Clinical Physicists have many duties including the periodic calibration and quality assurance of the treatment machine and its various subsystems.
To ensure accurate and consistent treatment delivery, quality assurance of equipment should be performed daily, weekly, monthly, and annually with tests becoming increasingly more thorough and comprehensive. The American Association of Physicists in Medicine have made a series of recommendations of machine test frequencies and tolerances, which are outlined in Task Group 142. By using the latest nationally recognized protocols, confidence in the machine's safety and precision can be verified.
At the conclusion of QA testing, detailed reports are generated which will allow for the constant monitoring of equipment along with any performance trends. These reports are required by the state and are essential in all radiotherapy centers.
Having been involved consistently in the clinical duties of many radiation centers, our physicists are able to fulfill the daily, monthly, and annual needs of many radiation oncology departments.
