PODIUM: Personal Online DosImetry Using computational Methods

Individual monitoring of radiation workers is essential to ensure compliance with official dose limits and to allow application of the ALARA principle. Routine monitoring of staff is usually performed by means of passive dosimeters. However, current personal dosimeters are subject to large uncertainties, especially in heterogeneous fields, like those found in interventional radiology (IR).
Within the PODIUM (Personal Online DosImetry Using computational Methods) research project, a user-friendly application was developed based on MCNP Monte-Carlo code to calculate doses to the staff in IR. The application uses both the data of motion tracking system to generate the position of the operator and the data from the Radiation Dose Structure Report (RDSR) from the imaging device to generate time-dependent parameters of the radiation source. The results of the first clinical validation of the system show good agreement within 10-40% between simulated Hp(10) with MCNP and measured Hp(10) with electronic personal dosimeter worn above the lead apron. Some challenges and limitations remain, however, the results from the two-year proof-of-concept PODIUM project are promising. We have shown that the technology is now available for tracking staff position and calculating their dose using detailed phantoms, without the need to wear an individual dosimeter.