iaea human health series publications - SEDIM

4.2. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES4.2.1. Licensee or registrantThe licensee or registrant has specific responsibilities to ensure that all regulatory and/or licensingrequirements are met. Furthermore, the licensee or registrant must ensure that all radiologists, radiographers,medical physicists and other personnel who work at the facility are appropriately qualified and trained, and meet allcontinuing education and experience requirements.It is the responsibility of the licensee or registrant to ensure that an effective QA programme is in placeencompassing all aspects of the digital mammography imaging process. The specific tasks within that programmemay be delegated to appropriate staff having more expertise to carry out those tasks. Notwithstanding suchdelegation, it remains the ultimate responsibility of the licensee or registrant to ensure that the elements of the QAprogramme are fulfilled and that adequate resources are utilized to implement the training and QA requirements ofthe programme, and especially to ensure that the problems identified by the QC procedures are corrected in a timelymanner.A lead interpreting physician, usually a mammography radiologist, should be identified by the mammographyfacility as having the specific responsibility of ensuring that all required QA activities are performed.4.2.2. RadiologistAlthough it is recognized that the radiologist will delegate many of the following tasks, he or she still has theresponsibilities of:(1) Ensuring that the technical personnel and/or radiographers have adequate training and continuous educationcourses in mammography, including digital mammography;(2) Motivating, supervising and managing all aspects related to the QC programme in the area of digitalmammography;(3) Providing an orientation programme for radiographers based on a carefully established procedures manual;(4) Selecting a single radiographer to be the primary QC radiographer to perform the prescribed QC tests and tooversee those tests that have been delegated to other individuals;(5) Ensuring the availability of the equipment and necessary materials for implementation of the QC tests;(6) Arranging staffing and scheduling so that adequate time is available to carry out the QC tests and to recordand interpret the results;(7) Ensuring that a medical physicist is available to oversee the equipment related QC programme and to performthe medical physicist’s tests;(8) Reviewing the radiographer’s test results at least every three months, or more frequently if consistency hasnot yet been achieved, and reviewing the medical physicist’s test results annually, or more frequently whenneeded;(9) Overseeing or designating an individual to oversee the radiation protection programme for employees,patients and other individuals in the surrounding area;(10) Ensuring that records concerning employee qualifications, mammography technique and procedures,infection control procedures, QC, safety, and protection are properly maintained and updated in themammography QC procedures manual;(11) Continually providing feedback, both positive and negative, to the technical personnel and/or radiographerson the image quality and the QC procedures;(12) Verifying the percentage of rejected images performed by the radiographers and ensuring that appropriatecorrective action is implemented if this percentage exceeds the specified limit.23