A quality assurance program for radiotherapy centers in Korea

Recognizing the importance of quality assurance in radiotherapy and the need to make access to radiation standards traceable to the international measurement system to every radiotherapy center, the KFDA, as a national secondary standard dosimetry laboratory, has started a quality audit program in 1999. This program was initiated by tele-survey to all radiotherapy centers regarding general information about their radiotherapists, medical physicists, type of equipment, dosimeters, etc. This provided the KFDA with a data file and led to links between the KFDA and the clinics. A quality assurance network was set up and on-site dosimetry reviews were arranged according to a suitable timetable. Usually, the outputs of radiotherapy units at given conditions were measured with Farmer-type ionization chambers and compared with corresponding values quoted by the radiotherapy centers