HAMILTON, Ont. – Recently, Canada Safe Imaging (CSI) has joined forces with two respected organizations with extensive expertise in radiation safety, the Radiation Safety Institute of Canada (RSIC) and the Centre d’Expertise Clinique en Radioprotection (CECR) to offer a new and free service, respectively in English and French, to answer concerns from the general public and health professionals related to radiation safety.

Answers are given by trained medical physicists, and questions can range from simple risk assessment such has an expectant mother who had an X-ray of the ankle at 6 weeks pregnancy and wants to know what is the risk for the fetus, to much more complex questions around X-ray tubes performances or safety.

Based on the questions received, a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) will be developed and shared with the international community, as problems are similar worldwide.

This number can be accessed at 1-800-263-5803 in English or 1-877-839-1217 in French. Alternatively, questions may be sent by e-mail at info@radiationsafety.ca in English or cecr.chus@ssss.gouv.qc.ca in French.

This free service was one of the stated goals for CSI this year and is part of CSI’s role to promote knowledge translation and adoption of and adherence to good radiation safety practices and standards as they relate to the Canadian healthcare environment.

This comes in addition to the already promoted CSI Canadian achievements such as the Health Canada Canadian Computed Tomography survey, as well as international initiatives that are conveyed on the CSI website.

More information is available at: http://canadasafeimaging.ca/en/homepage/

Canada Safe Imaging (CSI) was formed to address the need for a national strategy and action plan as it relates to radiation safety for medical imaging in Canada. Its mission is to provide Canadian contextualized guidelines and tools for patient radiation safety.

One impetus for this new Canadian initiative was to align with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) initiative, supported by 77 countries and 16 organizations, titled the “Bonn Call-for-Action,” which outlines 10 major strategies for promoting radiation protection.

With the exponential increase in medical imaging, and commensurate patient radiation exposures, understanding and harmonizing patient radiation safety practices across Canadian healthcare jurisdictions should be a priority.

The delivery of healthcare is a provincial responsibility, but a focused national strategy and a unified effort is needed to ensure radiation safety in medical imaging for all Canadians. CSI will develop awareness and adoption of current and emerging radiation patient protection strategies for Canadians.

CSI represents a collaborative undertaking between government agencies, professional associations, universities, colleges, industry, national research institutions and hospitals.

Members include, but are not limited to: the Canadian Association of Radiologists (CAR), Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologists (CAMRT), Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists (COMP), Ontario Association of Medical Radiation Sciences (OAMRS), Canadian Association of Nuclear Medicine (CANM), and MEDEC, the national organization representing Canada’s innovative medical technology industry.

CSI belongs to the Global Alliance for Quality and Safety (ISRQSA) an international network of similar initiatives such as Image Wisely, Image Gently, Eurosafe Imaging, under the auspice of the International Society of Radiology, in an effort to make patient radiation safety a global cause.

Dr. David Koff (pictured) is Chief of Diagnostic Imaging, Hamilton Health Sciences, and Chair, Department of Radiology, McMaster University.