24 February 2016
Interventional X-ray equipment standards are changing and you have an opportunity to influence the discussions.
The International Electrotechnical Committee [IEC] is the body tasked with setting standards for the manufacture of medical equipment. It achieves this by organising committees of experts who agree on standards via a ‘consensus’ process. The only UK representative on the IEC committee for interventional x-ray equipment is BIR President Elect Andy Rogers and he is asking for your help and feedback.
The main issue centres around the best way to represent the skin dose “map” to interventional staff.
Please help us by answering the following questions:
1. When should the skin dose map display be available to the operator (on demand for a limited period v. on-demand for as long as necessary v. continuous display)?
2. Should manufacturers choose their own patient model for the skin dose assessment, or should there be a single prescriptive model?
3. Should the display have a prescribed mapping between colour/grey level and skin dose, and, if so, what should that mapping be?
4. What do you feel are the minimum requirements for a truly useful in-lab skin dose display?
Send your answers by email (before 14 March 2016) to andy.rogers@nuh.nhs.uk
For more information see the BIR Radiation Protection Special Interest Group page, under 'latest news'.
