ISRRT_August_2006

Report
Continued from the previous page
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3. Staffing
The Panel recognises the current shortage of adequately
trained personnel (especially medical physicists) in many
developed countries and a general shortage of all types of
staff in developing countries.
Recommendation: There should be consideration of issues
related to staffing and definition of qualified experts in the
course of developing the new BSS.
Recommendation: Minimal staff requirements for various
types of equipment and procedures have been developed.
There should be collaboration of international organizations
and the IAEA to identify manpower needs for the next 10-
15 years. This should include not only the projected current
growth rate of medical procedures but also the effects of an
aging population, increased expansion of new technologies
and availability of medical procedures in developing countries.
Such a document would help identify training needs
in the current generation.
4. Modality specific issues
There are a number of patient radiation protection issues
that are modality related, primarily as a result of new uses
of existing technologies as well as emerging technologies.
Some of the most important are listed here.
4a. Multi-detector computed tomography (CT)
Use of computed tomography has been rapidly growing for
the last 3 decades, and by the year 2000 in many institutions
in developed countries, CT scanning accounted for
about 5 to 10% of procedures, but 40 to 70% of the
radiation dose delivered in diagnosis. In the last 5 years
there has been a proliferation of extremely fast helical
multi-slice scanners which have engendered new applications
and more examinations. The absorbed doses have
remained relatively high and patients often have repeated
procedures. The Panel is aware of these developments and
feels that this is an area of specific and increasing concern.
The Panel is aware of some existing documents concerning
CT that are available through the IEC, ICRP and EC
projects.
4b. Digital radiography/fluoroscopy
Over the last decade, there has been a spread of digital technology
for medical imaging. The technology has eliminated
some of the traditional parameters, such as optical density,
number of images taken, collimation evaluation and others,
which were typically used for QA and patient protection
measures. The Panel pointed out that the transfer from film
to digital technology requires appropriate training and new
QA measures.
Digital fluoroscopy and rotational angiography also
requires special attention for patient radiation protection.
With the new fluoroscopy systems, images are acquired
very easily, resulting in sometimes a large number of unnecessary
images. Different fluoroscopy modes, with very
IAEA Steering Panel Committee
14 ISRRT Newsletter