News

“Promoting Safety Culture and Enhancing the Quality Assurance and Quality Control Capability of Nuclear Medicine Departments” symposium closing IAEA TC POL9025 project took place on 13 – 14 December 2021 under online formula using a dedicated conference platform to facilitate interactive participation. Additionally, online participants could follow live streaming, choosing the simultaneous interpretation channel (English or Polish).

The symposium, which aimed to officially conclude POL9025 project, implemented under the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Technical Cooperation Program for 2020 – 2021, was opened by Dariusz Kluszczyński, Director of the National Centre for Radiation Protection in Health Care. After welcoming the invited guests, including representatives of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Tomoko Furusawa, Programme Management Officer, Division for Europe, Department of Technical Cooperation, spoke and thanked the POL9025 project team for organising the event and the IAEA experts for their contribution and support. She also congratulated on the implementation of all the planned project events despite the challenges faced by the team over the past two years.

During the two days of the symposium, participants had the opportunity to attend lectures delivered by the International Atomic Energy Agency experts (Professor Manuel Bardiès and Professor John Dickson) and specialists representing Polish nuclear medicine units. The programme also included time for discussion therefore the meeting provided a platform for the exchange of experience, views and conclusions among participants.

Dariusz Kluszczyński, the NCRPinHC Director, in his conclusion enumerated the entities involved in POL9025 project: nuclear medicine units in Poland, International Atomic Energy Agency, National Consultant in Nuclear Medicine, Ministry of Health, Polish Society of Nuclear Medicine, National Atomic Energy Agency, and National Centre for Radiation Protection in Health Care.

He also presented goals and tasks undertaken in 2020-2021, stressing that all planned activities had been implemented, despite the difficulties associated with the Covid-19 pandemic (i.e. restrictions on mobility and attendance at onsite conferences, meetings and training events). National workshops were conducted as online training and scientific visits, which could not be implemented, were replaced by a series of remote training courses on individual dosimetry in nuclear medicine. All events related to POL9025 project were free or charge and open to all interested parties, who could participate remotely in “live” meetings or view recorded events on the internet. The National Centre also  prepared versions of recordings with translation of lectures delivered by foreign experts for Polish audiences. All project events, descriptions thereof as well as links to individual recordings were updated on a regular basis at www.kcor.gov.pl.

At the end of the symposium the floor was given to Jing Zhang, Programme Management Officer of the IAEA Department of Technical Cooperation, who called POL9025 project a great success and described it as one of the best projects implemented in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency. He thanked and congratulated all members of the Polish team working on the project, as well as the IAEA representatives and Polish and foreign experts involved. He stressed that despite the challenges of the pandemic-enforced cancellation of face-to-face meetings and going entirely online, POL9025 project team delivered all planned events and key objectives on time. Jing Zhang also said that this project would result not only in exchange of know-how, best practices and experience at international level, useful for both Polish nuclear medicine entities and the IAEA, benefiting Polish patients, hospitals and supporting the Ministry of Health with new solutions and ideas, but also in further extending and strengthening the cooperation – including implementation of the next project starting in 2022.

To dispel any possible doubts, we inform that, apart from the amendments to the provisions of the Act, the Act of 13 June 2019 amending the Act Atomic Law and the Act on fire protection (Dz. U. of 2019, item 1593), contains a number of interim and adjusting provisions, including, inter alia, Article 28 (1) and (2) which reads:

Article 28

1. Within 5 years after the entry into force of this Act, activities enumerated in the job description of a specialist in medical physics may be performed by persons in the process of acquiring specialisation in medical physics.

2. Within 5 years after the entry into force of this Act, in a healthcare facility active in the field of x-ray diagnostics, interventional radiology or nuclear medicine operations referred to in Article 33h (3) of the Act amended in Article 1 can also be performed by an individual employed in this healthcare facility who has completed 2nd degree studies or a single degree master programme in physics, biophysics, medical physics, technical physics or biomedical engineering.

“Promoting Safety Culture and Enhancing Quality Assurance and Quality Control Capability of Nuclear Medicine Departments”

IAEA TC project POL9025 – closing meeting

December 13-14, 2021

The meeting is intended to officially summarize the POL9025 project implemented under the Technical Cooperation Programme of the International Atomic Energy Agency 2020-2021. The meeting concludes all the activities undertaken during implementation of the project, aimed at promoting a safety culture and increasing the capabilities of nuclear medicine departments in the field of quality control.

The programme of the meeting will include, among others, expert lectures on:

▪ individual patient dosimetry in nuclear medicine;

▪ quality control and radiological protection in nuclear medicine.

The meeting should provide a platform for participants and stakeholders to exchange comments and observations, identify lessons learned and underline the project achievements.

• Participation is free of charge.
• Registration for the interactive access is by application to: pol9025@nullkcor.gov.pl.
• Day 1^st & 2^nd. The meeting will be broadcasted on the internet in the original language: https://vimeo.com/event/1630079/24fc34a68c
• Day 1^st. The meeting will be broadcasted on the internet with simultaneous translation (English to/from Polish): https://vimeo.com/event/1630100/7f3873129

Due to technical limitations on the number of participants, interactive access on the ClickMeeting web platform will be allocated individually. Questions and comments can also be sent to: pol9025@nullkcor.gov.pl

It is with great pleasure that we inform you that the efforts of the National Centre and the funding from the Ministry of Health have led to the extension of the subscription to the website “Diagnostic imaging referral guidelines for physicians”. At the same time, free access to online publications has been maintained for all healthcare facilities in Poland. We encourage you to read the paper on Guidelines on the termedia.pl platform:

https://www.termedia.pl/zalecenia/Wytyczne-dla-lekarzy-kierujacych-na-badania-obrazowe,43871.html

The 12^th National Conference “Ionising Radiation in Medicine” PJOMED 2021 took place on 13-14 September 2021 and was organised by the National Centre for Radiation Protection in Health Care. This cyclical event is intended to deepen the awareness concerning the application of ionising radiation in medicine. This year, for the first time, the Conference was organised in the hybrid format: participants were present either in-person at the venue in the Didactic and Conference Centre of the European Institute in Łódź or online at a dedicated online platform. Online participants could follow live streaming, choose the interpretation channel (English or Polish), and actively participate in discussions and the exchange of experiences and views on the subject-matter at hand.

Honorary Patrons of the event were: the Minister of Health, the President of the National Atomic Energy Agency, National Consultant for radiology and diagnostic imaging, National Consultant for nuclear medicine, the President of the Polish Society of Nuclear Medicine, and the President of the Polish Medical Society of Radiology.

This edition of the Conference focused in particular on essential amendments to the Act Atomic Law and quality control of radiology equipment. The event was attended by speakers from Poland and other countries. Lectures were delivered, inter alia, by: Piotr Korzecki and Edward Raban from NAEA, Krzysztof Składowski – National Consultant for radiotherapy, Tomasz Kawełczyk – vice-Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Strzeminski Academy of Art in Łódź, Hanna N. Waltenburg from the Danish Ministry of Health, and Ed McDonagh from the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust.

Dariusz Kluszczyński, Director of the National Centre for Radiation Protection in Health Care gave the opening speech. Next, Dariusz Poznański, Director of the Public Health Department of the Ministry of Health read the letter addressed to the participants of the Conference by Waldemar Kraska, Secretary of State in the Ministry of Health. Introduction speech was given by Łukasz Młynarkiewicz, the President of the National Atomic Energy Agency.

PJOMED 2021 was attended by almost 150 persons. Participants included supervisors who perform and supervise medical radiology procedures, i.e. physicians, electro-radiology technicians and medical physicists as well as the workers of the National Atomic Energy Agency, radiation protection inspectors, employees of accredited laboratories, and university students. In addition, the National Centre had the honour to host, among others: Leszek Królicki, Jerzy Walecki, and Andrzej Cieszanowski – Honorary Patrons of the event, Tadeusz Nierebiński – Chief Sanitary Inspector of the Polish Army, Piotr Grzelak – Voivodeship Consultant in radiology and diagnostic imaging, Janusz Dąbrowski – Voivodeship Consultant in nuclear medicine, representatives of the Public Health Department of the Ministry of Health, and representatives of the Chief Sanitary Inspectorate.

Modern format of the PJOMED 2021 Conference enabled active participation of all participants despite the distance dividing them.

The Organising Committee of the 12^th National Conference “Ionising Radiation in Medicine” PJOMED 2021 expresses its gratitude to all Conference participants. We are grateful for your interest and positive reception of the event and invite to the next 2022 edition!