Radiation therapists — credentialed as RT(T) through the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT) — run the most time-critical outpatient schedule in oncology. A fractionated radiation course requires patients to arrive and leave on exact schedules, 30 to 50 minutes apart, Monday through Friday for four to seven weeks. Behind each treatment slot, the radiation therapist must complete daily machine QA, set up the patient on a precise reproducible isocenter, acquire and review image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) images, and confirm physician approval before any beam is delivered. A late start on Linac 1 does not absorb into a buffer — it cascades through every patient appointment for the rest of the day.
The core problem: Radiation oncology departments use oncology information systems (ARIA from Varian, Mosaiq from Elekta) for scheduling, record-and-verify, and treatment delivery. These systems send alerts within the department — but they do not reach you at home on a 5:30 AM morning, on lunch break in the cafeteria, or on call at night when an urgent spinal cord compression patient needs emergency radiation. A dedicated phone call from Remindavo before any scheduled commitment is a different channel that reaches you wherever you are.
What Goes on a Radiation Therapist's Calendar
The radiation therapist's professional calendar is anchored by two fixed daily commitments: morning machine QA and the patient treatment queue. Daily QA on a linear accelerator — required before any patient is treated — follows AAPM TG-142 guidelines and typically includes output constancy checks, laser and optical distance indicator verification, kV and MV imaging system performance, couch position reproducibility, and door interlock and radiation monitor confirmation. In a department with three or four Linacs, each machine has its own QA technologist assignment, and a late arrival means the first patient waits, which means every subsequent patient waits.
Beyond the daily treatment schedule, radiation therapists participate in a range of time-sensitive departmental commitments. Weekly on-treatment visits (OTVs) — physician check-in appointments where the radiation oncologist reviews the patient's tolerance, reviews the week's imaging, and modifies or approves the ongoing treatment plan — require the therapist to be available for patient escort and treatment delivery during the physician's time on the floor. Treatment planning conferences (TPCs) or dosimetry review meetings, typically held weekly, bring together the radiation oncologist, medical physicist, dosimetrist, and therapist to review upcoming new patient treatment plans before simulation or treatment begins. Multidisciplinary tumor board meetings — where radiation oncology, medical oncology, surgery, radiology, and pathology review complex cancer cases together — are scheduled events that RTTs with clinical leadership or education roles attend.
CT simulation appointments introduce a separate scheduling layer. Simulation is the initial imaging session where the patient is positioned in the treatment position, immobilized with a custom device (thermoplastic mask, alpha cradle, vac-lock bag), and scanned for treatment planning — often in a dedicated CT simulator room separate from the Linac vaults. Special simulation requirements for IMRT, SBRT, proton therapy, or MR-guided radiation (MR-Linac) may involve longer room times, additional staff, or coordination with medical physics. Each simulation is a separate calendar event that requires therapist availability in a different room and a different workflow from daily treatment delivery.
SBRT, SRS, and High-Precision Procedures
Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) and stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) procedures are the highest-precision events in a radiation therapist's schedule. These treatments deliver ablative doses in 1 to 5 fractions — compared to 25 to 35 fractions for standard external beam radiotherapy — which means each fraction carries significantly more biological consequence if mistreated. SBRT procedures for lung (SABR), liver, spine, and prostate require the full treatment team to be physically present: radiation therapist for patient setup and beam delivery, medical physicist or dosimetrist for independent monitor unit verification and treatment delivery oversight, and radiation oncologist for approval of image-guided positioning before treatment begins.
SRS procedures for brain metastases, arteriovenous malformations, and acoustic neuromas — delivered on platforms including Varian TrueBeam STx, Elekta Synergy with Agility MLC, Accuray CyberKnife, Accuray Radixact, and ViewRay MR-Linac (Unity, MRIdian) — may have operating room or dedicated SRS suite coordination requirements. A missing therapist at the scheduled procedure time is not a recoverable situation: patients undergoing SBRT or SRS are positioned with sub-millimeter reproducibility requirements, and the entire procedure timeline is built around their presence. A phone call 20 to 30 minutes before the procedure start ensures the therapist is in the vault room for the pre-treatment physics check before the patient is brought in.
Brachytherapy procedures — high-dose-rate (HDR) or low-dose-rate (LDR) intracavitary or interstitial implants for gynecologic, prostate, or skin cancers — require radiation therapist presence in the procedure room for applicator preparation, patient positioning, source loading in the Nucletron BEBIG or Varian GammaMedplus afterloader, and radiation safety confirmation. These procedures happen in OR suites, dedicated procedure rooms, or shielded brachytherapy vaults and require coordination with nursing, anesthesia, and the radiation oncologist. A therapist on call for emergent brachytherapy procedures — such as urgent vaginal cylinder placements for postoperative endometrial cancer — needs a reliable interrupt that reaches them off-unit.
CE Requirements for ARRT RT(T) Renewal
The American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT) requires 24 continuing education credits every 2 years for RT(T) renewal, with a mandatory 1-credit component in medical ethics. Approved CE activities include accredited programs from the American Society of Radiologic Technologists (ASRT) — the largest approved CE provider for ARRT-credentialed technologists — the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), the Society for Radiation Oncology Administrators (SROA), RadiologyInfo.org education modules, hospital-based radiation safety and medical physics education, vendor-hosted CE from Varian (SmartConnect, Varian Pro), Elekta Academy, Accuray Learning, ViewRay University, and online CE platforms including Rad CE Online, ASRT Learning Center, and ProCert Labs.
ASTRO's annual meeting — the largest radiation oncology conference in the world — offers dozens of ARRT-approved education sessions across physics, clinical practice, imaging, and technology that count toward biennial renewal. The ASTRO meeting runs in late October or early November and registration, hotel, and session deadlines cascade from August through October, each requiring calendar management. RTTs pursuing advanced credentials — the ARRT subspecialty in Radiation Therapy Technology (RTT), the Certified Medical Dosimetrist (CMD) through the Medical Dosimetrist Certification Board (MDCB) for dosimetrists who began as therapists, or leadership and education roles that require separate CE — manage more complex multi-year renewal cycles that benefit from the same phone call reminder workflow as daily treatment commitments.
How ARIA and Mosaiq Sync with Google Calendar and Outlook
ARIA (Varian Medical Systems, now a Siemens Healthineers company) is the oncology information system used by approximately 60 percent of radiation therapy departments in the United States and the majority of large academic cancer centers worldwide. ARIA's patient scheduling module manages Linac machine appointments, physician check-in slots, dosimetry review meetings, and simulation times. ARIA supports calendar export through its staff-facing scheduling portal, and treatment appointment data can be exported to iCal format for subscription in Google Calendar or Outlook — allowing ARIA appointments to appear in your personal calendar where Remindavo can cover them.
Mosaiq (Elekta) is the primary alternative to ARIA and is widely deployed in community hospital radiation oncology departments, regional cancer centers, and international markets. Mosaiq's scheduling and appointment management module supports similar calendar export capabilities. RayStation (RaySearch Laboratories) and Pinnacle (originally Philips, now maintained through Elekta's portfolio) are treatment planning systems rather than scheduling systems — they manage the dose calculation and plan optimization workflow rather than appointment scheduling, so calendar integration typically flows from ARIA or Mosaiq rather than from the TPS. In departments without direct calendar sync, shared Google Calendar subscriptions or Outlook group calendars maintained by the department scheduler or charge therapist serve the same function.
HIPAA note: Calendar event titles used by radiation therapists for personal scheduling — such as "Linac 2 — Morning QA" or "SBRT Lung — Room 4 — 7:30 AM" or "Tumor Board — Conference Room B" — typically do not constitute protected health information (PHI) under HIPAA as long as they do not contain patient names, medical record numbers, or diagnosis information linked to identifiable individuals. Remindavo reads only event times and titles. It never accesses ARIA, Mosaiq, Eclipse, your hospital EHR, or any patient or clinical records.
How to Set Up Remindavo for Your Radiation Therapy Schedule
Sign up at remindavo.com with your Google or Microsoft account. The 14-day free trial requires no credit card.
Connect your calendar. Authorize Remindavo to read your Google Calendar or Outlook. It reads event times and titles only — no ARIA, Mosaiq, or clinical system access.
Add your phone number. Remindavo places a verification call immediately to confirm delivery before your next scheduled commitment.
Choose your lead time. 20 to 30 minutes before your morning QA window ensures you complete TG-142 checks before the first patient arrives. 15 minutes before SBRT and SRS procedures is sufficient for team assembly and pre-treatment physics review. 10 minutes works for standard daily treatment fractions where you are already on-unit.
Done. Every morning QA session, treatment fraction, SBRT and SRS procedure, brachytherapy case, simulation appointment, tumor board meeting, weekly OTV, TPC, physics review meeting, ARRT CE webinar, and ASTRO event on your calendar gets a reminder call automatically.
Why Push Notifications Don't Reach Radiation Therapists
Radiation therapy vaults are shielded rooms with thick concrete walls — 6 to 8 feet in most linear accelerator installations, more for vault configurations used in proton therapy and specialized SRS suites. Phone signals inside treatment vaults are attenuated or blocked entirely. While this does not affect the notification you receive before you enter the vault, it does mean that push notifications are frequently missed when a therapist is in a treatment room and the device is left at the console desk outside the vault entrance. The notification that arrives during a 20-minute treatment delivery is seen only after the therapist exits the vault, checks the door, and re-enters the control area — at which point the notification may be 30 minutes old.
A phone call at the right lead time — before you enter the vault for a long treatment, not during it — solves the timing problem. Remindavo calls your phone at the configured lead time before each calendar event, so you receive the signal while you are still at the control console or in the department common area, not while you are inside the shielded room with the patient. For on-call therapists at home waiting for an emergency fractionation case, a ringing phone is harder to miss than a vibration or badge notification on a device left on the nightstand.
Medical Dosimetrists and Radiation Oncology Physicists
Certified Medical Dosimetrists (CMDs), credentialed through the Medical Dosimetrist Certification Board (MDCB), manage their own set of time-sensitive scheduling commitments: treatment planning conferences where new patient plans are reviewed before treatment begins, dosimetry chart checks before a patient's first treatment fraction, peer review sessions, and MDCB CE requirements (25 CE credits every 3 years for CMD renewal, including 10 credits specific to medical dosimetry). CMDs who also hold ARRT RT(T) credentials manage dual renewal cycles with separate CE tracking requirements. A phone call reminder before a treatment planning conference at 7:00 AM — when the dosimetrist is reviewing Eclipse or RayStation plans before the radiation oncologist arrives — covers a commitment that often gets buried under overnight plan approvals and urgent re-planning requests.
Board-Certified Medical Physicists (DABR, DABMP, FAAPM) accredited through the American Board of Radiology (ABR) or the American Board of Medical Physics (ABMP) manage annual machine survey deadlines, TG-51 output calibration schedules, AAPM meeting commitments, and ABR Maintenance of Certification (MOC) continuing education requirements. Annual physics surveys — required by the NRC and Agreement State radiation control programs for each therapy unit in clinical use — must be completed by specific calendar dates, and the scheduling coordination between the physicist, the department scheduling team, and the machine downtime window requires calendar management that benefits from the same phone call reminder discipline.