Opening session: Bo Lindell Lecture. Education and training - the basis of radiation protection for medical exposure

摘要

Although medical exposure is different than occupational exposure and exposure of the general public because of the benefit to the patient it should still follow the general principles of justification and optimization. The most efficient way to increase the knowledge and awareness of radiation protection is education and training. To be most effective, education, training and continuous professional development in the radiological protection of patients must be an approach focused on all the contributors to the use of radiation in medicine, including specialists, referring physicians, radiological technologists, medical physicists, engineers and administrators. Training must target the specialty of the individual's practice and relate how their activities affect medical exposure. Great efforts are made by national and international organizations as well as professional societies to increase the knowledge levels. However, there is still a lot to do especially in the basic training and as long as this situation last, a high standard of radiation protection in a hospital depends on the local resources for education and training. The specialist in radiation protection should be the medical physicist and therefore he/she, as a main duty, should have the responsibility to organize and carry out education and training in the local hospital and with full support from the license holder. If all the personnel working in the field of medical use of ionizing radiation will take part in such an education, the standard of radiation protection will certainly increase in that hospital.