Keywords:
Radiation physics, Radioprotection / Radiation dose, Computer applications, Digital radiography, Mammography, Physics, Radiation safety, Equipment, Quality assurance
Authors:
P. Mora1, H. Bosmans2, D. Pfeiffer3, G. Zhang2, M. Arreola4, H. Delis5; 1San Jose/CR, 2Leuven/BE, 3Boulder, CO/US, 4Gainesville, FL/US, 5Vienna/AT
DOI:
10.1594/ecr2018/C-0144
Aims and objectives
Regular quality control testing of radiographic facilities has been largely ignored throughout the world.
However,
quality control guidelines (IAEA,
United States,
European Commission,
and other authorities) [1,2,3,4] have demonstrated that effective quality control programs,
involving daily or weekly tests,
both reduce patient radiation exposure and improve image quality.
In IAEA Member States,
many departments do not have access to on-site support by a Clinical Qualified Medical Physicist (CQMP) in Diagnostic Radiology,
or regular visits by a CQMP may be limited due to lack of personnel or the distances involved.
Annual testing is inadequate to detect short-term fluctuations of some critical components of the imaging chain.
For these reasons,
remote quality control tools for general diagnostic radiographic and mammographic equipment,
to allow daily or weekly quality control testing,
are essential to ensure consistency between the comprehensive evaluations by the CQMP.
Remote testing tools allow for centrally collected and analyzed data,
adding comparability and consistency of the results from different centers [5,6].
Additionally,
automated QC tools may allow for more advanced analysis of images and image quality parameters.
To help mitigate this situation,
the IAEA determined to develop a program through which quality control measures can be made based on both a simple,
inexpensive,
and yet data-rich phantom and a straightforward software tool (‘ATIA’) for image analysis.
Measurement data or images can be sent to the software tool for quantitative analysis,
trend analysis,
and data archiving.
A remote CQMP,
operating the software tools,
would review the results and inform the responsible person at the facility if any measured value is out of limits or if a worrisome trend is developing.
The increase of digital equipment in radiology,
replacing analog equipment,
in many countries is enabling the concept of remote QC,
since the manipulation and transfer of information is now possible and much easier than some years ago.
The advantages of having digital images should be used,
and remotely controlled QC programs can be very beneficial in many circumstances.