Congress:
EuroSafe Imaging 2019
Keywords:
Action 6 - Clinical audit tool for imaging, Action 8 - Radiation protection training and learning material, Action 1 - Guidelines, implementation policies, and Clinical Decision Support (ESR iGuide), Radioprotection / Radiation dose, Plain radiographic studies, CT, Radiation safety, Quality assurance
Authors:
J. G. Black, T. T. Zhang, B. Kelly, S. Ebdon-Jackson, A. Brady, D. Howlett
DOI:
10.26044/esi2019/ESI-0094
Background/introduction
The Basic Safety Standards Directive (BSSD) 2013/59/Euratom is a comprehensive piece of legislation designed to govern the use of ionising radiation1.
The updated version,
implemented in 2018,
has a number of implications for European radiological practice.
It lays down basic safety standards for protection against the danger of ionising radiation,
strengthens requirements for recording and reporting doses from radiological procedures,
and emphasises the need for proper justification for medical exposure.
A key part of this legislation is the implementation of clinical audit to continually assess and improve standards.
It is therefore expected that clinical audit will become an increasingly important and widely used tool in radiology departments across Europe.
To facilitate this process,
ESR has created Esperanto,
which aims to increase awareness and understanding of the importance and practise of clinical audit,
as well as providing a toolkit to support the development of effective local clinical audit programmes2.
The first iteration was published in 2017,
with an updated version due for publication this year.