Staff dose measurement in real time, an evaluation of Unfors Raysafe i2

Interventional radiology workers job involves exposure to ionizing radiation. In Sweden monitoring the accumulated dose to the personnel in professions, which involves with ionizing radiation, is mandatory. There are many applications that can visualize and measure the accumulated dose of the personnel. The DoseAware system is distributed commercially by Philips. This device is mainly developed, designed and made by Unfors Instrument AB in Gothenburg, Sweden with a commercial name Unfors Raysafe i2. It is real time dose visualizer system which uses mostly to increases personnel’s awareness. This system consists of a number of PDM(personnel dose meters) which detects radiation, and transfers it wirelessly to a monitor that can visualize dose rate. Transferred Data will be analyzed by two softwares, the Dose manager and the DoseView. This study concerns about Unfors Raysafe i2's functionality, performance and usability of this system as a dosimeter for the staff of an interventional radiology lab. To examine differences to other systems and to validate it against traditional TLD measurement. The aim of the project is to control how to use the system for training of personnel working in environments with ionizing radiation. The more specific aim is to investigate if it is possible to reduce the accumulated dose by using the device during an interventional procedure. In this study, the dose aware system was installed At IR-lab of Umeå hospital. The first measurement session was a blind measurement, i.e. the personnel were not able to see their dose. Prior to the second measurement some hints was given them and explanations about working radiation hygiene and after that another measurement session was held, called an ‘’open measurement’’ when they could see the Dose aware system’s monitor that displayed their individual doses. Comparison between acquired results from both weeks shows a decrease in accumulated dose to the radiologist by almost 20 % (using the workflow ratio between week 1 and 2 as a normalizing factor).