Congress:
EuroSafe Imaging 2019
Keywords:
Action 4 - Dose management systems, Action 10 - EuroSafe Imaging Stars, Radioprotection / Radiation dose, RIS, Radiation safety, Dosimetric comparison
Authors:
S. Murphy, J. Wynne, R. Lindsay, N. Sheehy, B. McCoubrey, O. O’Connor, S. Foley, T. Heary, P. Gilligan
DOI:
10.26044/esi2019/ESI-0071
Description of activity and work performed
An 8-question survey was created on the Survey Monkey platform.
This was issued to 72 public and private medical institutions using ionizing radiation – for completion by the radiation safety officer (within 6/52).
Respondents were asked about modalities used,
use of dose tracking software,
or alternative methods if not.
They were also asked if radiation protection protocols were in place for high dose procedures such as CT and Interventional Radiology/Cardiology and,
if so,
did dose monitoring inform patients’ aftercare.
46/72 (63%) of the institutions responded within the 6 week timeframe.
(Fig.1)
16 departments (32% of respondents) use patient dose tracking software.
Dose tracking software is mainly used for high dose procedures such as interventional radiology/cardiology and CT.
The most commonly used dose tracking software providers used is Dosewatch (GE).
Other providers include Teamplay,
Care Analytics (both Siemens),
Dosewise (Philips) and Radimetrics (Bayer). (Fig.2)
The remaining sites recorded dose either electronically on the patient's imaging report or in a departmental log book.
Retrospective manual audits were generally undertaken by the radiation safety officer,
with medical physics support when unusually high readings were identified.
18/21 (86%) departments providing interventional radiology/cardiology services had written protocols / policies / guidelines to promote awareness of risks associated with radiation exposure. 8/18 (44%) used dose tracking software to inform the patient aftercare plan.
Consensus from the survey indicated that,
although the National Radiation Safety Commitee recommended the use of dose tracking or managament systems in interventional procedures and CT,
such systems were not used in the majority of departments.