Abstract
The ICRU, Inter-Society Council for Radiation Oncology (USA), and ESTRO have for many years had a great interest in quality assurance. The Committee for Quality Assurance of JASTRO published a “Guidelines for QA Systems in External Radiotherapy” in 1997. In this Paper, we review the various components of quality assurance based on the Guidelines. The role of QA committees in hospitals are reviewed, stressing its interdisciplinary nature relative to medical physicists, radiation oncologist, and radiation oncology technologists. Implementations of QA systems are reviewed for inventory of the existing protocols, quality audit procedures, detection of weaknesses in systems for continuous quality improvement, and clinical aspects. The latter increases efficiency and improves the quality of care for patients. The recommendations in this paper rely on reports by the AAPM and ACR, and discussions by the Committee for Quality Assurance of the JASTRO.
