Radiation Oncology in Arizona

Quality Assurance

These are some of the procedures followed at Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale to assure that radiation treatments are appropriately prescribed and accurately delivered.

Morning conference: 3-4 mornings each week, the staff meets to discuss patients seen the previous 1-2 days. Physicians present the cases and their recommendations for peer review.

Chart rounds: each week, the staff meets to review the beam films and progress of patients under treatment.

Plan checks: a physicist checks the accuracy of dose calculations and the details of the setup instructions.

Chart checks: each week, a physicist reviews the chart of every patient under treatment for continued agreement with the treatment plan.

Treatment machine checks: each morning, the radiation output from the linear accelerators is measured and checked for consistency. Physicists use additional equipment at monthly and annual intervals to maintain the calibrations.

Patient dose measurements: the radiation dose applied to selected patients is measured to verify the calculations.

Beam films: before treatment begins and at least weekly thereafter, films are taken with the treatment beams to verify the continued accuracy of the dose delivered.

Verification computer system: for each beam and every treatment, a dedicated computer system verifies the detailed settings as set by the therapists against the original plan.