The facility where I will be doing my clinical training in Davenport, IA utilizes

many different instruments to perform the necessary quality assurance (QA) testing,
machine calibration, and patient dose measurements. I was able to sit down with
the Chief Medical Physicist, Mazin Alkhafaji, to obtain the following information on
what dosimetry instruments are used in the department. QA testing is done daily,
monthly, and annually to measure machine output, energy, and beam symmetry and
flatness. The daily QA on the Trilogy and Tomotherapy machines is checked using
equipment that contains ion chambers and diodes to measure dose output. The
therapists are able to input the readings into the Argus software used to see if the
dose falls within the normal limits set by physics.

Devices used for QA on the Trilogy and Tomotherapy machines

Monthly QA checks for machine output using a Farmer ionization chamber

inserted inside a solid water phantom. The Farmer chamber is comprised of a
thimble wall made out of pure graphite, a central electrode of pure aluminum and an
insulator consisting of polytrichlorofluoroethylene.1
Electron QA also utilizes a solid water phantom and farmer chamber. For
this QA a farmer chamber is placed inside a well in the water phantom and set to
where the patient would be positioned. The electron cutout is positioned in the
machine and the beam is delivered to test output.

Farmer chamber solid water phantom

The yearly QA performed checks output, beam flatness, and percent depth
dose. The percent depth dose is checked utilizing the Farmer chamber as well as a
scanning water phantom to ensure that 1cGy will deliver 1MU at dmax for a 10x10
field set to 100 SSD. Different depths and field sizes are used to determine what
factors must be used to calculate beams of different distance and depth.