Safety in radiology: Responsibilities of health professionals

Frequently asked questions by the health professionals

» What are my main responsibilities as a radiologist?

You have the primary responsibility for ensuring overall radiological protection of patients and to:

Ensure that each medical exposure is justified in consultation with the referring physician;
Ensure that the exposure of patients is the minimum required to achieve the intended objective, taking into account the relevant diagnostic reference levels for medical exposure;
Establish optimized protocols for diagnostic and image guided interventional procedures, in consultation with the medical physicist and technologist/radiographer;
Provide criteria to manage the examination of pregnant women, paediatric patients, occupational health examinations and medical and biomedical research;
Evaluate any radiation incident or accident from a medical point of view.

» What are my main responsibilities as a technologist/ radiographer?

As technologist/radiographer you have a key position in protection of the patient. Your responsibilities and duties are to:

Identify the patient;
Inform the patient;
Inform accompanying persons;
Verify that the female patient is non-pregnant;
Contribute to the preparation of specifications for new equipment;
Participate in optimization of imaging protocols;
Perform the radiological procedure following an optimized protocol and ensuring patient protection;
Perform regular quality control of radiological equipment;
take record of patient doses;
inform the radiologist and radiation protection officer (RPO) in the case of an accident or incident.

» What are my main responsibilities as a medical physicist in radiology?

Your responsibilities and duties are to:

Plan, in conjunction with the radiologist and the radiation protection officer (RPO), the facilities for radiology practice;
Prepare performance specifications for equipment with regard to radiation protection;
Participate in the continuing review of the radiology practice's resources (including budget, equipment and staffing), operations, policies and procedures;
Carry out acceptance testing and commissioning of equipment;
Design, implement and supervise QA procedures;
Supervise equipment maintenance;
Carry responsibility for calibration of equipment and dosimeters;
Perform patient dose assessment;
Participate in optimization of imaging protocols;
Participate in the investigation and evaluation of incidents and accidents;
Contribute to the radiation protection training programme.

Responsibilities of health professionals