European Union member states are required to collate population radiation dose data under EU ionising radiation directives. In the 97/43 directive the requirement was to promote dose reference levels. In the current 59/13 directive ,which is mandated to be transposed by February 2018, the requirement for collation of diagnostic reference levels is strengthened as well as the requirement to use such information in the optimisation process. As part of the implementation of the 97/43 directive the Irish state health care provider, the Health Services Executive...

A pilot survey was created to assist in the population dose survey. Initially members of the committee provided education days through a national meeting for radiographers who specialise in radiation safety (radiation safety officers) for calculating and recording diagnostic reference levels. The committee had also proposed an online video education tool to show how to calculate medians and Diagnostic Reference Levels for Computed Tomography. After the pilot study, itwas felt beneficial to provide a templated excel spread sheet. The final survey used this templated excel...

Results: The electronic format return was felt to be useful and allowed standardisation of data, reduced the analysis burden and processing time of such data compared to manual methods. The CT survey was sent out to licence holders for radiological equipment. 64 CT scanners from 49 sites /organisations were identified in the returns . However the number of scanners returned was less than that listed in the 2015 OECD scanner density for Ireland at 17.8 CT scanners per 100,000 population (82 in total). (https://data.oecd.org/healtheqt/computed-tomography-ct-scanners.htm). If...

Assoc. Prof Paddy Gilligan Chief Physicist & Registered Radiation Protection Advisor UCD Associate Clinical Professor UCD School of Medicine Diagnostic Imaging Department Mater Private Hospital Eccles St, Dublin 7, Ireland T: +353 1 885 8199 F:+3531 885 8198 E: [email protected] www.materprivate.ie

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