Dosimetry audit in radiotherapy – key role in safety culture

During the International Conference on Radiation Protection in Medicine held in Bonn in 2012, several areas for improvement were identified and one of them is radiation safety culture. The effectiveness of the safety culture can be improved if dosimetry audit is performed on the radiotherapy process. IAEA Dosimetry Laboratory have been used the radiophotoluminescence dosimetry (RPLD) systems with glass dosimeters to perform postal dosimetry audit since 2017 to check the dose delivered by hospital’ radiotherapy unit in the reference conditions. In the period 2017-2019 12 /twelve/ Bulgarian radiotherapy centres participated in the IAEA/WHO Postal Dose Audit Service with (RPLD). The number of checked beams was 34. The results in terms Diaea/Dstated have shown that 33 beams were within 5% acceptance level. Dosimetry audit ensure, that the correct therapeutic dose is delivered to the patients undergoing radiotherapy and play a key role in activities to create a safety culture. One important component of safety culture, particularly in the nuclear applications is radiation safety for employees and local communities, while in radiotherapy means safety of the patients and hospital staff. The good safety culture creates an environment for success and allow us to treat more patients in efficient, effective and safely manner.