Development of a paperless web-based quality assurance recording system for the implementation of TG 142 for linear accelerator quality assurance

Abstract

In our Centre, we are currently altering the quality assurance (QA) programme for the Department of Radiotherapy to bring it into line with the recent TG 142 report from the AAPM. A web based program using C# and HTML with an SQL database has been designed and written to record the measurement results for daily and monthly QA tests. The C# code is used to calculate Pass/Action Level/Fail for each test. In the event of a measurement not meeting the specified criteria during daily QA, an email is automatically sent to the physics team. Two websites were written for the daily QA, one for mechanical, safety and radiation tests and the other for imaging tests. The monthly QA requires six websites, all navigated using hyperlinks. A website was written to pull the data into a monthly report. An example of a portion of the reporting website is shown in Fig. 1 below. To make the system paperless, an android tablet is used to fill in all data as the measurement is being performed. This data is then stored in the SQL database on a daily and monthly basis. The database allows physicists to easily audit and assess the performance of the liner accelerators. The establishment of the Web Based system for recording QA has increased efficiency within the department and has allowed for the implementation of TG142 without a significant increase in QA time. In our Centre, we are currently altering the quality assurance (QA) programme for the Department of Radiotherapy to bring it into line with the recent TG 142 report from the AAPM. A web based program using C# and HTML with an SQL database has been designed and written to record the measurement results for daily and monthly QA tests. The C# code is used to calculate Pass/Action Level/Fail for each test. In the event of a measurement not meeting the specified criteria during daily QA, an email is automatically sent to the physics team. Two websites were written for the daily QA, one for mechanical, safety and radiation tests and the other for imaging tests. The monthly QA requires six websites, all navigated using hyperlinks. A website was written to pull the data into a monthly report. An example of a portion of the reporting website is shown in Fig. 1 below. To make the system paperless, an android tablet is used to fill in all data as the measurement is being performed. This data is then stored in the SQL database on a daily and monthly basis. The database allows physicists to easily audit and assess the performance of the liner accelerators. The establishment of the Web Based system for recording QA has increased efficiency within the department and has allowed for the implementation of TG142 without a significant increase in QA time.