Purpose or learning objective
The importance of using patient dose management system (DMS) as a tool for improvement of quality management and optimization of radiology practice, as well as for identification of patients requiring clinical follow-up in case of interventional procedures is beyond doubt [1–4].
The main obstacles in establishing DMS are mainly software price, need for a radiation dose structured report (RDSR) and/or inability to cover all imaging modalities.
In our hospital, with almost thirty X-ray units of various generations, DMS supporting all possible transfers of dosimetric data...
Methods or background
DMS was developed by medical physicists, hospital’s IT department and a domestic company which previously developed PACS & RIS, as an extension of the existing picture archiving and communication system (PACS) and radiology information system (RIS) software.
Our custom-made DMS supports all possible transfers of dosimetric data, i.e. DICOM RDSR, DICOM Modality Performed Procedure Step (MPPS), DICOM header of image data and DICOM images with bitmap dose reports (OCR recognition). The transfer is performed automatically.
Dosimetric parameters are obtained mainly from RDSR since the majority...
Results or findings
Since all available transfers of dosimetric data are used in case of our custom-made DMS, it supports all imaging modalities of various generations used in our hospital.
List of all patients who underwent imaging or interventional procured is given after selecting the X-ray device used from a drop-down menu (Figure 1.). It is possible to see all previously performed imaging and/or interventional procedures for every patient (Figure 1.) as well as all phases of a particular procedure (Figure 2.). When generated by the X-ray unit,...
Conclusion
One of the advantages of our DMS is that it supports all possible transfers of dosimetric data. Another advantage of our DMS is the fact that the user interface is localized. The main advantage of our custom-made DMS is the fact that data are stored in openly accessible SQL database for analysis and further customisation. At the moment, our custom-made DMS fulfils mandatory functionalities as given in requirements and recommendations from the ESR EuroSafe Imaging initiative [1]. Although it could be categorised as the first...
References
[1] Loose R W, Vano E, Mildenberger P, Tsapaki V, Caramella D, Sjöberg J, Paulo G, Torresin A, Schindera S and Frija G 2020 Radiation dose management systems—requirements and recommendations for users from the ESR EuroSafe Imaging initiative European Radiology 1–9
[2] Vano E, Fernandez J M, Sanchez R M, Martinez D, Ibor L L, Gil A and Serna-Candel C 2013 Patient radiation dose management in the follow-up of potential skin injuries in neuroradiology American Journal of Neuroradiology 34 277–82
[3] Tsapaki V, Fitousi N,...
Personal information and conflict of interest
I. Kralik:
Nothing to disclose
B. Brkljačić:
Nothing to disclose
H. Vavro:
Nothing to disclose
G. Ivanac:
Nothing to disclose
S. Džubur:
Owner: Vamstec Ltd
D. Faj:
Nothing to disclose