Recent national surveys of population exposure from medical x-rays in europe

摘要

An EU-funded project called DOSE DATAMED (2004 – 2007) has been set up to develop mutuallyacceptable methods for future surveys of population exposure from medical x-rays, including issuing guidance onsuitable patient dose quantities and dosimetry methods. In the first report from the project group, recent nationalsurveys in ten European countries have been reviewed in order to explain the significant differences seen inexamination frequencies and patient doses, and their mutual influence on the collective effective dose (S) per yearin each country. A set of 20 examinations are identified as the ones contributing most significantly to S, andtherefore important to focus on for other countries planning to do similar population dose surveys. The nationalregulatory frameworks, the health care systems, the methods for assessing frequency and doses, as well as thenational strategies for assessing population dose from medical x-rays, have been reviewed. As a conclusion, theobserved differences in the population dose from medical x-rays in Europe are thought to be real, i.e. much largerthan the recognized uncertainties originating from the survey design. Furthermore, the differences were found tobe primarily due to the different healthcare systems operating in each country, which resulted in considerablevariations in the amount of equipment and manpower devoted to medical radiology and in the financial incentivesfor carrying it out.