BELdART: A Belgian dosimetry audit programme in radiotherapy based on alanine/EPR and radiochromic film dosimetry

Abstract

The Nuclear Technology Centre (NuTeC) has been performing external dosimetry audits since 2009 for Belgian radiotherapy departments. The Belgian Federal Agency for Nuclear Control (FANC) requested a national audit programme for reference and non-reference conditions that led to the creation of the BELdART project. All Belgian centres could participate in the trial free of charge. This was the first large-scale dosimetry audit programme using alanine/EPR dosimetry. A team of experts in collaboration with the Belgian Hospital Physicists Association (BHPA) acted as the scientific advisory body to BELdART. Subsequently, BELdART has developed audit programmes for advanced and dynamic radiotherapy (e.g. IMRT, Arc, tomotherapy, stereotaxy) based on alanine/EPR and radiochromic film dosimetry. A steering committee composed of five senior medical physicists functions as the advisory body to BELdART.