An Information System supporting Electromagnetic Compatibility and. Radiation Risk Management in the modern H)Rospital. B. Spyropoulos, D. Batistatos, ...
An Information System supporting Electromagnetic Compatibility and Radiation Risk Management in the modern H)Rospital B. Spyropoulos, D. Batistatos, D. Glotsos, I. Mamneris* Technological Educational Institution of Athens, Medical Instrumentation Technology Department, Athens, Greece, * BNL, Upton, NY Background information: Electromagnetic radiation is the transmission of energy in the form of waves having an electric and magnetic component. Almost all forms of electromagnetic radiation, which constitute the electromagnetic spectrum, such as radio waves, visible, infrared, and uliraviolet light, X-rays and gamma rays, are employed in the contemporary Hospital. There are some crucial decisions made in hospitals, concerning the dealing with the Electromagnetic radiation, which are of non-medical nature, but, they have a direct bearing on the operation of the whole structure. We have developed a system to address problems and decisions that lend themselves to being supported by such an information correlation. System description: According to their frequency and energy, electromagnetic waves can be classified as either "ionizing radiation" (IR) or "non-ionizing radiation" (NIR) and this distinction determines the appropriate measuring equipment and methods, for the risk estimation. Ionization Chambers were used for real-time measurements, and Thermoluminescence Dosimetry (TLD) was employed for long-term Exposure and Dose measurements, of ionizing radiation, in the Medical Imaging and Radiotherapy Departments. Magnetic Field measurements have been carried out in the Outpatient Department, in the ICU, the Operating Theater and other critical areas of the Hospital, by employing an one-turn coil, as Electromagnetic Compatibility and Interference detector.
Departnents, on a controlled-access Web-site. The most important of the acquired data are inserted on digitized layouts of the.. corresponding departments. Highlighted hotspots link points or regions of interest on the layout to other pages, including spread-sheets containing detailed experimental dose, dose-rate and exposure raw-data, graphics of the measured fields, profiles of reactive near-field, radiating near field, and far field regions etc. I" ~~
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4 Table 1. Hospital areas relited to acquired data. The developed information system is based on HTML, in order to be easily reached by all Hospital Aux. Facilities
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Figure 1. View of linked pages of the system. Further, means are provided for the introduction of periodically accomplished quality assurance data and the creation of temporal correlation, inasmuch as necessary. Finally, previous positive experience' has encouraged us to incorporate digital, audio and video assisted, educational and self-evaluation means, pertaining to the features of the department, equipment or activities under investigation. Evaluation of the system: The system is successfully tested under "real world" conditions in the Regional General anti-Cancer Hospital of Piraeus "Metaxa". Conclusions: The new electronic media may offer a cost-,effective "digital alterative" to achieve the synthesis of technical-managerial subject matter to theoretical and methodological issues in the Hospital.
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[1]. B. Spyropoulos, On-line Educational Means supporting the tutoring of the Physical Principles applied in modem Biomedical Equipment Technology, Bulletin of the American Physical Society, Volume 44, (1999), No 1,PartII,p. 1425.
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