ICRP and Radiological Protection in Medicine

Standards in relation to radiological protection in medicine are well-documented, particularly with the recent update of the Basic Safety Standards. The principles of justification and optimisation remain key, as dose limitation is not applicable in medical practice. Appropriate justification relies on the knowledge, experience and discretion of the relevant medical practitioners and this may be overlooked in the race for diagnosis and treatment. One argument would be further regulation of medical exposures, although it is difficult to see how this could be imposed without denying patients essential investigations and treatments. Another contentious issue is individual patient dose management with the possible creation of a 'radiation passport'. Individual radiation susceptibility is a topic that has attracted much attention, but how to manage such persons, if identified, raises further questions. Communicating radiation risks and benefits to patients appropriately needs to be addressed, including who should be responsible for this, given accurate knowledge is a prerequisite. Ethics in radiological protection is also being widely discussed and this in relation to medical practice, which already involves numerous ethical issues, is likely to be open to debate in the near future.