Building an AI-Assisted Treatment Care Path at Mary Bird Perkins
A sit-down interview with Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center Chief of Physics, Dr. Sotirios Stathakis
2026
Overcoming Clinical Bottlenecks: Centralizing Radiotherapy Workflows with AI Integration
Dr. Sotiri Stathakis, Chief of Physics at Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center, details how Louisiana's largest cancer network implemented clinical AI to streamline multi-vendor workflows, reduce physician contouring times, and establish an MRI-only program.
Modern radiation oncology clinics operate under constant pressure to balance patient throughput with absolute planning precision. Between coordinating multiple vendor systems, managing complex scheduling logistics, and dedicating hours of physician time to manual contouring, operational bottlenecks frequently delay the start of therapy. For multi-site cancer centers, these challenges multiply, requiring a centralized strategy that standardizes care quality without disrupting existing clinical infrastructure.
Operational Strategies for Scaling Patient Throughput and Standardizing Care
In this exclusive clinical interview, Dr. Sotiri Stathakis shares the practical framework Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center utilized to integrate TheraPanacea's AI-driven solutions into their nine radiation oncology locations. He details how their centralized physics team shifted focus from repetitive administrative workflows to high-value quality assurance and safer, more efficient plan delivery.
What You Will Learn in This Interview
The Blueprint for an MRI-Only Workflow: How Mary Bird Perkins utilizes the MRI Box to manage approximately 250 prostate and bladder cancer patients annually, completely eliminating a separate CT scan visit and freeing up 250 clinic slots.
Reducing Contouring from Hours to Minutes: The clinical impact of deploying Annotate auto-contouring for 40% to 45% of patients, particularly across complex head, neck, and abdominal cases, while maintaining high physician acceptance rates.
AI as a Multi-Vendor Integrator: How to position AI as a centralized planning hub that connects disparate software systems and standardizes treatment quality across multiple clinical sites.
The Operational Reality of AI in the Clinic: Why automated tools do not replace physicists or dosimetrists, but instead empower clinical teams to focus on quality assurance, safety, and increased patient throughput.
Implementation Tactics for Clinical Leadership: Practical guidelines on starting with small, controllable cases, leveraging peer-reviewed research, and selecting technologies that adapt to existing workflows.
About the Speaker
Dr. Sotiri Stathakis is the Chief of Physics at Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center, the largest cancer center organization in Louisiana. Leading a team of sixteen medical physicists across nine radiation oncology sites, Dr. Stathakis oversees clinical operations, physics residency programs, and graduate research collaborations with Louisiana State University.