Radiation protection and safety in medical use of ionizing radiation

In February 2002 the National Centre of Radiobiology and Radiation Protection started the implementation of the PHARE project 'Radiation protection and safety in medical use of ionizing radiation', consisting of 2 investment and one institutional projects. The main goal of the project is to bring the Bulgarian legislation in the area of radiation protection for medical exposure into accordance with the requirements of the Directive 97/43 EURATOM of the EU. The finances in the investment projects are intended for providing of equipment for quality control of the radiological equipment and for public information activities about the advantages and the risk in the use of sources of ionizing radiation in medicine. The institutional project includes the development of legislative framework and infrastructure for the implementation of the practices applied in the EU countries for patient protection during medical procedures. The main results expected from the project are: Development of a regulation for the protection of the person during a medical exposure; development of quality assurance programmes for the radiological equipment; determination of typical patient doses for the common standard radiographic procedures with respect of elaboration of national recommended dose levels; determination of reference values of the activities, applied in the diagnostics in the nuclear medicine; development of specialized training programmes in the field of radiation protection for training of the personnel involved in the medical procedures using ionizing radiation