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Right Approach to Radiation Dose Management

Right Approach to Radiation Dose ManagementSafety. Balance. Transparency.

Concerns about safety, particularly patient exposure to medical radiation, are increasing across the globe. Growing medical imaging procedures and a rising complexity of exams under image guidance have triggered new guidelines for radiation dose.

It is not always about the minimum dose, but about exactly the Right Dose across patients and across your fleet. To find the right approach to radiation dose, we focus on three vital components to maximize efficiency and effectiveness:

Safety first for your patients, staff and institution.
The right balance between image quality and dose.
Transparency across your imaging fleet – to optimize and comply.

With Right Dose Management we deliver exactly that to you:

Our approach connects medical technology with insightful data and services to sustainably manage dose across your institution.

Siemens Healthineers Right Dose Management – less effort, better results

Safety

Safety First for Patients and Staff

Our top priority is to protect patients and staff from unnecessary radiation while achieving premium diagnostic image quality and thus optimal patient outcomes.
Our technology and applications allow healthcare providers to avoid over-exposure by effectively controlling patient entrance dose and dose exposure for medical staff.

Learn about our technology for avoiding over-exposure:

Advanced exposure control (AEC) interventional procedures

Advanced exposure control (AEC) is vital to keep image quality consistent for all examination types while automatically compensating for patient size. The Siemens AEC estimates the patient thickness in real time. Variations in patient size, anatomical area, and C-arm angulation are automatically considered when calculating the needed dose. Based on this measurement, the detector entrance dose is kept constant due to an automatic and real-time adjustment of the following five parameters: tube current, focal spot, pre-filter, exposure time, and tube voltage.

Multilevel Patient Entrance Dose Warning

CAREguard provides an effective way to control patient entrance dose (i.e. air kerma at the patient entrance reference point PERP¹). Three dose threshold values (low, medium, and high) can be individually defined. If the accumulated patient entrance dose exceeds one of the defined thresholds:

An audible warning sound is given
A patient entrance dose indicator on the live display flashes
A warning popup is displayed on the ECC/touch screen

Dose Notification and Dose Alert in Computer Tomography

Dose Alert is a dose warning tool with Dose Notification values for CTDI_vol and DLP can be defined that should not be exceeded.

With Dose Notification values for CTDI_vol and DLP can be defined that should not be exceeded. This has to be done separately for CT examinations in adults and children. National organizations such as BfS (Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz, Federal Office for Radiation Protection, Germany) and ACR (American College of Radiology, USA) provide recommendations¹ on reference dose levels in terms of CTDI_vol and DLP. If the planned setting for the exam would result in a CTDI_vol or DLP higher than these predefined values for one scan a Dose notification message box will inform the user.

Dose Alert is another dose warning tool. Here the CTDI_vol values are predefined for both, CT examinations of adults and children, when the system is shipped. According to recommendations by FDA (Food and Drug Administration, USA) these two values are set to 1000 mGy. These predefined values can be changed. In addition the definition of a DLP value is possible. A Dose Alert message box is displayed if the accumulated CTDI_vol or the accumulated DLP, plus the estimated values for the next confirmed scan range, exceeds the corresponding Alert Value. A diagnostic reason and the user’s name have to be entered before the scan can be performed with these settings. In many countries functionalities like Dose Notification and Dose Alert will become mandatory in the near future.

Find out more about our solutions for managing and reducing radiation dose in Computed Tomography.

Automatic Exposure Control (AEC) in Mammography

The adaptive AEC modus reads out the complete area of the detector that is covered by the breast. The system searches the densest part of the breast tissue and selects the lowest possible exposure parameters based on the individual breast size and composition.

Balance

Reasonable balance between image quality and dose

You and your colleagues often face the challenge of complying with ever-changing rules and regulations on emitted radiation dose values. We understand that your dose-emitting diagnostic technologies have to be adaptable and manageable to justify their value for your patients and your institution.

Emitted radiation needs to be precisely targeted in every case – and this is exactly what we at Siemens Healthineers are aiming for. Our products clearly follow the ALARA principle (As Low As Reasonably Achievable) to reduce radiation dose to the lowest possible level. For us, Right Dose Management is about offering products, technologies, consultancy, and training that will help you to make better decisions about dose during diagnostic imaging procedures, and to strike the right balance between image quality and radiation dose.

Here you can find examples of clinical images with the right balance between image quality and dose:

Scan method spiral acquisition with SOMATOM go.up

Transparency

Transparency across your imaging fleet

In response to the increase in medical imaging procedures and the rising complexity of exams under image guidance, the U.S. has introduced new regulatory guidelines. The rules require institutions to monitor and report radiation dose values, and to increase efforts to ensure that all staff use the right amount of radiation.
The Council of the European Union and the Joint Commission have revised requirements for diagnostic imaging standards. Organizations aim to comply with these while still focusing on their core objectives.

Our holistic, simple approach to documenting, analyzing, understanding, and optimizing dose performance across your imaging fleet will help you comply with these regulations. Our data transparency means you can easily access information on dose values.

teamplay¹ helps users comply with the rules and provides tools for data management.

Four steps are all it takes:

Step 1: Immediate data availability
teamplay Dose enables users to analyze dose performance without any configuration process. Data is extracted from a variety of different sources like secondary captures, structured reports, and images. The information is then immediately made available in the UI for all X-ray-based modality types.

Step 2: teamplay Dose data analytics
With teamplay Dose users have access to dose-related data. They can filter and slice data to identify opportunity for dose improvements for, but not limited to: modality type, modality, protocol, dose unit.

Step 3: Dose performance improvement
Significant impact on dose performance can be achieved by managing protocols. teamplay Dose allows users to measure the dose performance on a protocol level including its statistical distribution and to continuously improve dose KPIs.

Step 4: Outlier management
teamplay Dose quickly identifies outliers and offers benchmark measurements. Internal thresholds or national reference values may be linked and adjusted to local protocols. By opening the detailed view, specific information about the distribution and the scans exceeding the reference values are listed. Thus, performance can be evaluated and improved and incidents can be minimized.

Find out more information about teamplay here.

Please contact your Siemens representative whether teamplay is available in your country.

Right Approach to Radiation Dose ManagementSafety. Balance. Transparency.