The Beam Quality Assurance of the MedAustron Particle Therapy Accelerator

The delivery of clinical beams for patient treatment at the MedAustron Ion Therapy Center requires extensive accelerator performance verifications, which are performed in several steps. In first instance, the key parameters of the beam delivered to the irradiation rooms (beam position, spot size, energy and intensity) are verified via measurements performed with beam diagnostic devices distributed along the accelerator. The second verification step consists in testing the full functionality of the therapy accelerator, including the medical frontend: scanning magnets performance, intensity monitoring and safety features. The final verification step is the quality assurance (QA) done by the medical department. An extended set of reference measurements assures the fast identification of the faulty components in case of a performance deviation, and the totality of the accumulated data allows in-depth analysis of the accelerator performance. We present here the trends and correlations observed during the first verification step for the most important parameters, as well as the lessons learned through all the implementation stages of the beam quality assurance.