Training of doctors using fluoroscopy

Abstract

Increasing number of medical specialists are using fluoroscopic guided procedures for diagnostic applications and for interventions. Many of these specialists have either no training or inadequate training in radiation protection. These include interventional cardiologists, electro-physiologists and vascular surgeons in one group who make extensive use of catheterization procedures and orthopedic surgeons, urologists, gastroenterologists, gynecologists and anesthesiologists in second group with relatively lesser use of X ray based techniques as compared to former group. The IAEA has established training programmes for these two groups separately. So far about a thousand doctors from more than 50 countries have been trained using the standardized syllabus and training material The training material in the form of power point slides is available for free download from the website (http://rpop.iaea.org) for the first group and on a CD on request from patient.protection@iaea.org for the second group. It is very encouraging to report that the IAEA has established a lead in the world in training such doctors. An Asian network of cardiologist in radiation protection has been established and the network has started a newsletter which, to the best of our information, is first newsletter on radiation protection by any cardiologists' body in the world. The IAEA trained cardiologists are organizing sessions on radiation protection in various cardiology conferences. The follow up actions and surveys conducted have shown improvement in the level of staff and patient protection demonstrating that training programmes have resulted in skill development and implementation of radiation protection in clinical practice. © 2009 Springer-Verlag.