LAUSR

Introduction All medical examinations using radiation for imaging must be optimized for both adult and paedriatric patients. To support the Medical Physicist in their work with optimization the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority (SSM) has developed a web-based tool, DosReg, for reporting local diagnostic reference level (LDRL) that in real time gives the user a feedback of how their LDRL stands in comparison to other clinics in Sweden as well to by the authority established diagnostic reference levels (DRL). Materials and methods The web-based tool DosReg has been developed during 2016 and 2017 for six different modalities: Computer Tomography, Nuclear Medicine, Mammography, Interventional procedures, Conventional Radiology, and Dental CBCT. With all DSD registrations are used examination protocols included, these protocols are then visible for other users to simplify their optimization process. When reporting LDRLs the user receives in real time a histogram that shows other clinics’ results as well as the national DRL’s for each modality and its procedures. Results DosReg for CT was the first modality to be released, September 2016, therefor has CT most registrations, with 351 as of December 2017. Several clinics in Sweden have used DosReg in their optimization work in cases where their initially reported LDRLs were higher than those of other clinics. There have been several cases where DosReg’s optimization tool has resulted in a dose reduction in the range of 50–80 per cent. Conclusions LDRL has been reported to SSM since 2002, but then the results where available 3-4 years after the reporting of the clinics. With this long lead-time the Swedish National DRL reports did not support to the user in their optimization of examinations and protocols. The use of DosReg with its immediate analysis of LDRL compared to other clinics will lead to substantially improved optimization of radiological protocols in Sweden, which in turn will result in less variation between different clinics in doses received by patients from the same kind of examination.