As medical imaging continues to quickly evolve, radiation protection experts gathered at the IAEA to discuss how to best keep patients safe in this changing medical landscape.
Every five years there is a new imaging technology using ionizing radiation in the market. These advances in diagnostic and interventional radiology, nuclear medicine, image guided radiotherapy and radiopharmaceutical therapy must be balanced with new measures in patient radiation protection, as highlighted by experts at a recent IAEA meeting.
“These trends impose new challenges in radiation protection of patients. A shorter time frame will be needed for upgrading guidance on imaging and training materials, and we will also need to focus on fostering cooperation between health and radiation protection authorities,” said meeting organizer Vesna Gershan, an IAEA Radiation Protection Specialist.
Fifty participants from 21 IAEA member countries and 10 international organizations, along with radiation protection experts and invited speakers, gathered in early March at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna, Austria, to share knowledge and experience on how radiation protection measures need to adapt to the technological advances in this new era of medical imaging.
Meeting participants agreed that with the current pace of technological developments, there is an increasing urgency to update referral guidelines, optimization mechanisms, protocols and regulations. They said that the trend for using artificial intelligence in medical imaging and therapy, which can help to reduce patient radiation doses, calls for quality assurance programmes, interdisciplinary collaboration, and consideration of ethics, patient privacy and data security.
