The Radiation Safety Special Interest Group is a truly multidisciplinary group as radiologists, radiographers and scientists all have both an interest in patient protection and also a radiation protection self-interest!
Management group members
We respond to policy and guidance consultations from governments and their agencies and communicate concerns about issues to those bodies from our members. We represent the BIR on various projects and committees where radiation protection is an issue (e.g. NRES, IEC, DH Working Group on EU Directive revision).
ICRP consultation: Optimisation of Radiological Protection in Digital Radiology Techniques for Medical Imaging
The ICRP is seeking comments on its latest planned publication: Optimisation of Radiological Protection in Digital Radiology Techniques for Medical Imaging (available here: https://www.icrp.org/consultations.asp) by 23 September 2022.
From the abstract: Several different aspects relating to optimisation of protection that need to be developed are set out in this report. The first is collaboration between radiologists/clinicians, radiographer/imaging technologists, and medical physicists, each of whom have key skills that can only contribute to the process effectively when individuals work together as a core team. The second is appropriate methodology and technology, with the knowledge and expertise required to use each effectively. The third relates to organisational processes that ensure required tasks, such as equipment performance tests, patient dose surveys, and review of protocols are carried out. Examples of systems and activities that should be in place to achieve different levels are set out.
You can either comment directly or via BIR. If you plan to supply comments to BIR for collated response to ICRP, please send these by 9 September.
BIR and IPEM now have a representative on the DICOM WG-28 (Physics). Ed McDonagh, a Diagnostic Radiology Physicist at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London has been appointed by the two institutes to represent UK interests in the DICOM standard. WG-28 leads on some supplements, for example some of the radiation dose structured report work alongside WG-02 (projection radiography and angiography), and can contribute to all the other working groups as necessary. Read Ed’s latest report here.
Download five safety advice sheets produced by this SIG on Patient Radiation Dose Management; In-room radiation shielding; Imlementing a radiation incident coding system; Equipment Quality Assurance (QA) programme; Image Optimisation Teams
The Diagnostic Radiological Equipment Installation and Replacement Guide is a special check list, invaluable for anyone installing new radiological equipment and has been developed and designed by the BIR Radiation Safety Special Interest Group. Download here or access via the BIR Sharing Platform.
BIR Safety Campaign
The BIR Safety Campaign communicates safety advice and recommendations and helps to spread the word about safety issues within our community to ensure the safety and wellbeing of patients and staff.
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Latest SIG News - March 2022
The SIG management group met in mid January by videoconference and had a positive and engaged meeting. Main items to highlight are below:
- European Consensus on patient contact shielding. This has been issued simultaneously in a number of European journals, including:
- https://www.radiographyonline.com/article/S1078-8174(21)00194-2/fulltext
- https://insightsimaging.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s13244-021-01085-4
- BIR position statement re non-medical referrers. An amendment to this is being finalised and will appear soon, addressing consultant level practitioners and other issues.
- Radiation Safety Week (28 February to 4 March 2022). As part of this, the team have put together a new set of advice sheets to complement previous editions.
- Training for Referrers. The highly successful Radiation Safety 2021 video course Radiation Safety 2021 - British Institute of Radiology (bir.org.uk) is being adapted for medical and non-medical referrers and we plan to launch this in summer 2022.
- IRMER Update 2022. The annual update will this year be incorporated into the programme of the BIR 125th Anniversary Annual Congress 2022 from 22 to 23rSeptember 2022
- A reminder about the BIR’s video courses: Radiation Safety 2021 and Dose 2021: Practice and principles of optimisation and safety.
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