Improved X-Ray Safety, Quality Control, and Resource Management in Medical Imaging Using QATrack.

INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND: Management of a quality assurance program in diagnostic imaging involves a variety of machine types, multiple vendors, and a large number of frontline staff who have different specializations. Standardizing tests across multiple platforms in the face of vendor recommendations, regulatory requirements, and professional practice protocols can present challenges to maintain a robust and coherent quality assurance program. The current work presents a unique application of an existing tool that can be used to manage a comprehensive quality assurance program in a diagnostic imaging department. MATERIALS AND METHODS: QATrack+ is an open source, quality assurance platform originally developed for and currently widely used in radiation therapy departments. The use of QATrack+ for quality assurance program management within a large diagnostic imaging department is a novel use of this tool. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: QATrack+ was successfully implemented in a large, multisite diagnostic imaging department. The progression toward a single platform for the quality assurance program has addressed issues of end of life with previous software packages and has improved the standardization of testing across the institution. The configuration of the software has enabled frontline staff to be directly engaged in the quality control (QC) program, improving the efficiency of resource allocation for QC and promoting a strong safety culture and commitment to quality. Trending tools within QATrack+ allow for simplified review of tests and enable the early identification of potential failures. CONCLUSION: Originally developed for radiation therapy programs, QATrack+ is well suited to applications within diagnostic imaging. It is versatile and is easily adapted to the individual needs of a department for activities ranging from quality control testing, scheduling, test review, and data trending. It simplifies the standardization of quality control practices across platforms, thereby facilitating training and promoting involvement in the quality assurance program by all staff.

Streamlining Regulatory Activities Within Radiation Therapy Departments Using QATrack.

Radiation therapy departments are faced with the challenge of tracking numerous quality control tests as well as monitoring service events affecting radiation therapy treatment units. Service events, in particular, pose a challenge since the clinic must be able to provide evidence to the regulatory body that both the service work and any required follow-up tests were recorded and authorized by the appropriate staff. This article presents an integrated approach to tracking quality control tests and service event logs using QATrack+. The newly developed version of this quality assurance software integrates quality control tracking with the service event log, allowing a direct link between a service event and any initiating routine tests or follow-up tests that are performed. This improves the ability of a licensee to ensure compliance with regulations and permits a simple platform from which to access all machine equipment tests and service events. Furthermore, this improves the ability of a department to assess the service record of equipment and to identify trends in failure modes.

COMP report: CPQR technical quality control guideline for medical linear accelerators and multileaf collimators.

The Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists (COMP), in close partnership with the Canadian Partnership for Quality Radiotherapy (CPQR) has developed a series of Technical Quality Control (TQC) guidelines for radiation treatment equipment. These guidelines outline the performance objectives that equipment should meet in order to ensure an acceptable level of radiation treatment quality. The TQC guidelines have been rigorously reviewed and field tested in a variety of Canadian radiation treatment facilities. The development process enables rapid review and update to keep the guidelines current with changes in technology (the most updated version of this guideline can be found on the CPQR website). This particular TQC details recommended quality control testing for medical linear accelerators and multileaf collimators.

The Canadian National System for Incident Reporting in Radiation Treatment (NSIR-RT) Taxonomy.

PURPOSE: Incident investigation, reporting, and learning are core elements of quality improvement in radiation treatment. This report describes the development of a Canadian National System for Incident Reporting in Radiation Treatment (NSIR-RT), focusing especially on the taxonomy. METHODS AND MATERIALS: The NSIR-RT was developed to provide a framework in Canada for reporting and analyzing radiation treatment incidents. A key objective was to assure compatibility with other international reporting systems to facilitate future information exchange. The Canadian community was engaged at every step of the development process through Delphi consensus building and inter-user agreement testing to promote awareness of the system and motivate broad-based utilization across the country. RESULTS: The final taxonomy was comprised of 6 data groups (impact, discovery, patient, details, treatment delivery, and investigation) and 33 data categories with predefined menu options. There was a high level agreement within the Canadian community about the final suite of data categories, and broad alignment of these categories with the World Health Organization and other American and European radiation treatment incident classifications. CONCLUSIONS: The Canadian NSIR-RT taxonomy will be implemented as an online, web-based reporting and analysis system. It is expected that the taxonomy will evolve and mature over time to meet the changing needs of the Canadian radiation treatment community and support radiation treatment incident learning on a global scale.