Congress:
EuroSafe Imaging 2018
Keywords:
Radioprotection / Radiation dose, Paediatric, Action 13 - Stakeholder engagement and collaboration, Action 2 - Clinical diagnostic reference levels (DRLs), Action 6 - Clinical audit tool for imaging, Action 10 - Improved communication and collaboration of health professionals in radiation protection, Action 3 - Optimisation, diagnostic reference levels, image quality, Action 2 - Clinical audit, CT, Diagnostic procedure, Dosimetric comparison
Authors:
P. Gilligan, L. Darcy, G. Maguire, R. Lindsay, M. Rowan, C. O'Connor, R. Kavanagh, S. Foley, L. O' Hora
DOI:
10.1594/esi2018/ESI-0055
Background/introduction
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 (HSE),
set up a national radiation safety committee to oversee patient radiation safety.
The Medical Exposure Radiation Unit (MERU) provides the executive/administration function of this committee as part of the quality assurance and verification division of the HSE . In 2009 the population dose subcommittee of the national radiation safety committee carried out a paper based survey of CT usage and radiation doses which was published in 2010.
In 2015 the population dose committee,
which is a voluntary committee consisting of radiologists,
radiographers,
dentists,
physicists,
public health doctor,
regulators,
and MERU members was renamed the population dose and optimisation committee.
This committee repeated the survey of CT usage and dose in 2017. The objectives,
method and scope of the original survey were expanded to include gender and age based doses as well as clinically indicated diagnostic reference levels (DRL’s). It was also an objective to use electronic based methods of data recording.
This poster describes the experiences of the 2017 survey,
summarises the initial findings and outlines recommendations for future surveys .