QUALITY ASSURANCE IN RADIATION ONCOLOGY

Quality assurance in radiation oncology attempts to prescribe consiste nt, safe, and optimal delivery of radiation to treat disease. It encom passes three major areas of treatment: clinical, physical, and technic al. Although national approaches and guidelines of quality assurance i n radiation oncology are available, they usually are not adequate to d eal with the particular needs of individual institutions, nor are they adequate to ensure uniform standards of diagnosis and treatment among institutions. Therefore, it is important for individual institutions to develop and implement strict quality assurance standards, based on national guidelines as well as their own strengths and needs, to ensur e that patients receive the highest quality of radiotherapy and that t he successes and failures of treatment are statistically reliable. Thi s paper addresses the importance of quality assurance in radiation onc ology and examines the quality assurance program in the Department of Therapeutic Radiology-Radiation Oncology at the University of Minnesot a as an example of a program tailored to the needs of an individual in stitution.