Pilot program of quality control in mammography and conventional equipment in the Antioquia Department

The Sectional Health Division of Antioquia and the National University of Colombia- Medellin Headquarters formalized an agreement for the realization of the quality control of thirty mammographs and twenty-five conventional X-ray equipment located in the one metropolitan area of Medellin, and ten municipalities of the nine regions in that the antioquen county is divided. The National University of Colombia- Headquarters Medellin possesses a program for the formation in quality control and radiological protection at master level in physics for that which endowed a radiodiagnostic laboratory for these purposes. In the Antioquia department only exists an institution, the San Vicente of Paul University Hospital that possesses a quality control program in radiodiagnostic; this hospital given its great volume of studies in radiodiagnostic has a medical physicist and of that instrumental necessary to maintain the program. The quality control programs have not been implemented in the rest of health institutions, public or private, big or small, until the moment. The project then allowed to carry out an initial evaluation of the pertinent parameters of the quality control of the facilities like its are those that refer to the state of the x-ray generator, the disposition of the installation, the dark room, the film processor and negatoscopies room; these its were carried out with base in the protocol produced in the ARCAL XLIX project in which participated six Latin American countries. The dose average in mammography, following the proposed course in the ARCAL LXXV, where its participate eleven Latin American countries was also evaluated. This study pilot serves like reference of the current state of the regional radiodiagnostic services, with base in this sampling that is representative. The obtained data gave the necessary information so that the Sectional Division of Health of Antioquia can generate tending actions to the implementation of quality guarantee programs and later of optimization in radiological protection of patient and of occupationally exposure personnel. (Author)