Quality Assurance of Nuclear Medicine Software
The European Commission, DG XII, has published the final report of a project on "Quality assurance of nuclear medicine software". The study, carried out within COST, aimed to provide the means by which the general quality of nuclear medicine software could be significantly improved. In particular, the study aimed to design and implement methods which would enable the nuclear medicine user to check whether a specific analysis programme gave the correct diagnostic results. The study, which lasted eight years in total, is deemed to have been successful on two levels. It not only raises awareness of the problems to be solved, but also provides the basic tools by which this may be achieved. During the next few years, what will be of crucial importance will be the establishment of a permanent system of external quality control. This would ensure that nuclear medicine software quality could be monitored and controlled.