Frequently asked questions by the health professionals
? What are my main responsibilities as a nuclear medicine specialist?
? What are my main responsibilities as a nuclear medicine technologist?
? What are my main responsibilities as a medical physicist in nuclear medicine?
? What are my main responsibilities in radiation protection as a nuclear medicine specialist?
You have the primary responsibility for ensuring overall radiological protection of patients and to:
- Ensure that each medical exposure is justified in consultation with the referring physician;
- Ensure that the exposure of patients is the minimum required to achieve the intended objective, taking into account the relevant guidance levels for medical exposure;
- Establish optimized protocols for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, in consultation with the medical physicist and technologist;
- Provide criteria to manage the examination of pregnant women, paediatric patients, medico-legal procedures, occupational health examinations and medical and biomedical research;
- Evaluate any radiation incident or accident from a medical point of view.
? What are my main responsibilities as a nuclear medicine technologist?
As technologist you have a key position in protection of the patient. Your responsibilities and duties are to:
- Identify the patient;
- Inform the patient;
- Inform accompanying persons and staff nursing a patient after a nuclear medicine examination or therapy;
- Verify that the female patient is non-pregnant;
- Ensure that a mother in lactation is given information about discontining nursing;
- Perform the radiological procedure following an optimized protocol and ensuring patient protection;
- Calculate administered activity to a child according to the local rules;
- Verify the administered radiopharmaceutical and its activity;
- Perform regular quality control of activity meter and gamma camera;
- Contribute to the preparation of specifications for new equipment;
- Participate in optimization of imaging protocols;
- Inform the nuclear medicine physician and radiation protection officer (RPO) in the case of an accident or incident.
? What are my main responsibilities as a medical physicist in nuclear medicine?
Your responsibilities are to:
- Plan together with the nuclear medicine physician and the radiation protection officer (RPO), the facilities for nuclear medicine practice;
- Prepare performance specifications for equipment with regard to radiation protection;
- Participate in the continuing review of the nuclear medicine practice's resources (including budget, equipment and staffing), operations, policies and procedures;
- Carry out acceptance testing and commissioning of equipment;
- Design, implement and supervise QA procedures;
- Supervise equipment maintenance;
- Be responsible for calibration of equipment and dosemeters;
- Perform patient dose assessment;
- Participate in optimization of imaging protocols;
- Participate in the investigation and evaluation of incidents and accidents;
- Contribute to the radiation protection training programme.
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