Protecting patients from over-exposure to radiation is part of the daily life of healthcare professionals in medical imaging. Justification, optimization, ALARA’s approach – these principles are necessary to reduce the dose delivered to the patient.Moreover, numerous legal regulations (directives, the public health code) now make it compulsory for all professionals requesting or performing imaging examinations using ionizing radiation to apply those fundamental principles of justification and optimization.
With the Radiation Dose Monitor (RDM) solution, healthcare professionals can not only strengthen radiation protection for patients but also share useful dose information to improve the management of patient care. RDM is a complete solution especially designed for everyone involved in the dose cycle. A modular and customizable solution adapted to each person’s work environment, RDM involves the various actors in the dose reduction cycle: Radiologist, Medical Physicist, Radiographer, Head of Department, and Radiation Safety Officer.
Here are testimonials from several users (with different profiles in the dose cycle) of the RDM solution:
• Cardiologist Interventional Radiology : Dr. Laurent Faroux, University Hospital of Reims
« The RDM solution is a fantastic tool for clinical research. Not only does it gather dose data information such as fluoroscopy time, air kerma, DAP and other information for each study – when we look further, using the solution also collects information in fluoroscopy on each foot pedal, with the exact position of the tube, the table, and the flat panel detector, enabling us to collect all of these data in order to make fine explorations. »
• Radiographer : Thierry Blanpain, University Hospital of Reims
« We have been using the RDM solution at the University Hospital of Reims since 2015, and we’ve seen that it’s a real added value on a daily basis for our interventional cardiology clinical activity, especially in radiation protection. Using the software is relatively easy, the patient dose data is transferred automatically from the radiological equipment. Each patient is recorded in the DACS RDM. So, at any time, we can visualize the dose that a patient has received from several radiological examinations and at different sites in the hospital. »
• Medical Physicist : Romain Popoff, Cancer Center (CGFL) in Dijon
« Mainly used by radiographers, especially with the scanners, the RDM solution is truly an added value to our institution: it allows us to protect the patient against radiation overexposure through an automated approach that facilitates access to patient dose data. RDM has indeed made our life easier and has made it possible to work on various projects – in particular, a harmonization of the protocols for the radiology scanner, and an analysis of practices in radiology and nuclear medicine. Finally, RDM simplifies the mandatory transmission of the DRLs to the French national authorities (IRSN for ASN). So, after only one and a half years of use, this software has delivered a number of visible benefits. »
