Prof. John Kalef-Ezra 1978- Teaches, among others things, issues on radiation protection
to university students and others
1984- Member of the University of Ioannina academic staff
2001- Prof. of Medical Physics at the University of Ioannina
1999- Head of the Ioannina University Hospital Medical Physics Lab
1999- Radiation protection expert
Author of over 100 papers in international scientific journal and over 100 presentations at international conferences, symposia, etc.
Medical exposures, such as those due to diagnostic, interventional and therapeutic procedures, are carried out for the direct benefit of each individual patient and contribute more than any other practice to the radiation burden of the “average man” from artificial sources. Radiation exposure of patients, radiation workers, carers, comforters, volunteers for biomedical research, and other people must be planned, justified and optimized, applying the appropriate individual dose limits and constraints, as well, the diagnostic reference levels, whatever applicable. In radiation therapy, where the biological effects of high-dose radiation are used for the patient’s benefit, optimization involves not only the accurate delivery of the prescribed dose to the volume to be treated, but also the protection of the healthy tissues outside that treatment volume. In this study examples are given on the design and the implementation of the radiation protection strategy in a large medical facility, related to the:
– prompt and delayed activation in treatment rooms equipped with high-energy linear accelerators,
– management of radioactive gases in treatment rooms equipped with in multi-energy multi-modality accelerators, as well as in departments where 131I is administered for the treatment of thyroidal cancer,
– management of liquid biological waste from 131I therapy/isolation rooms, and
– radiation protection aspects due to the presence of long-lived radioactive impurities in some radio-pharmaceuticals.