by
Carol Ko, Staff Writer | April 08, 2013
From the April 2013 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
No matter what side they fall on for the overbadging issue, the experts we consulted generally agree on one thing: new dosimetry badge technology that eliminates both the need for physical badge collection and several weeks of lag time in between readings is a welcome advance.
Badges of tomorrow, today
Mirion’s second-generation Instadose badge can be wirelessly read using smartphones, iPads, any Bluetoothequipped computer or proprietary readers. Dose readings are uploaded automatically to a server, eliminating the need for program administrators to touch the device at all.
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This technology offers a big leap forward for dose monitoring because safety officers are now able to break the dose readings down in a more detailed, timely manner. “With the new badges, we know if it’s a chronic issue or an acute issue. We know if it came from a single event or a change in work practice or something going on in their environment all the time,” says West. “This is definitely the wave of the future in badging.”
There’s even been some talk among industry experts about real-time dose monitors, which are already widely used in the nuclear industry. Most imaging OEMs now offer such devices—mostly intended for fluoroscopists and other interventional specialists at risk for relatively high levels of radiation exposure.
However, it’s unclear whether such devices will end up replacing regular dosimetry badges -- at least in the foreseeable future -— due to their high cost. “Instant readout or real-time readout monitors are nice, but most of them are larger and expensive. So losing them is harder on the department,” says Johnson. She notes that dosimetry badge loss is already a major expense for most radiation safety departments.
It's clear that cost efficiency will remain a central issue moving forward, no matter how hospitals choose to proceed with their radiation monitoring plan.
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