QUATRO: Quality Assurance Team for Radiation Oncology

The IAEA has a long tradition in dosimetry audits and contributed to improving the quality of radiotherapy across the globe. While accurate radiation dosimetry is a critical requirement for radiotherapy quality, multiple other components in the radiation treatment chain must also be appropriate and of high quality. In view of the IAEA's contribution to quality radiotherapy over many years, requests were received to conduct clinical audits in radiotherapy. In response, the IAEA set up an expert group comprised of radiation oncologists, medical physicists and radiation therapists (RTTs), to prepare guidelines for comprehensive audits of radiotherapy practices called Quality Assurance Team for Radiation Oncology (QUATRO). The guidelines describe how to initiate, perform and report on the findings of comprehensive clinical audits. QUATRO audits assemble teams of professionals (radiation oncologist, medical physicist, RTT) to peer review radiotherapy practices at radiation oncology centres with the aim to improve quality.