A Web-Based Tool for Automated Generation of Medical Physics Consult Writeups
Abstract
Purpose
Medical Physics Consult (MPC) writeups are required documentation for patient safety, regulatory compliance, and clinical communication. Our institution has used Quick Parts in Microsoft Word to create MPCs, which requires manual editing—entering physician names multiple times, adjusting grammar, removing placeholders, and combining templates for multi-modality cases. We developed and evaluated QuickWrite, a web-based tool that generates standardized MPC writeups from dropdown selections and input fields.
Methods
A prospective quality improvement study was conducted at a single institution. Six medical physics residents contributed data over three months (October 2025–January 2026). The study collected 212 timestamped writeup submissions comparing QuickWrite to Quick Parts templates. Additionally, 15 paired head-to-head comparisons were performed where participants completed identical tasks using both methods. Statistical analysis used Mann-Whitney U tests for independent samples, Wilcoxon signed-rank tests for paired data, and Cohen’s d for effect size.
Results
Mean writeup time decreased from 4.82 minutes (Quick Parts) to 1.00 minutes (QuickWrite), a 79% reduction. This difference was statistically significant (p<0.001) with a large effect size (Cohen’s d = 1.31). In paired comparisons, QuickWrite was faster in 100% of trials (15/15). Ten of thirteen modules showed statistically significant improvement. The SBRT module showed only modest improvement (38%) and has been identified for refinement.
Conclusion
QuickWrite substantially reduced MPC documentation time at our institution and has been adopted as standard practice. The tool and underlying logic maps will be released as open-source for adaptation at other institutions. This single-center study demonstrates feasibility; multi-site validation is needed to assess generalizability.