Present Status of Quality Assurance in Diagnostic Radiology in Bangladesh

Abstract

With a view to evaluate the Quality Assurance status of radiodiagnostic facilities some basic elements of QA program such as frequency of different procedures, reject/repeat analysis, record keeping and justification of each procedure were evaluated in around 100 Hospitals/Clinics in four districts including Dhaka, the Capital City of Bangladesh. Also to check the optimal performance of the machines some of the essential Quality Control (QC) tests those can be performed with minimum cost and efforts on a regular basis were studied in this paper. The following important QC parameters were checked: kVp Accuracy Test, Output Reproducibility, Linearity/mA, mR/mAs, Reproducibility/kVp and Reproducibility/time, Accuracy/time, Focus Film Distance (FFD), Half-Value Layer (HVL). It was observed that effective QA program has yet not been introduced in most of the diagnostic departments of Bangladesh. Fundamental radiation protection principles of medical exposure Justification and Optimization are not taken into consideration. Frequency analysis or reject/repeat analysis is not being done, record keeping is not being practiced and also no sort of routine/occasional QC tests are being introduced in the hospitals/clinics. So, it is most likely that the patients and general public are being exposed with unwanted radiation exposure. Hence, steps should be taken to make awareness among the Radiological departments about the necessity of adapting QA/QC programs in the facilities.