ABSTRACT
Purpose: To assess the awareness level of radiation protection among the radiation workers (i.e. medical radiation technologists, medical physicists, and medical radiological professionals) at the selected radiology, nuclear medicine, and radiotherapy facilities in Karachi, Pakistan. Material and methods: This survey was carried out in Karachi which has the largest number of hospitals, including radiology, nuclear medicine, and radiotherapy facilities in all Pakistan. In this double-blind survey, a questionnaire was designed and distributed to one hundred and sixty five (165) medical radiation workers at their respective workplaces. These radiation workers included the medical radiation technologists, medical physicists, and medical radiological practitioners. These radiation workers had varying experiences, training records, education, and fields of specialization. Out of these total 165 respondents, 84 belonged to the radiology facilities, 20 to nuclear medicine facilities, and 61 to radiotherapy facilities. The educational level was classified as less than 16 years, and equal to or greater than 16 years. Similarly, the training was classified as "attended" or "never attended" and the experience as less than five years, between 5 and 10 years, and greater than ten years. The data was processed through SPSS (v.20) against a significance level (P ≤ 0.05). Results: The statistical analysis of the survey indicates that the radiation workers in radiology, nuclear medicine, and radiotherapy facilities in Karachi have limited awareness of radiation protection issues. The overall outcome of the survey also concluded that the awareness regarding radiation effects, radiation warning signs, and annual dose limit is optimum. However, the response to the questions related to patient protection remained unsatisfactory. Conclusion: This study showed that most of the radiation workers who participated in the survey lacked appropriate awareness of radiation protection measures. The radiation workers did show a better understanding of basic radiation protection parameters, such as the annual dose limit and radiation effects. However, the radiation workers needed an overall improvement in radiation protection awareness, particularly, related to patient protection. This awareness and knowledge should be improved through systematic and periodic trainings.
ABSTRACT
The importance of the medical physics profession and medical physicists is widely recognized by the international bodies like ILO, IAEA, EC, etc. The description of a medical physicist's qualification framework, their role and responsibilities have been addressed in the legislative and regulatory frameworks of developed countries like the USA (in 10CFR) and the EC (EC RP 174) and less comprehensively in developing counties like Pakistan. AFOMP has contributed positively in various regulatory and policy matters regarding the medical physics practices in Asian countries. Furthermore, the recommendations of IAEA's regional meeting on "Medical Physics in Europe-Current Status and Future Perspective" in Vienna, 2015, address the need and mechanism of a harmonized framework for medical physicists' qualifications. The lack of a comprehensive professional recognition framework becomes more challenging when we see that hi-tech diagnostic (e.g. PET CT) and therapeutic (e.g. cyberknife, VMAT, tomotherapy, etc.) modalities are now available in many parts of the world, including Pakistan which still have a basic level of medical physics qualification and practices. Therefore, international efforts like the above-mentioned IAEA-EC meeting in 2015; and by AFOMP activities related to training, qualification and recognition of medical physicists can provide a pathway to further improve medical physics practices in the developing world. The objective of this review is to (i) summarize the international practices for the legislation and regulation of medical physics, (ii) provide a brief overview of the medical physics practices in Pakistan and (iii) discuss the applicability of the IAEA-EC meeting's recommendations to the case of Pakistan. The review highlights the areas which are addressed in IAEA-EC meeting and could be beneficial to other nations as well, particularly, for low and middle income countries. The review also presents few suggestions how to progress with the medical physics profession in developing countries in general, and in Pakistan in particular. These suggestions also include further possible pathway the IAEA could consider, like IAEA project or meetings, to further strengthen the medical physics profession globally.
