Remote Automated quality control in Radiology

Introduction

Regular quality control testing of medical radiological equipment has been shown to improve clinical image quality and reduce patient radiation exposure. Unfortunately is has been largely overlooked throughout the world. As part of the quality assurance programme various tests need to be performed at certain time intervals such as annually, by-annually, monthly, or weekly tests. Annual testing alone is inadequate to detect short term fluctuations in some critical components of the imaging chain.

Important Principles

Remote quality control tools are used to facilitate daily or weekly testing to ensure consistency between comprehensive annual evaluations. Additionally, automated quality control tools allow for more advanced analysis of image quality parameters. However, most existing efforts involve complicated and expensive test objects and infrastructures.

The IAEA developed a remote and automated solution for radiography and mammography quality control using simple, inexpensive test objects (phantoms) and free software program. The phantoms enable quality control tests to be performed on a daily or weekly basis using a state-of-the-art detectability index (d′), and the accompanying software allows for complete and automated evaluation of the principal performance characteristics of the imaging chain. The IAEA methodology can be considered part of a comprehensive solution that can facilitate basic supervision of radiological X ray equipment performance to be conducted remotely, under the guidance of a clinically qualified medical physicist.

The IAEA publication is accompanied by supplementary material to support the remote/automated quality control process:

• Two excel files (one for?radiography?and one?for mammography) for proper documentation of the results. An upgraded common excel?is also developed to collect data in radiography and mammography;
• Real size blueprints of proposed phantoms (radiography,?mammography), allowing users to accurately manufacture them;
• Dedicated?software?in C++, in Python?(together with instructions), as well as in Mac version, to automatically analyse images generated by the phantoms and provide advanced and sophisticated measures of image quality.
• Training material?to facilitate implementation of the remote and automated QC IAEA methodology
• Frequent questions and answers

The?IAEA Human Health Series 39?publication describes the proposed methodology which is not intended to replace or minimize the need for on-site medical physics support, or to replace the requirements for comprehensive QC. It is an additional tool for the everyday clinical routine to the clinically qualified medical physicist and to detect deficiencies in system performance before they become clinically significant.

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