Commissioning new equipment

Following the supply of a treatment machine, it is essential that the characteristics of the machine’s beams and the performance of the machine is established by measurement. Although this period of commissioning has become an established practice, it is now recognized in legislation such as IRMER 2000. The commissioning period sets out to provide the data upon which all calculations and dose predictions will be made for a patient’s treatment. In addition, it provides the baseline set of performance data against which subsequent check or quality control measurements will be made. Besides measuring standard data, such as output factors, depth dose and tissue phantom ratios for example, specific data for beam dose algorithms in computer treatment planning systems along with verification data for the dose predictions are gathered and used for validation. In the case of imaging and any other ancillary equipment relevant commissioning measurements should also be devised.

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