TOMSK, September 11. /TASS/. Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) scientists have developed Russia's first national standards for the work of medical physicists and dosimetrists which will replace foreign ones. These are methodological guidelines to ensure high-quality and effective procedures of remote, contact and intraoperative radiation therapy, the university's press service reported.
"The guidelines have been prepared on the basis of international documents developed by leading experts in the field of quality assurance of therapeutic devices for radiation therapy, including medical linear accelerators. When compiling them, we consulted with members of the Association of Medical Physicists of Russia, and they also reviewed the documents. The developed recommendations allow us to standardize and establish single rules for procedures to prepare equipment and patient for radiation therapy, performed by employees of radiotherapy departments, in particular, medical physicists", the report cited Professor Evgenia Sukhikh. Director of Research Technological Reference Center of Ionizing Radiation in Radiology, Radiation Therapy and Nuclear Medicine.
TPU specialists have developed guidelines for quality assurance of electronic intraoperative radiation therapy procedures and the operation of linear accelerators for remote and contact radiation therapy. They prescribe a sequence of actions and instructions for working with patients. They make it possible to carry out procedures in the most optimal way and assess the effectiveness of radiation therapy.
"Until recently, Russia lacked a national standard for dosimetric measurements on radiotherapy machines, which significantly hampered the work of both medical physicists and radiotherapy doctors. This was the prerequisite for the development of another document, which polytechnics prepared in cooperation with the National Medical Research Radiological Center of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation. It concerns the measurement of dosimetric parameters of radiotherapy devices with radiation energy from 10 to 300 kV," the report says.
The recommendations include data on general issues of dosimetry of X-ray therapy machines and information on tools and equipment that can be used for this type of work.
The national standards were developed with the support of the Ministry of Education and Science federal program "Priority 2030". They are approved by the Association of Medical Physicists of Russia. All medical physicists in the country can use the developed recommendations as a basis for their work, adapting them to the peculiarities of their institution.