2 Years’ experience of using patient dose tracking software and national exam codes in 2 busy cardiac catheterisation laboratories

Two new cardiac catheterisation laboratories (2× GE Innova IGS 520 with MacLab and GE DoseWatch) were installed in a major Irish academic teaching hospital in 2014. Using the data from GE DoseWatch® Dose tracking software we present a breakdown of the dose metrics for over 3500 patient interventions covering 60+ types of interventional cardiac procedures, using the national (NIMIS) cardiac exam codes. The data covers over 400 PCI procedures including over 60 PCI multi-vessel chronic total occlusions studies. In this busy cardiac interventional environment we have found that Dose tracking software is an invaluable tool in: • Quickly providing the range of doses per procedure (i.e. min, mean and max Dose Area Product (DAP), Reference Point Air Kerma (RPAK) and/or Total Screening Time). • Identifying the relative dose distribution of RPAK for each procedure identifying the “worst case” RPAK to estimate the peak skin dose. • Identifying patients who have had single or multiple high dose procedures – for OPD follow-up where appropriate. • Comparing the dose per procedure for different operators – for patient radiation safety training purposes. • Correlating the personal radiation doses of operators with their workload – for personal radiation safety training purposes. • Using the above information in the process of continuous improvement and optimisation of radiation safety for patients and staff.