Society News Archive

The National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP) has released Statement No. 11, "Outline of Administrative Policies for Quality Assurance and Peer Review of Tissue Reactions Associated with Fluoroscopically-Guided Interventions."

This statement is particularly pertinent to interventional cardiologists, interventional radiologists, and any other physicians doing interventional procedures and to the administrators and executives in health care organizations.

The statement is intended to clarify recommendations given in NCRP Report No. 168, Radiation Dose Management for Fluoroscopically-Guided Interventional [FGI] Medical Procedures (NCRP, 2010). It provides detailed recommendations for a facility's quality assurance-peer review (QA-PR) process and recommendations for administrative practices for the evaluation of known or suspected FGI radiation injuries. Facilities typically investigate and characterize all unusual medical events via a QA-PR committee composed of professional peers of the involved practitioner. Evaluating those radiation management processes and practices discussed in this statement shall be a part of an interventional service's QA-PR program.

NCRP Report No. 168 emphasizes that the safe performance of FGI procedures requires controlling radiation dose in order to prevent unexpected or avoidable tissue reactions and to minimize the severity of medically unavoidable injuries. It also provides guidance for controlling dose and for patient post-procedure follow-up. Similar guidance has been provided by professional societies and by several national and international organizations.

The statement is available online at ncrponline.org/Publications/Statements/Statement_11.pdf.