In the interest of the safety of your patients and your staff, it is important that the latter are continually trained (training article 53.2) and that you rely on the support of an accredited expert in medical radiation physics to maintain the right balance between image quality and the dose administered to the patient. In this way, you also comply with the applicable standards.

Not only must compliance with the applicable legislation be ensured, but every dose administered must be kept at a reasonably low level to obtain the required diagnostic information, taking into account economic and social factors (ALARA).

What you need to know

Support from an accredited expert in medical radiation physics – radiology

Our expert in medical radiation physics will relieve you of tasks related to patient radiation protection in the field of radiology.

Quality control of measuring instruments

The radiation physicist must follow standards and rules of good practice for the calibration and quality control of measuring instruments and software necessary for performing his tasks. Our measuring instruments are calibrated biennially and are traceable to a primary standard.

New installations

If you purchase a new device, our experts will support you in drafting the technical specifications, evaluating quotations, and the purchasing procedure.

Our expert is responsible for commissioning and will provide you with written permission for the initial clinical use.

When purchasing medical-radiological equipment, the operator must ensure that appropriate training with demonstration is provided for all individuals who will use the equipment. Our experts can assist you in this regard regarding medical radiation physics aspects.

Quality control

Our accredited expert in medical radiation physics – radiology conducts quality control according to applicable criteria, measuring the important criteria for patient radiation protection.

Our experts will assist you in drafting procedures for any intermediate quality control or calibrations. For example, your radiation physicist will monitor daily and weekly controls for mammography.

Patient dosimetry

The accredited expert in medical radiation physics is responsible for the physical and technical aspects of patient-related dosimetry. Our experts guarantee the accuracy of the parameters and settings of all devices.

We prepare a comprehensive report based on the dosimetric data registered and provided by you, in compliance with applicable legislation. This report contains averages and medians per type of examination and their comparison with reference levels applicable in Belgium or other relevant reference levels. We also provide advice to optimize the doses administered to patients.

Optimization studies

As of 13/02/2023, there is an obligation to conduct two documented projects per year and per department around optimization. This applies to services with CT and interventional X-ray.

For example, we can help gather and analyze data, identify optimization opportunities, and implement optimization actions.

Estimation of administered dose during accidental irradiation of a pregnant woman

You can also rely on these services for an estimate of the administered dose during accidental irradiation of a pregnant woman. We will use the necessary models to estimate the dose received by the unborn child.

We can also assist you in preparing the analysis of events that have led or could have led to accidental or unintended exposure and can collaborate in drafting corrective actions.

Also, we can help you fill out the documents that you need to send to the FANC.

Advantages

We provide you with a digital report of the conducted checks or analyzed data. This report includes detailed information of the performed measurements/analyses (including the circumstances under which they were carried out, to simplify communication with the company responsible for maintaining the equipment). The inspection report also includes an overview of the observations and a summary list of the devices that do (or do not) comply with the legally defined limitations.

All our reports are available on the customer portal. Don't have access yet? Let us know via controlatom@vincotte.be.