The International Basic Safety Standards have requirements for the protection of patients in medical exposures including the establishment of diagnostic reference levels (DRLs). The World Health Organization (WHO), the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) initiated in 2019 a project for enhancing optimization in paediatric interventional radiology and cardiology in Latin American and Caribbean countries through the use of DRLs (OPRIPALC project). When interventional radiology and interventional cardiology procedures are performed in children, radiation doses may be relatively high....

Only a few patient dose values have been collected from the initial group of 36 paediatric hospitals from 10 different countries that initially declared their interest in the programme. During the period 2020-2021, the efforts will be concentrated in establishing direct contacts with the practitioners performing paediatric fluoroscopy-guided interventions at the centres involved, to identify the difficulties and help in managing patient dose reports. Actions include engagement of manufacturers to help in finding technological solutions for dose management and launching of an OPRIPAL web site.

A website (in Spanish) for the OPRIPALC project has been launched: opripalc.org (fig. 1) Hospitals and questionnaires Identify the existing basic quality controls for the interventional X-ray systems in the different involved hospitals. Identify the existing calibration/validation for the dosimetric values reported for patient dosimetry. Revisit the criteria for the initial classification of interventional procedures for cardiac and non cardiac procedures performed in the different hospitals. Identify and suggest solutions, for the problems encountered in some hospitals to contribute with patient dose values being reported...

Conclusions and next steps Expand the patient dose data collection and identify the range of dose values at the different hospitals. Verify the existing basic quality controls of the X-ray systems involved in the programme and identify the needs in radiation protection training. Improve de collaboration with the radiology industry for the use of automatic patient dose registries, Expand the use and the content of the website.

ICRP Publication 135: Diagnostic Reference Levels in Medical Imaging. Ann ICRP. 2017;46(1):1-144. ICRP publication 121: Radiological protection in paediatric diagnostic and interventional radiology. Ann ICRP. 2013 Apr;42(2):1-63. Martinez, L., Vano, E., Gutierrez, F., Rodriguez, C., Gilarranz, R., Manzanas, M. Patient doses from fluoroscopically guided cardiac procedures in pediatrics. Phys. Med. Biol. 2007; 52 (16), 4749–4759. Vano, E., Ubeda, C., Leyton, F., Miranda, P. Radiation dose and image quality for pediatric interventional cardiology. Phys. Med. Biol. 2008; 53, 4049–4062. Tsapaki, V., Kottou, S., Korniotis, S., Nikolaki,...

E. Vaño: Nothing to disclose M. d. R. Perez: Nothing to disclose P. Jimenez: Nothing to disclose C. Ubeda: Nothing to disclose P. Miranda: Nothing to disclose A. Nader: Nothing to disclose R. Ramirez: Nothing to disclose I. Fleitas: Nothing to disclose