Assessment of Nuclear Medicine Capabilities in Responding to a Radiological Terrorism Event

摘要

Substantial effort has been placed into enhancing federal capabilities for responding to a Chemical, Biological, Radiological, or Nuclear (CBRN) terrorist attack. However, little emphasis has been placed on including the local-level medical responders in these efforts. In effecting response to a radiological incident, potentially useful resources to access are health care professionals with training in matters of ionizing radiation, namely: nuclear medicine physicians, radiologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists, and technologists. In this report, we focus on Nuclear Medicine expertise in Canada, and place this expertise into the context of assisting with a radiological terrorist incident. Nuclear Medicine expertise, along with its supporting infrastructure has already been deployed in proportion to the distribution of the civilian population. Given the expectations that the civilian population places in these health care professionals, their immediate access to specialized equipment, and the delay between a radiological terrorist incident and the arrival of federal expert capabilities, it is likely that these health care professionals will play important roles in emergency response. These roles will likely be: identifying the nature of the incident, triage, decontamination, coordinating with First Responders, and communicating with the media. Acknowledging the potential value of these professionals in responding to a radiological terrorist incident, steps should be taken to enlist their support and integrate them into a coherent national strategy.