EFOMP survey results on national radiotherapy dosimetry audits

Purpose: The Council Directive 2013/58/EURATOM entered into force in 2014, and its transposition into national legislations became applicable in 2018. The Council Directive 2013/58/EURATOM strengthened the importance of clinical audits, and stated that Member States should ensure dosimetry audit compliance in accordance with national procedures. Therefore, the purpose of this work was to picture the status of the implementation of dosimetry audits in European countries.

Methods: A questionnaire was designed to describe dosimetry audit standards in radiotherapy across European countries. The questionnaire was sent to 33 EFOMP National Member Organizations (NMO).

Results: Nineteen NMOs responded to the survey (14 EU members). For 58% of the participating countries national regulations required dosimetry audits in radiotherapy departments. In 37% of the participating countries there were implemented regulations for independent/secondary dose verification, and in 21% of the participating countries similar procedures for dose verification were already implemented although not regulated by law. In 42% of the participating countries there were implemented mechanisms to review updates and advances in the field of radiotherapy.

Conclusions: The transposition and further implementation of the Council Directive 2013/59/EURATOM was scarce, leading to heterogeneities in national policies about dosimetry audits.