Re: Vendor Selection

[thomas@bob.usuf2.usuhs.mil (CAPT Jerry A. Thomas, MSC, USN)]

I am remember back quite a while.  I know that at at least two AAPM summer
school sessions in the past the issue of procurement of LINACs and MRI units
were addressed.  In both talks...i am remember a long time ago .... a
detailed discussion was given on the methodology used.

        The MRI procurement talk is in the proceedings from the Calgary
meeting ... two or three years ago.

        The LINAC talk would have to been from the AAPM summer school held
at Univ of Miami,
Miami OH...probably 10 years ago!

JERRY THOMAS


p.s.  the info from users would be nice to have.  Realize that it might be
biased ... either 
positively or negatively ... depending on the experiences the respondent has
had with both the vendor and his/her administration.  In the DoD on large
procurements (e.g. when we put out a contract with an indefinate delivery
for ten to twenty units -- CT, MRI, etc) we reserve the right to go to an
installed site and perform a series of bench mark tests.  The result of the
technical evaluations are weighted along with service, installation,
long-term maintenance plan, QC/QA
programs and support, buidling construction/modification plan, etc.  It
takes a LONG time to get the contract completed but is worth the effort.

jat


>We too will be working to select a new Linac. I would be thankful to have
>someone to share info with in this endeavor. I'm  imagining  a scenario
>where users can grade different Linacs ( based on their experiences), on a
>World Wide Web page. Similar to the survey done on the Yahoo home page.
>Each grader could identify their occupation (ie. physicist, therapist,
>oncologist). Questions could be asked of the usefulness of dynamic wedging,
>portal imaging, multileave collimation, ect.   Are enough of our colleages
>on the internet to supply a sufficient amount of data? 
>
>
>



CAPT Jerry A. Thomas,  MSC, USN
Chief Radiological Physics
Department of Radiology/Nuclear Medicine
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
4301 Jones Bridge Road
Bethesda, MD  20814-4799

E-mail:  thomas@bob.usuf2.usuhs.mil
Phone:   (301) 295-3246
Fax:        (301) 295-3893