The primary experience of an entire QA workflow management in radiotherapy

Objective To retrospectively review the history and development of radiotherapy quality assurance (QA) in the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Fudan University, and to report the primary experience and evolvement of an entire QA workflow management. Methods The multidisciplinary QA team has implemented an entire QA workflow management process in the Radiotherapy Center using the failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) and plan-do-check-act (PDCA) tool since April 2015. Treatment data of approximately 6000 patients before and after implementation were compared. Results The error rate was reduced from 1.7% to 0.9% after using the entire QA workflow management. Conclusions Entire QA workflow management effectively improves the accuracy and safety of radiotherapy. Key words: Radiotherapy; Quality assurance; Process management