Real-Time Visual and Auditory Radiation Detection and Alarm System in Clinic to Protect Staff and Public

With growing application of radiopharmacy in clinic, increasing patients benefit from radionuclides for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. However, it is non-trivial that radionuclide administered patients ignore instructions of keeping necessary social-distancing, remaining active in non-planned area. These situations obviously expose the public to non-medical radiation, among whom clinical workers are at high risks. This has become a serious and challenging issue. To effectively identify and alarm radioactive patients to protect clinic staff and the public, a real-time visual and auditory radiation detection and alarm system is developed and deployed in Dept. of Radiation Oncology, Beijing Cancer Hospital (also known as Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute). The system was initially designed for homeland security inspection, and has been well-established in the Customs. The key components of the system are: a CsI(Tl) based gamma detector, a spatially coded aperture (in Fig.1a), a general-purpose visual camera, and a data-processing workstation. The system can i) measure count rate and equivalent dose rate, ii) locate gamma sources within FOV, and ii) combine the gamma source location maps with the visual images. In system configuration, count/dose rate thresholds and user group information can be defined. Once over-threshold signals are received, the system starts to notify users with hotspots-identified images, and the audio warning signal will be alarmed simultaneously.