Radiation protection and quality assurance in diagnostic radiology - an IAEA coordinated research project in Asia and Eastern Europe

The International Atomic Energy Agency currently has two parallel Coordinat ed Research Projects (CRP) running in Asia and Eastern Europe. The main obj ective of the CRPs is to raise the level of awareness in participating coun tries about the need for radiation protection for patients undergoing diagn ostic radiology procedures. This is to be achieved by first assessing the s tatus quo in a sample of hospitals and X-ray rooms in each participating co untry. A program of optimization of radiation protection for patients is th en introduced by means of a comprehensive quality assurance program and the implementation of appropriate dose reduction methods, taking into account clinical requirements for diagnostically acceptable images. Patient dose as sessment and image quality assessment are to be performed both before and a fter the introduction of the quality assurance program. The CRP is divided into two phases - the first is concerned with conventional radiography, whi le the second involves fluoroscopy and computed tomography. The CRP is stil l running, restricting the scope of this paper to a discussion of the appro ach being taken with the project. The project will be completed in 1998, wi th analysis to follow. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.