure safe implementation.
Cardiac SBRT for Ventricular Tachycardia
Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) is an emerging treatment for patients with recurrent ventricular tachycardia that is refractory to conventional therapies. As lead physicist for this program, I support the multidisciplinary team spanning radiation oncology, cardiac electrophysiology, and medical physics in treatment planning and delivery. One-year outcomes from our program have been presented at the American College of Cardiology annual meeting.
Incident Learning and Quality Improvement in Radiation Oncology
Our department maintains a high-volume incident learning system that captures data on process deviations, near-misses, and safety events across radiation therapy operations. I use this data to study the effectiveness of quality improvement interventions, monitor trends during periods of clinical change, and develop new approaches to safety culture. This work has produced publications on the impact of COVID-19 on incident reporting patterns and has informed national efforts through my involvement with the AAPM Working Group on RO-ILS and the ASTRO Multidisciplinary QA Committee.