Tribune News Network
Doha
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) workshop on external dosimetry held here recently achieved its key objectives successfully.
Titled ‘Regional Workshop on External Dosimetry with Particular Focus on Extremity and Monitoring of the Eye Lenses’, the event was held at Mondrian Doha Hotel, from May 7 to 11.
The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) and Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) collaborated with IAEA in hosting the event aimed at fostering interactive discussions on how to establish, improve and possibly harmonise the external dosimetry monitoring capabilities within Asia and the Pacific Region, particularly for extremity and lens of the eyes in compliance with the requirements of the International Atomic Energy AgencyInternational Safety Standards.
Dr Abdullatif Mohamed Al Khal, deputy chief medical officer and director of the Department of Medical Education at HMC, during the opening of the workshop, wished everyone a productive and successful workshop.
Dr Mohammad Hassan Kharita, assistant executive director of the Occupational Health and Safety Department at Hamad Medical Corporation and the workshop director, welcomed the experts and participants while acknowledging the efforts of the IAEA and MoPH in their collaboration efforts with HMC to hold this event.
The five-day intensive workshop was spearheaded by international and local IAEA experts Dr Mashari Al Naami (Kuwait), Dr Panagiontis Askounis (Greece), Dr Chadia Rizk (Lebanon), and Dr Mohammad Hassan Kharita (Qatar).
The purpose of this regional workshop was to foster interactive discussions on how to establish, improve and possibly harmonise the external dosimetry monitoring capabilities for extremity and lens of the eyes in compliance with the requirements of the international safety standards.
The focus was on the appropriate protective actions that need to be taken to ensure that doses to the lens of the eye do not exceed the annual dose limit.
Workers potentially at risk include medical specialists operating image-guided equipment in interventional cardiology and interventional radiology, medical specialists performing some tasks in nuclear medicine, emergency response workers and industrial radiographers.
With the esteemed active contributions from 29 international delegates from around the Asia and the Pacific Region from Bahrain, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mongolia, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Syrian Arab Republic, Thailand, and Vietnam as well as nine (10) local participants from OHS- HMC and from the Ministry of Environment in Qatar, the workshop outcome will definitely improve participating countries’ capacity for worker protection and opportunities for harmonisation in this field.
Conclusion and recommendations
In general, this event has achieved its objectives. The following conclusions can be drawn:
• Observations/discussions made during this workshop indicate that most of the participants are aware of the relevant requirement of the international safety standard.
• The discussions and presentations during the workshop enhanced the participants’ knowledge and understanding of the implementation of extremity and eye lens monitoring.
• During discussion, a lack of operation of national dose registries and appropriate management systems were identified.
• This kind of workshops and training courses need to be continued in the future to enable the process of improving and disseminating knowledge and sharing experience.
