ABSTRACT
A P T E R 16 The Medical Physicists and the International Organization for Medical Physics (IOMP) Kin Yin Cheung President of the International Organization for Medical Physics 2012-2015 Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital, Hong Kong
C ontemporary healthcare relies on rapid and accurate diagnostic in-formation and powerful therapeutic tools in patient management. Med-ical imaging and radiation oncology are vital tools for rapid and accurate diagnostic evaluation and treatment of an illness. All medical exposures, irrespective of normal or abnormal irradiation, can in theory induce a certain degree of health risks to the patients. The rapid increase in the number of medical imaging exposures around the world deserves some attention. There is a need to minimize patient dose in imaging procedures. To be able to achieve this goal, a concerted effort among the healthcare professionals involved in performing the radiological procedures and the associated quality assurance work, the referring practitioners, the equipment manufacturers, and health and
health and safety are responsible for establishing, in their own countries, appropriate legislative control of all activities involving the manufacture, sale, transportation, storage, use, and disposal of radioactive substances and irradiating equipment. They provide a legislative framework to ensure radiation safety in a country. The legal standards and limits they established, which are normally based on national or international safety guidelines or recommendations, can have significant impact on what and how radiation is used in healthcare. Equipment manufacturers play their part in dose reduction in medical exposure by developing appropriate new technologies that can better meet clinical requirements with less medical and occupational radiation exposure.
