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CME Symposium on “Radiation and Medical Imaging: Hazards to Healthcare workers”

Ionizing radiation has been in diagnostic and therapeutic arena for more than 100 years with an exponential rise in its application in the last 3 decades. We are also cognizant of hazards associated with ionizing radiation to patients and radiation workers. Exposure to patients could be minimized by strategy of justification and optimization while workers can minimize the exposure by practicing fundamental principles of radiation protection. The purpose of this symposium is to bring together representatives from the various clinical domains and Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority ( PNRA ) to disseminate the knowledge about hazards and ways of safe handling of radiation by healthcare providers.

Brief proceeding of the Symposium

This symposium was organized by the Department of Nuclear Medicine under the auspices of Radiation Safety Committee (RSC) of Dr. Ziauddin Hospitals. Purpose of this symposium was to enhance the understanding of radiation workers medical personnel about the justified utilization of radiation in the diagnosis and treatment, the impact of radiation on human body and various methods and local regulatory rules for radiation protection.

In her inaugural talk the Chairperson RSC and Nuclear Medicine department Ziauddin University Dr. Nosheen Fatima explained the audience about the vision of new RSC to ensure safe radiation practice at Dr. Ziauddin Hospital. She explained to the audience the various types of radiation exposure and types of radiation use in medical fields and concepts of classification of radiation areas in working field for better understanding of personal protection by the workers. She told that 80% of total radiation exposure to mankind is from natural sources while medical and professional exposure contributes 20%.

Dr. Maseeh-uz-Zaman Section Head Nuclear Medicine and Associate Professor of Aga Khan University Hospital talked about the interaction of radiation with living tissues and their possible deleterious effect. He explained that in medical imaging probabilistic effects of ionizing radiation like hereditary and chromosomal abnormalities are important and this can be minimized by reducing unjustified radiation exposure.

Mr. Amir Ali Radiation Protection Officer Dr. Ziauddin Hospital talked about the safety measures which are supposed to be taken by radiation workers to ensure the safe radiation practice. He explained to the audience the importance of radiation protection principals, methods and monitoring of radiation exposures.

Mr. Syed Mishkat Ali Jafri Principal Scientific Officer Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA) enlightened the audience about the regulatory role of PNRA in Pakistan. He explained to the audience about the scope and mission of PNRA in monitoring the radiation exposure and ensuring the safe handling of radiation in Pakistan.

The Chief Guest of this symposium Mr. Khalid Hussain, Regional Nuclear Safety Directorate PNRA, thanked the RSC at Dr. Ziauddin Hospital for the invitation and congratulated the RSC for holding such a successful event for a unique cause. He also talked about the positive role of PNRA and its licensees in ensuring radiation safe Pakistan.

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