title: Radiation dose and safety: informatics standards and tools.
abstract: Quality and safety improvements in radiology and medical imaging are substantially affected by radiation dose and its relationship to image quality and patient safety. Because radiation dose has many definitions and meanings, familiarity with and understanding of the basic nuances are important; modalities in general use radiation dose metrics that differ from patient radiation dose. Dose metric data differ among CT, interventional imaging, and digital radiography modalities. Informatics standards and tools assist in the extraction, collation, and analysis of these data and are described here. An informatics infrastructure can provide a pathway to automatically track and record dose metrics individually at the patient level and collectively through a regional or national radiation dose registry. Comparison of reference dose benchmarks to local and national practice values allows personnel at a given institution to objectively evaluate and optimize imaging procedures in regard to radiation dose metrics. Ultimately, enhanced patient care and safety are achieved.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, Jacksonville, Florida. Electronic address: morin@mayo.edu.
authors.forename: Richard L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Morin
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of California Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, California.
authors.forename: J Anthony
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Seibert
authors.affiliation: Departments of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering, University of California Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, California.
authors.forename: John M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Boone
mesh_terms: D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D038622:Internationality; D008490:Medical Informatics / Q000592:standards*; D061214:Patient Safety / Q000592:standards*; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011832:Radiation Injuries / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011874:Radiometry / Q000592:standards*; D017751:Safety Management / Q000592:standards; D012984:Software / Q000592:standards*
keywords: CT; Radiation dose; informatics tools; interventional imaging; radiation dose registry; radiography