Wales leads on dose monitoring

NHS Wales is implementing a facility for automated radiation dose monitoring as part of its picture archive and communication system renewal.

Information on radiation doses received from x-ray sources, including computed tomography scanners, across the regions of Wales will be collated and sent to a central database in mid-Wales.

The database will enable various comparisons related to radiation exposure to be made. For example, radiation exposure levels between institutions running equivalent examinations and between old and new equipment.

However, the full scale of the benefits to be gleaned from using automated dose monitoring will only become apparent once the system is fully in use.

Peter Hiles is clinical physicist and radiation protection adviser from North Wales Medical Physics, Glan Clwyd Hospital.

He says there is a real need for automated dose monitoring. “People are concerned about the overall dose level with all the imaging being carried out, and there is a need to optimise it. Automated dose monitoring is the best way to go about it,” he said.

Automated dose monitoring is beginning to gain some traction in the UK. But speaking for Wales in particular, Hiles says that NHS Wales has written it into their PACS renewal agreement.

“[This means] we have suitable software included in our new system that is being installed. It should be up and running by April.”

The installation will cover the whole of Wales. Medical physics colleagues across the whole country will be able to compare regions, and compare the same model of scanner used in different hospitals.

Based on their PACS renewal experience in Wales, Hiles says that it is essential that trusts undergoing PACS renewal incorporate a facility for automated dose monitoring.

“Now really is the best time to do it. It’s an easy add on for a PACS. It will also become a valuable tool in the future. “

Automated dose monitoring will provide a wealth of data. “There is a need to more clearly define what exactly the facility will be used for but we need to get it up and running first. It might be that we obtain information that we haven’t even thought of yet.”

Any information used for automated monitoring needs to be sent in standard form that can be easily recognised [Integrating Healthcare Enterprise Radiation Exposure Monitoring integration profile] and read by a database. This can then be pulled off and analysed.

In Wales, a central server will collate all dose monitoring data and the software package will automatically provide summary information.

“For example, you might interrogate it in terms of a particular examination type. The software will average over a selected time period.”

Read more about automated dose monitoring and action in both Sweden and the UK in a new feature on EHI Imaging Informatics.