Implementation and start-up of a quality control program in ultrasonography. A multidisciplinary work

Abstract

The Department of Medical Physics and Radiation Protection, in collaboration with the Department of Radiodiagnostics of the Central Universitary Hospital of Asturias, has developed and implemented a quality control program in B-mode and Doppler ultrasound. This paper presents the quality control protocol that has been developed and describes the phantoms used and the tests that have been carried out. We also present the results obtained after the program’s first year of implementation and the conclusions drawn from the experience: the improvements that, in our view, the program has brought and the problems we have encountered. Close collaboration between radiologists and physicists is essential to optimize control conditions, which must match conditions found in clinical practice as accurately as possible.