Radiation safety of current European practices of therapeutic nuclear medicine: survey results from 20 HERCA countries.

The purpose of this study was to acquire up-to-date information on nuclear medicine treatments in Europe and on the implementation of the requirements of the Basic Safety Standards Directive in HERCA Heads of the European Radiological Protection Competent Authorities (HERCAs) member states. An electronic survey was distributed to competent authorities of 32 HERCA member states. The questionnaire addressed 33 explicitly considered treatments using 13 different radionuclides, and for each treatment, a similar set of questions was included.

Justification of CT practices across Europe: results of a survey of national competent authorities and radiology societies.

Objectives: Published literature on justification of computed tomography (CT) examinations in Europe is sparse but demonstrates consistent sub-optimal application. As part of the EU initiated CT justification project, this work set out to capture CT justification practices across Europe.

Methods: An electronic questionnaire consisting of mostly closed multiple-choice questions was distributed to national competent authorities and to presidents of European radiology societies in EU member states as well as Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and the UK (n = 31).

CONTEMPORARY COLLECTIVE EFFECTIVE DOSE TO THE POPULATION FROM X-RAY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE EXAMINATIONS-CHANGES OVER LAST 10 YEARS IN FINLAND.

Contemporary collective effective doses to the population from x-ray and nuclear medicine examinations in Finland in 2018 was estimated. The estimated effective dose per caput from x-ray examinations increased from year 2008 to 2018 respectively from 0.45 mSv to 0.

Patient safety in external beam radiotherapy, results of the ACCIRAD project: Recommendations for radiotherapy institutions and national authorities on assessing risks and analysing adverse error-events and near misses.

The ACCIRAD project, commissioned by the European Commission (EC) to develop guidelines for risk analysis of accidental and unintended exposures in external beam radiotherapy (EBRT), was completed in the year 2014. In 2015, the "General guidelines on risk management in external beam radiotherapy" were published as EC report Radiation Protection (RP)-181. The present document is the third and final report of the findings from the ACCIRAD project.

Patient safety in external beam radiotherapy, results of the ACCIRAD project: Current status of proactive risk assessment, reactive analysis of events, and reporting and learning systems in Europe.

Purpose: To describe the current status of implementation of European directives for risk management in radiotherapy and to assess variability in risk management in the following areas: 1) in-country regulatory framework; 2) proactive risk assessment; (3) reactive analysis of events; and (4) reporting and learning systems.

Material And Methods: The original data were collected as part of the ACCIRAD project through two online surveys.

Results: Risk assessment criteria are closely associated with quality assurance programs.

Radiotherapy equipment and departments in the European countries: final results from the ESTRO-HERO survey.

Background: Documenting the distribution of radiotherapy departments and the availability of radiotherapy equipment in the European countries is an important part of HERO - the ESTRO Health Economics in Radiation Oncology project. HERO has the overall aim to develop a knowledge base of the provision of radiotherapy in Europe and build a model for health economic evaluation of radiation treatments at the European level. The aim of the current report is to describe the distribution of radiotherapy equipment in European countries.

Guidelines for equipment and staffing of radiotherapy facilities in the European countries: final results of the ESTRO-HERO survey.

Background And Purpose: In planning to meet evidence based needs for radiotherapy, guidelines for the provision of capital and human resources are central if access, quality and safety are not to be compromised. A component of the ESTRO-HERO (Health Economics in Radiation Oncology) project is to document the current availability and content of guidelines for radiotherapy in Europe.

Materials And Methods: An 84 part questionnaire was distributed to the European countries through their national scientific and professional radiotherapy societies with 30 items relating to the availability of guidelines for equipment and staffing and selected operational issues.

Patient safety in external beam radiotherapy - guidelines on risk assessment and analysis of adverse error-events and near misses: introducing the ACCIRAD project.

In 2011 the European Commission launched a tender to develop guidelines for risk analysis of accidental and unintended exposures in external beam radiotherapy. This tender was awarded to a consortium of 6 institutions, including the ESTRO, in late 2011. The project, denominated "ACCIRAD", recently finished the data collection phase.

How can a cost/benefit ratio be optimized for an output measurement program of external photon radiotherapy beams?

We estimated cost/benefit ratios for different quality control programs of radiation output measurements of medical linear accelerators. The cost/benefit ratios of quality control (QC) programs (a combination of output measurement time interval and measurement action levels) were defined as workload divided by achievable dose accuracy. Dose accuracy was assumed to be inversely proportional to the 99% confidence limit of shifts of total treatment doses and workload as inversely proportional to the output measurement time interval.

Accuracy of central axis dose calculations for photon external radiotherapy beams in Finland: the quality of local beam data and the use of averaged data.

Purpose: The accuracy of central axis dose calculation was evaluated for 48 photon beams from 28 linear accelerators at nine centres in Finland. In addition, inter-accelerator consistency of beam data was evaluated for Varian Clinac 600 CDs and 2100 CDs, and averaged data sets were generated for output factors (OFs) and percentage depth doses (PDDs). The averaged data sets obtained were used to identify potential dosimetry reasons for local errors.