Technical Quality Control Guidelines

Making sure the technology works

Background

Technical Quality Control (TQC) guidelines provide direction for assuring optimal performance of radiation treatment equipment and technologies in RT programs across the country, an essential requirement of high quality and safe patient care.

While technical drivers from international organizations like the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) exist, they may not be applicable across the spectrum of practice, are not always updated regularly, and may not have been properly validated.

In 2010 CPQR, together with the Quality Assurance and Radiation Safety Advisory Committee (QARSAC) of the Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists (COMP), undertook an extensive review of the outdated CAPCA standards. The process resulted in a suite of 17equipment and technology guidelines, and an overarching technical quality control guideline – together termed the TQC Suite.

Organization in Charge

In 2021, the TQC Suite was divested from CPQR to COMP. COMP is recognized for its collaboration with national stakeholders to develop guidelines that enhance the quality and safety of radiation treatment delivery, and played an integral role in the development of CPQR’s suite of Technical Quality Control Guidelines. COMP’s role as the new steward of these guidelines will ensure they remain up-to-date and will drive uptake by the Canadian radiation treatment programs.

If you have any questions or concerns about the TQC suite, please contact COMP.

Resources

The TQC Suite of guidelines provide direction for assuring minimum performance and safety of radiation treatment equipment and technologies in radiation treatment programs in Canada. The documents were developed by expert reviewers, and included community feedback through a formal public review process followed by “real-life” field testing and validation. A formal review to ensure continuity among the individual guidelines within the suite, and to ensure pan-Canadian relevance, was undertaken by Associate Editors. Documents were translated into French to encourage uptake and utilization at all centres within the country.

These documents are made available free of charge to the medical physics community and are available for download below.

In 2020, a suite of self-audit tools were released allowing radiation treatment programs to evaluate their compliance with existing TQC guidelines. For a full list of all self-audit tools available, please visit our self-audit page.

Let COMP know if you have questions or requests for clarification.