Lessons learned from 25 years in exploring Norwegian radiology practices from a radiation protection point of view

Abstract

The traditions in Norway in following trends in the use of radiology and exploring the national differences in examination frequencies and patient doses is reviewed. Norway has had a public founded healthcare system and early access to digital technology included MDCT. The first may explain a moderate examination frequency on the national level, and the second the relatively high collective effective dose (SE) compared to other western countries (1.1 mSv/per inhabitant; 59% from CT). There is substantial variation in examination frequency and doses between counties, radiology institutions and X-ray rooms. This may be explained by several factors: Accessibility and referral strategy (justification), focus on quality, skills and multidisciplinary approaches (optimization), together with equipment related factors. The implementation of diagnostic reference levels are presumed to be a useful tool for optimization locally, and also a source for updated national dose figures in the future. European guidelines on estimating population doses are recently provided [8], a new national survey will be performed accordingly this year. © 2009 Springer-Verlag.