Collar badge lens dose equivalent values among U.S. physicians performing fluoroscopically-guided interventional procedures.

PURPOSE To describe the range of occupational badge dose readings and annualized dose records among physicians performing fluoroscopically guided interventional (FGI) procedures using job title information provided by the same three major medical institutions in 2009, 2012, and 2015. METHODS The Radiation Safety Office of selected hospitals was contacted to request assistance with identifying physicians in a large commercial dosimetry database. All entries judged to be uninformative of occupational doses to FGI procedures staff were excluded. Monthly and annualized doses were described with univariate statistics and box-and-whisker plots. RESULTS The dosimetry dataset of interventional radiology staff contains 169 annual dose records from 77 different physicians and 698 annual dose records from 455 non-physicians. The median annualized lens dose equivalent values among physicians (11.9 mSv; IQR=6.9-20.0) was nearly threefold higher than non-physician medical staff assisting with FGI procedures (4.0 mSv; IQR=1.8-6.7) (P<0.001). During the study period, without eye protection, 25% (23 of 93) of the physician annualized lens dose equivalent values may have exceeded 20 mSv; for non-physician medical staff, this value was may have been exceeded 3.5% (6 of 173) of the time. However, these values do not account for eye protection. CONCLUSION The findings from this study highlight the importance of mitigating occupational dose to the eyes of medical staff, particularly physicians, performing or assisting with FGI procedures. Training on radiation protection principles, the use of personal protective equipment, and patient radiation dose management can all help ensure occupational radiation dose is adequately controlled.